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4-Star Passengers, 5-Star Meals

Tribune photo by SCOTT ISKOWITZ

From left: SSgt Angela Whitman, MSgt Bel Serocki, SSgt Evan McCoy and TSgt Fred Johnson. Military flight attendants cook in small spaces for four star officers and government VIPs as part of the Macdill's 310 Airlift squad.

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By JEFF HOUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 6, 2008

TAMPA - If you think you're a decent cook, try this scenario on for size. It's one that the flight attendants of the 310th Airlift Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base deal with every day:

•Your mission is to cook two weeks of gourmet meals for an important guest and about a dozen others. This includes a combination of breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

•The only thing you can control is the menu. You can offer your guests three entrees, sides, dessert and a beverage of their choosing for each meal.

•You must shop and prepare for this event a day or two ahead of the meal. You can chop and dice and slice to your heart's content, but your meals must cost, on average, $5 for breakfast, $7 for lunch or $9 for dinner. Everyone on board is paying for his or her meal.

•To cook the meal, you must leave your preparation kitchen, load all of your ingredients and utensils into a C-37 Gulfstream jet and use only the appliances and materials in the plane's galley for preparation. This includes a tiny four-shelf convection oven, a microwave and whatever appliance you can fit on the plane and use on a countertop about the size of a small TV tray.

•Your only refrigeration is a medium-size cooler with dry ice and two drawers filled with crushed ice. Before takeoff, when the airplane's engines are not running, you will have no electricity to use those appliances. Because of crew rest rules, you may not work on your meal for 12 hours before the flight begins.

•Oh, and you'll be doing your cooking and serving alone at an altitude of 51,000 feet while traveling through the air at about 600 miles per hour. If there's turbulence, tough noogies.

•One more thing: The guests eating your meals will include one of the seven combatant commanders of the U.S. military and key staff members - people with such names as Schwarzkopf and Franks and Petraeus. Sharing their plane makes you a target during a time of global terrorism.

On rare occasions, the passenger on board may be the secretary of defense or the secretary of state. That means that your missions frequently take you overseas to locations you know nothing about when it comes to obtaining fresh ingredients. It also means your ingredients are a national security concern. Also, if you make any of these distinguished visitors ill with a poorly cooked dish, you will likely never cook again for anyone more important than your dog.

•Your squadron's motto is "Five-star service for the four-stars." There is a standard of excellence to uphold.

The 11 flight attendants who serve in the MacDill squadron are among about 200 who do the job nationwide. As with flight attendants in the civilian world, their primary job is to ensure the safety of their passengers and crew. They go to water survival school for this. They go for flight crew training. (In addition to the flight attendant, each plane's crew consists of two pilots, a flight engineer and a communications officer who tracks weather conditions and keeps the generals on board in constant contact with anyone they need to reach on the ground.)

Their more immediate job: Keep the brass happy.

Each flight attendant attempts to do so by cooking the types of dishes he or she loves and is familiar with, as well as those that fit the taste buds and, sometimes, dietary restrictions of the passengers. (Atkins diet? Nearly extinct, they say.) The attendants feed the flight crew as well.

Master Sgt. Bel Serocki says she likes to experiment, mostly with fish dishes.

"I think that's because people are nervous about cooking fish on a plane, and I like to show them that it doesn't smell," she says. "I like delicate foods like that. As long as you get fresh fish, it's not going to smell. That's something I don't think people realize. If it smells right off the bat, it's not fresh."

Serocki adapted a prosciutto-wrapped salmon with pesto linguine dish she ate in Orlando at Downtown Disney's Portobello restaurant.

"I think all of us kind of do this," she says. "If we like something, we pick it apart."

A butterflied flank steak Tech. Sgt. Fred Johnson rolled with roasted peppers and three types of German cheeses inspired one general to inspect the galley to see how it was cooked.

"It was so easy to do, but people were, like, 'Wow!'".

Staff Sgt. Evan McCoy enjoys making "man food" including fried chicken, despite the lack of counter space. Brown paper bags in the squadron's refrigerator are labeled with his nickname, "Big Country."

"I like to make the customer happy, but I like to lean toward things I like because I think I can put out a better dish," McCoy says in a West Virginia drawl. "I'm open to cooking filet or duck tartare. If I have a recipe in front of me, I'll make it."

McCoy and Johnson say they scan stores and bargain shops to find the smallest appliances possible to use on board. Johnson recently found an iron that makes three rosebud-shaped waffles at a time marked down at the Tuesday Morning store on Dale Mabry Highway. The waffles will be perfect for breakfast.

Staff Sgt. Angela Whitman prods the flight crew for feedback about her culinary experiments. They're usually very honest, she says. Whitman loves cooking with spicy ingredients such as jalapeno cheese stuffed inside chicken with green and red peppers or the vegetables and mushrooms.

"You don't ever want, 'Hmmmmm.' Or, 'That was interesting.' If the plate comes back empty and I didn't see them passing it around to the one guy - and there's always one - who's the airplane garbage can, you're happy about it."

Keyword: Stew,

to find

HONEY PROSCIUTTO SALMON WITH PESTO LINGUINE

4 6-ounce salmon fillets

2 tablespoons honey

4 slices of prosciutto

4 servings of linguine

1/2 cup prepared pesto

1 cup prepared bruschetta mix, warmed (Serocki likes the one sold at Costco)

Salt and pepper to taste

Lightly salt and pepper both sides of salmon fillets, and brush with honey. Wrap each filet with a slice of the prosciutto and bake for 11 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees. In the meantime, cook pasta according to directions, and remember to salt the water. When it's cooked, mix pesto in with the hot pasta and place on a platter. Top pasta with cooked salmon, and spread bruschetta mix on top of salmon.

Serves 4.

Source: Master Sgt. Bel Serocki

SUN-DRIED TOMATO AND PESTO STRATA

1 loaf of sourdough (or bread of your choice)

8 ounces cream cheese (cubed)

3/4 cup pesto

8 slices of bacon, fried and crumbled (can use prosciutto if you prefer)

1 jar sun-dried tomatoes, drained and chopped

1 pouch of chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained

2 or 3 tomatoes thinly sliced (to garnish the top)

1/2 pound shredded cheese ("I like cheddar or Swiss")

5 eggs

11/2 cups whole milk (you can half this with half-and-half if you want a creamier texture)

Salt and pepper

Spray baking dish with nonstick oil.

Arrange the top eight ingredients in layers starting with the bread; finish layering using all the ingredients - top with sliced tomato and shredded cheese.

Whisk the eggs, milk, salt and pepper, and pour over the top of the strata - chill at least two hours or overnight.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes or until puffed and golden.

Makes one 9-inch strata.

Source: Tech. Sgt. Gail Del Bianco-Frye

Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324 or jhouck@tampatrib.com. more recipes.

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