The Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center (NAVSUP FLC) Norfolk Navy Food Management Team (NFMT) held a reception class for culinary specialists, June 12-14.

According to Chief Culinary Specialist Kenyatta Pore, a NFMT instructor who taught the class, it's a hands-on course designed to teach the basics of funding, budgeting, planning, and organizing of a reception. They also teach students how to prepare food for an official event.

"The style of teaching hands-on actually gives the student the ability to use what they see in a book, with technical experts available to answer questions and assist them right in the same room," she explained.

Pore added this approach gives Sailors a chance to get comfortable with different skills, and they graduate the class with the ability to take the information back to the command and teach others.

"My favorite part of teaching classes like this is watching the students learn and grow during the course of the class," Pore said.

In addition to the basics, students learned how to prepare the food for a reception, recipe conversion techniques, proper knife-handling, how to prepare a food preparation worksheet and how to present the food at a reception in the most visually-pleasing way.

"We learned to 'feed through the eyes,'" said Culinary Specialist Seaman Reigard Brown, a student from guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher (DDG 57). "If you see something good, your stomach will want it."

Pore added knowing how to properly run a reception is a crucial skill for a culinary specialist, because it is a way for a command to show hospitality to allies during foreign port visits and to government officials. Pore was joined in teaching the class by a pair of subject matter expert guest instructors, Master Chief Culinary Specialist Arturo Luna and Master Chief Culinary Specialist Dario Canlas. Both master chiefs are enlisted aides and flag mess culinary specialists, who brought their expertise and years of experience to the students.

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