00:00 [music]
00:06 These cooks are preparing 4,500 meals
00:10 at the Slagle Mess Hall,
00:12 the U.S. military's largest dining facility.
00:16 At 60,000 square feet,
00:19 it serves Army soldiers,
00:21 Air Force airmen,
00:22 and Navy sailors
00:24 who train at Fort Sam Houston
00:26 in San Antonio, Texas.
00:29 Daily, I'm preparing at least about 3,500 to 4,000,
00:35 at least for breakfast.
00:36 Our headcount goes up for lunch,
00:37 so we automatically feed at least 4,500.
00:41 That's some good pasta right there.
00:44 We need a balanced, nutritious meal.
00:47 This is the powerhouse right here.
00:49 So this is where we provide you those meals
00:51 that is going to allow you to get up
00:53 and be the best that you can be for that day.
00:56 Business Insider spent two days with Slagle staff
01:00 as they prepared for the largest meal of the day,
01:03 lunch,
01:05 while following a color-coded system
01:07 intended to encourage service members
01:09 to make healthier choices.
01:12 The three main courses are 600 pounds of ginger pot roast,
01:17 1,400 pounds of Bombay chicken,
01:19 and 210 pounds of cheese tortellini with marinara.
01:24 There's also an assortment of vegetables,
01:26 short-order food,
01:28 and a salad bar that feeds 4,000 to 4,500 trainees
01:32 in just 90 minutes.
01:36 Personnel from all branches of the military
01:39 train at Fort Sam Houston,
01:41 many of them at the Medical Education and Training Campus.
01:44 In 2013, the dining facility was named
01:47 in honor of Sergeant First Class Wayne Slagle,
01:50 a distinguished Army combat medic.
01:52 -Hey, Master Tickets? -Master Tickets.
01:54 -Thank you. -Ready?
01:56 -Oh, yes, ma'am. I can definitely make my day.
01:59 I come here about three times a day.
02:01 It's just -- It's included in my BAS, so might as well.
02:04 The experience is really cool.
02:06 All the staff are very nice.
02:07 I've built a bond with a couple of them,
02:09 especially for being here for so long,
02:11 so it's just nice to see those familiar faces here.
02:14 Slagle serves about 66,000 meals each week,
02:18 about 35,000 to Army soldiers,
02:21 18,000 to Navy sailors,
02:23 and 13,000 to Air Force airmen.
02:26 All trainees are required to dine at Slagle
02:29 for lunch Monday through Friday.
02:33 To prepare the meal in time for 4,500 trainees,
02:36 the lunch staff is broken into two shifts --
02:39 the night crew, which prepares the food,
02:42 and the lunch crew, which cooks, pans,
02:47 and serves it.
02:49 For today's meal, prep begins at 8 o'clock the night before.
02:53 -Javan, Teresa, of course.
02:55 Y'all know there's an uncle.
02:56 I saw it out there.
02:58 Chicken quarters. I haven't seen the tortellini.
03:00 I haven't seen the lasagna. Go check on that, okay?
03:03 So y'all do your thing.
03:05 -Our overnight crew comes in.
03:06 They cook off the gingerbread rolls.
03:09 It's not fully cooked, but they brown it and cook it off.
03:12 That way, when I come in, that makes it easier to slice
03:16 once it's cooled and everything from what they did.
03:18 And then once we slice it, we go back into the oven.
03:21 So it's like a whole process.
03:23 -To prepare the ginger pot roast,
03:25 the cooks start by unpackaging
03:27 about 600 pounds of beef knuckle.
03:31 They move it into pans, season it,
03:37 and move it all into ovens to brown.
03:45 While the beef knuckle browns in the oven,
03:47 the cooks begin placing the chicken quarters on pans
03:51 so they're ready to hit the oven
03:52 when the lunch crew arrives the next morning.
03:55 -You got about 600 pounds? -1,400 pounds.
04:00 -You cook?
04:01 -Whoo!
04:05 -It's kind of a workout. -Yes.
04:07 [ Laughs ]
04:09 -On the other side of the kitchen,
04:11 another cook finishes boiling macaroni noodles
04:14 for the pasta salad.
04:16 -See, that's some good pasta right there.
04:19 Look at that good little pasta salad.
04:23 Let it sit for a little about 10 more minutes.
04:25 It should be cooked.
04:26 -While the pasta cools,
04:28 the cook begins preparing salad for the salad bar.
04:31 At the same time, cabbage is being washed and chopped
04:38 in preparation for the calico cabbage dish.
04:42 With the pasta cooled, the cook returns to the tilt grill
04:45 to add in peppers, onions, and seasoning.
04:48 It's then scooped into a pan and stored in the fridge.
05:06 After just three hours of prep,
05:08 the cooks move all of the food into the refrigerator
05:11 for the next shift.
05:13 -Okay.
05:15 -I might need that for my sauce.
05:18 -Okay.
05:19 -The next day, lunch prep begins at 6 a.m.
05:23 A cook seasons the chicken quarters
05:25 before sticking them in the oven...
05:27 ...while another slices the pot roast.
05:36 -How long does it take you to slice the pot roast?
05:39 -It depends on how much you use, but an hour,
05:42 I would say about 400, 500 pounds.
05:45 -Once it's sliced, the pot roast is placed back into the oven
05:49 to finish cooking.
05:51 In a 60-gallon kettle,
05:59 the marinara sauce is made with 114 pounds of pizza sauce,
06:04 vegetable oil, and an assortment of seasonings.
06:08 Once the sauce is ready, it's poured over the tortellini...
06:25 ...and placed in the oven to cook.
06:34 With the main courses underway,
06:37 450 pounds of peas, carrots, and cabbage
06:41 are added to the tilt grill and boiled...
