Spc. Orozco Works To Vary And Create Chef Flair In The Field
Eating while in the field and on Active duty consists many times of consuming MRE’s, or meals ready to eat. One Army cook is determined to not let it stop there, and has used his meager resources in the field to try and make eating more enjoyable for the troops he cooks for.
Army Specialist Dario Orozco, with the 82nd Airborne Division, cooks for paratroopers and other soldiers based out of Firebase Nawa, Afghanistan. He takes the average regular MRE’s and then does his best to add a flair all his own.
“I am able to take some of the items we have and add to it,†said Orozco. “Some of the stuff is precooked, I just have to make boiling water,†said Spc Orozco. The soldiers in his unit playfully call Orozco “Roscoe,†and he arrived in Afghanistan at Firebase Nawa just before Thanksgiving last year.
“They asked me to travel out here to do a Thanksgiving Day meal, as we had a visit scheduled by the Command Sergeant Major and the Brigade Commander,†said Orozco. “I just did not get replaced, so I wound up cooking for Christmas, and I am still here,†said Orozco.
Specialist Orozco comes from a line of Chefs in his family. “Both my uncle and father are chefs, and I have learned a great deal from having that influence in my family,†said Orozco.
“Christmas Dinner was really great,†said 1st Lieutenant Mordechai D. Sorkin. Sorken is the platoon leader for 3rd Platoon, Company B, and 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. “He really gets creative and takes just meager resources, and makes some really excellent chow,†said Sorkin.
