COOKS FOR ARMY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23829, 3 December 1940, Page 10

COOKS FOR ARMY

TRAINING IN BRITAIN HOTEL CHEFS IN CHARGE THREE THOUSAND A MONTH [from our own correspondent] LONDON, Nov. 1 Three thousand cooks are now being trained each month to eater for the growing British Army, and by the end of the year the "output" will be 3500 a month. Former hotel and restaurant chefs are in charge of the training. In addition to teaching men to cook, they encourage them to "take a pride in good housekeeping." An officer of high rank said: "The standard of cooking in the Army is particularly good just now. There may be exceptions here and there, but it cannot often be said with truth, as it used to be, that good food is spoiled bv bad cooking. The cooks have the best of apparatus, it is by no means always a case of field kitchens, though these, if properly used, produce excellent meals. Jn the barracks are the best of gas ovens, and even electric cookers." As for tho soldiers who volunteer for training as cooks, it lias been found that there is little to choose between the married man and the man who has always lived at home with mother, so far as skill is concerned. Sergeantcooks hold the view that the husbands might he expected to start the training race with the lighter handicap, but it does not always turn out that way.