06:44 ...while more cooks pan and prep
06:54 the remaining produce for the salad bar.
06:57 -It's not really a challenge, or it's not too hard for us
07:02 because most of us have been here 10 to 15 and 20 years plus,
07:06 so it's like we're in a motion of doing this already.
07:09 We kind of already have this idea of, you know,
07:12 I know how many soldiers I'm going to feed.
07:14 They told me we fed this much last night,
07:16 so I know to project this head count for the next day.
07:20 -In the hot kitchen, the chicken is removed from the oven,
07:25 moved into serving pans, and topped with Bombay sauce.
07:30 The chicken is moved into warmers
07:32 to stay at a safe temperature until lunch,
07:35 while the ginger pot roast goes back into the oven
07:38 to continue cooking.
07:40 -I've never met a person before that has not had a sweet tooth.
07:47 But again, my key word is balanced.
07:50 -Cooks prep the desserts by cutting over 2,000 slices of cake
07:55 and moving them into individual serving containers.
07:58 Slagle orders over 1,800 cakes per week.
08:02 -So, our desserts that we provide here at the Slagle,
08:05 they come in a multitude of combinations.
08:07 Some are pre-prepared and some that are prepared in the facility.
08:11 However, we try to cut down on the sugars and the fats,
08:15 but more importantly, it's all about the taste.
08:18 So if we can fool them and give them a great taste,
08:21 then we have won.
08:23 -In 2022, Slagle Hall served 2.1 million meals.
08:28 -It's not how much food we serve.
08:31 It is what is our grocery bill.
08:33 So, our grocery bill is astronomical.
08:37 -According to Slagle, the mess hall spends $14.2 million annually
08:42 on the food provided to trainees for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
08:46 served 365 days a year.
08:50 And managing that food is a logistical challenge.
08:53 -I have dairy Monday through Friday,
08:56 produce the same thing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,
08:59 and then I have my bread Monday, Tuesday,
09:02 and then Thursday and Friday.
09:04 So, basically, there's always something going on
09:06 with what's coming in or what's going out.
09:08 -The kitchen at Slagle has 10,000 cubic feet of refrigerator space.
09:13 -It's a big freezer.
09:14 I can probably hold maybe up to $300,000 worth of food.
09:18 But I vary about $187,000 to $200,000.
09:21 My meats will be basically hidden back here where my pallets are.
09:27 My breakfast items -- sausage, pancakes, waffles.
09:33 These will be all our greens, which is asparagus, green beans, broccoli, peas, corn.
09:39 It goes all the way to that back wall over there.
09:44 -As lunch nears, the staff prepares the dining rooms
09:49 and moves the produce onto the salad bar.
09:53 An elevator helps them move the food between the two dining room floors.
09:59 The food is removed from the warmers
10:03 and set out on the serving line.
10:06 Outside, trainees begin to make their way to the mess hall.
10:11 Typically, trainees are required to march into lunch in formation.
10:16 However, on this day, because of an unseasonably cold Texas morning,
10:20 trainees were permitted to arrive independently.
10:23 -Instead of limiting us to just one item,
10:33 it's cool to have a variety, especially throughout the week.
10:36 It's not the same thing every week.
10:37 For me, personally, it takes me a little longer
10:39 to try and figure out what I want to eat for today.
10:41 But just going through the line, they offer us, I believe,
10:44 it's two proteins and then two sides.
10:46 So it's just a different variety of sides.
10:49 Sometimes it's hard to pick.
10:50 You want to try? You got to try.
10:53 I always do stop at the salad bar as well,
10:56 usually to try and add a little bit of extra protein,
10:59 so maybe some eggs or some ham cubes to my meal.
11:03 -Serving 4,500 trainees in 90 minutes is no small task.
11:09 Slagel is broken into two floors,
11:12 each with its own serving lines
11:15 and dining room that fees 1,100 at a time each,
11:20 meaning trainees must eat quickly
11:23 so everyone can be fed in the allotted time.
11:26 -Most of the companies, we have anywhere between 200 to 300 people.
11:30 If you're closer to the front of the line,
11:32 you get a little bit more time.
11:33 If you're near the end, you don't get as much,
11:35 but roughly 15, 20 minutes or so for everybody at least,
11:39 and then they want you outside ready to go
11:41 so you can go back to class
11:42 and focus on our primary studies and everything.
11:45 There's no specific calorie count that we're trying to hit
11:48 because we do not tell an individual
11:50 that you can't come through the line again.
11:52 However, it has to be balanced.
11:55 -The menu follows a DOD-implemented program
11:59 known as Go for Green,
12:01 which encourages service members to make healthier choices.
12:04 On the serving line, the food is categorized into three groups,
12:08 each represented by a different color.
12:11 Green for healthy foods trainees should eat often,
12:14 such as steamed brown rice.
12:16 Yellow for foods trainees should eat occasionally,
12:19 like hot rolls.
12:21 And red for foods trainees should eat rarely, like gravy.
12:26 -If you was to ask me why trainees need so much food
12:29 and why we have to provide the balanced meal that we do,
12:32 it's because they're not at home anymore.
12:35 They are not on the couch.
12:37 They are out here training, getting in,
12:40 defending the country that we all love.
12:43 And in order to do that, you've got to have the spirit.
12:46 We don't provide that, but what we do provide
12:49 is the fuel and the energy that you need in your body.
12:54 -As lunch comes to an end,
12:56 trainees leave the mess hall to return to their training,
13:00 while Slegel's staff cleans the dining room
13:02 and prepares for dinner,
13:04 which is now only four hours away.
13:08 -And that's when they can probably escape,
13:11 go to some restaurants that I'm not going to name,
13:14 and they're not looking for love,
13:17 but they are just looking for a little bit more fat.
13:21 You know what I'm saying?
Comments