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Top military chefs

When Coast Guard Chief Food Services Specialist James Swenson looked around at his fellow enlisted aides — food- service or culinary specialists cooking for admirals, presidential Cabinet members and other high-ranking officials — he recognized talent.

And a pool of competitors hungry to win American Culinary Federation medals.

The ACF, Culinary Institute of America and Kansas City Barbecue Society awarded prize belts at the 2010 Coca-Cola Military Chef Challenge at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C. — Swenson’s way of shining a spotlight on top military chefs.

Swenson runs the website MilitaryChefs.com, and the September competition is his big annual event.

Swenson’s take on the teams:

The Air Force, led by Tech. Sgt. Robert Morgan, won the People’s Choice Award. (Swenson noted that the competition took place on an Air Force base). The Air Force also won Best Barbecue Sauce from a panel of expert judges.

The five-member Navy team led by Culinary Specialist 1st Class Paul Maloney was consistently good, Swenson said, able to walk away with the ACF’s belt for the overall winner.

The Army owes its win for Best Display of Tallow, Ice and Buffet to Sgt. 1st Class Andre Rush, senior enlisted aide at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

And the Kansas City Barbecue Society recognized the Marine Corps chefs for its top prize.

Teams by service:

Air Force: Chefs Morgan, Patricia Ogletree, Lamar Ramsey, Nyeisha

Coar and Brian Hall.

Navy: Culinary specialists Maloney, Derrick Davenport, Lynval Weise, Paul Brown and Jon Renninger.

Army: Food service specialists Rush, Guy Winks (team captain), Joshua Speiss, Keith Broome and Stephen Behr.

Marines: Jesse Camacho (team captain), Patrick Modriskey, Dustin Cook and Scott Zabel.

Coast Guard: Justin Reed (team captain), Edward Fuchs, Phil Garrett, Stephen Bishop and Rafael Rivera-Barrios.