Dinner of a Lifetime
Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 1:00AM 
Last week I returned home from two weeks in Afghanistan. I was invited by the U.S. Army Special Forces Command to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the Green Berets downrange. This was the first time in history that a group of chefs have cooked at the “tip of the spear” as the soldiers call it, in hostile and kinetic forward operating bases.
All week long the soldiers were asking me why I would travel half way around the world and leave my family and the comfort of home to cook for a bunch of guys I have never met. My reply was, to say thank you the best way I know how…by cooking dinner. I told them I may only be one person, but I speak for millions of Americans, by bearing a simple taste of home during the holidays. My menu featured roast turkey, ham, grilled lobster tails, Cornish game hens and a giant steamship round of beef with all the traditional fixings including stuffing, sweet potatoes and honey ginger carrots, to name a few.
Marilyn and I texted throughout my trip and even indulged in a couple of very expensive phone calls. I told Ben and Nick about the wild Afghan turkey that lived in the bomb shelter behind the kitchen, that 
was spared this time, and about the cool planes I got to fly in around Afghanistan. I told Marilyn that I was completely safe surrounded by America’s most elite fighting force. And most important, I was reminded time and again on this trip that all people, regardless of fortune or nationality, care most about a few precious things in life – their family, their children, and food for both nourishment and comfort.
So this holiday season, the Hunter family salutes the brave men and women, whom I had the privilege to meet, cook for and get to know, if only a little bit. Thank you for sacrificing your own holidays and the other 360 some odd days a year to do something you believe in that benefits all of us back home. I look forward to cooking for you again.
Until then, thank you for allowing me to cook a dinner of a lifetime.
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