The G4G Program Office collaborated with Armed Forces Recipe Service (AFRS) to create 3 culinary training sessions. The sessions were piloted in person at a G4G 2.0 research site to support menu revisions and the use of new and updated AFRS recipes and cooking techniques.
The trainings can help improve the knowledge, skills, and confidence of your dining facility and galley staff in culinary basics and techniques used in the AFRS recipe collection. The sessions are designed as introductory training for new staff or refresher courses for current staff. In addition, these training sessions provide an opportunity for staff to taste new and improved AFRS recipes, which might assist with or inspire menu updates.
Three group training sessions each cover 2–4 topics. Detailed lesson plans include:
- Session overview
- Recipes
- Breakdown of ingredients and equipment needed
- Instructor demonstration of specific skills
- Detailed talking points
- Hands-on portion where staff demonstrate the learned skills to create a recipe
- Tasting of prepared recipes
Training sessions run about 90 minutes long and are set up for 2 instructors to lead 20 participants. For best results, conduct sessions in the order below to help build staff knowledge and skills with each session. Sessions can also be adapted for current staffing, schedules, and available food and equipment.
- Split each training session into multiple sessions to accommodate a smaller training time block.
- Consider similar AFRS recipes to use what’s on hand (for example, swap roasted carrots for roasted broccoli). However, keep in mind you might need to adjust cooking times.
- Adapt ingredient measurements to accommodate a smaller training class.
It’s recommended that instructors have sufficient culinary skills and expertise related to the session topics. For example, dining facility or galley managers, chefs, or Registered Dietitians (RD) with a culinary background or formal experience are excellent candidates. Also, consider chefs, RDs, or culinary students within your community.