Dinner of a Lifetime

By Andrew Hunter

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.

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America’s Food Holiday

By Sandy Hu

If people and cultures are bound by their food traditions, Thanksgiving is the unifying holiday that links all Americans to a common heritage. We may modify the menu to include ethnic favorites such as salsa or sushi, or incorporate new culinary trends, like brines or rubs. But the tradition of turkey and stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, are imprinted in our taste memories and are the comfort foods we crave at Thanksgiving.

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