Clock Tower Cafe heats up for Connelly competition

March 3 began like any other day at the Clock Tower Cafe dining facility on Kleber Kaserne, with the first formation, the cooks’ mount, at 5:30 in the morning.

“Fall in,” said the shift leader, and the first inspection of the day began. On this day, however, something unique and special was about to happen.

“Good morning, food service workers,” said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Princido Texidor, a food service advisor with the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence, based at Fort Lee, Virginia. “Out of 198 dining facilities throughout the Army, you are in the top five. Today is your day to show your skills and show us why your DFAC is the best Army-wide and why you should win the Philip A. Connelly award.”

The Philip A. Connelly Competition, named after the former president of the International Food Service Executives Association, began in March 1968 as a means of recognizing excellence in Army food service. The JCCOE administers and manages the prestigious annual competition.

The Clock Tower Cafe competed against many other Army DFACs in the preliminary round of the Connelly competition, judged in the fall of 2015. The preliminary round narrowed the field to five. The other DFACs still in the running are based in Korea; Hawaii; Fort Hood, Texas; and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The last time the Kleber facility ranked within the top five DFACs during the Connelly competition was in 2006. They came in second that year.

“We have been preparing all year for this opportunity,” said Sgt. 1st Class Keshon Henry, dining facility manager. “We are ready to win; you can tell our people want to win.”

Two other evaluators joined Texidor for the day: Sgt. Maj. Amelia Fisher, JCCOE director, and Jack Kleckner of the National Restaurant Association, a partner with JCCOE in hosting the competition. The collaborative relationship ensures the competition broth includes the perfect blend of industrial excellence and Army standards.

“This program is truly a partnership between the food service industry and the military,” Kleckner said.
The evaluators spent the day checking all areas of the dining facility, but evaluating in other ways as well.
“Because we are evaluating this DFAC for the best DFAC Army-wide, we want to make sure we cover all areas,” Kleckner said.

“The meal is an important part,” Texidor said. “But this competition is about the overall food service program here, including sanitation practices, cleanliness, food preparation, production, courtesy, and equipment usage, just to name a few areas.”

During both breakfast and lunch, Kleckner walked through the dining facility and asked the patrons various questions, such as whether they liked the food and how often they dined at the facility. He and the other evaluators also questioned a number of administrative workers and managers about paperwork, budgets and administrative details.

The evaluators also stressed the importance of continual training. The program, they noted, encourages continuous learning, development and better service for patrons as well as distribution of awards to winning facilities.

“Even though we are here to evaluate you, we want this to be a training opportunity,” Fisher said. “Keep in mind that after today you will have a heightened awareness of your skill set.”
By the end of lunch, the evaluators were finished. They assembled all of the participants for a farewell briefing.

“Just being one of the top five dining facilities Army-wide makes you all winners already,” Texidor said.
“We’ve had a terrific time here, and I hope you all have learned something new today,” Fisher added. “No matter how this competition comes out, we think you are an amazing team, and you all have shown excellent teamwork here today.”

Program leaders offered high praise. Kleckner, whose encyclopedic knowledge of the food industry makes compliments especially gratifying, compared the facility favorably with eateries around the world.
“I have been to restaurants all over the world,” Kleckner said. “I want to tell you that your dining facility and your food were just as good as any restaurant I have been in.”

Evaluators won’t settle for half-baked analysis, so they’ll stew on observations gleaned from kitchens around the world for several weeks before finalizing results. The winner of the competition will be announced in April. Personnel representing the culinary champions will fly to Chicago to receive their award.

“We had a terrific day today,” Henry said. “I am so proud of my entire team today. They all did their very best.

“We certainly hope to win this year,” he continued. “However, regardless of the outcome, we will now take the time to digest what we have learned from this experience and start planning for next year’s competition.”