What? No SOS Anymore? Coast Guard's Culinary School

Gone are the days of SOS in the Coast Guard?

Based on a great article in the San Francisco Chronicle, it appears so.   

The Food Service Specialist School trains Coast Guardsman to staff galleys onboard Coast Guard cutters and at bases nationwide.  The school is located near Petaluma, California, in a ubiquitous rural area known as "Two Rock".  

While the image of a Coast Guard recruit does not typically include chef's whites, everyone in the military has to eat. The 150 "culinarians" who enter the program each year spend their mornings in a sparkling, Williams-Sonoma-style, TV-ready kitchen classroom, then practice the recipes in industrial galley kitchens under careful watch, and tastings, of their instructors. Their efforts turn into 400 daily meals that are served to residents of the Coast Guard Training Center, and to military veterans who come for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Aside from the few who have worked in fast food or chain restaurants, most recruits show up with little kitchen experience.

"I'm getting high school grads and people with law degrees," said Justin Reed, master chief in charge of the Coast Guard Culinary School.