Royal Air Force Wittering Chef Warrant Officer Darren Rose has won the catering award in the Armed Forces category of the Cost Sector Catering Awards.
Cost Sector Catering is a respected trade magazine and website that covers all areas of the food service industry. The annual awards are presented to professional chefs and caterers from the private and public sectors and the categories include health, education and defence to name only a few.
Mr Rose is the Squadron Warrant Officer at 3 Mobile Catering Squadron (3MCS). 3MCS is the MoD’s only deployable catering unit and feeds all three Armed Services on operations and exercises. Warrant Officer Rose maintains discipline and standards on the Squadron and ensures that the chefs and stewards are trained and ready to deploy when needed.
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Darren’s sense of pride in his squadron is apparent. He said: “3 Mobile Catering Squadron is the career pinnacle for anyone who works in Royal Air Force catering. It’s the challenge and the availability of range in what you do that absolutely makes this the job for chefs and stewards.”
Mr Rose joined the Royal Air Force on the Youth Training Scheme in 1987 as a 16-year-old trainee chef. It’s a career that has seen many highlights, notably in 2012 when, as a sergeant, he was part of the team that fed the military personnel during the London Olympic games.
Born in Yorkshire, he speaks with characteristic frankness about his career choices: “I liked food and I still do, but it was a couple of years before everything seemed to make sense and fit.”
Last year more than 5000 UK military personnel deployed to Oman for Exercise Saif Sareea. With more than 30 years’ experience in military catering, Warrant Officer Rose was the ideal choice to manage the catering for the largest UK exercise in years.
By using a carefully chosen set of nutritionally-balanced menus and by working with UK and local suppliers, Mr Rose and his team kept the entire operation well-fed and kept the amounts of unused food and supplies down to a minimum. This remarkable achievement was the basis of his award from Cost Sector Catering.
Mr Rose said: “Thank you. It’s hard to know what to say when you get an award like this. Everyone on Exercise Saif Sareea worked extremely hard and my colleagues on 3MCS are brilliant at what they do. For me it’s about receiving an award that is relevant in the private sector, it shows that military caterers are every bit as good as their colleagues in industry.”
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Warrant Officer Rose was presented with his award at the Cost Sector Catering Awards on 26 April.
Image By: Cpl Paul Robertshaw
Group Captain Tony Keeling is the Station Commander at RAF Wittering. He said: “Congratulations Mr Rose. Best in Defence, it doesn’t get any better than that. When there is an event, like the 2012 Olympics or Exercise Saif Sareea or a major military operation, they look to 3MCS to provide catering. It takes a highly-skilled Warrant Officer to turn that kind of request into a functioning reality.”
