Spc. Kevin Allen prepares ribs for lunch in the dining facility of Utah’s Tooele Army Depot in February 2003. Allen, of Sacramento, Calif., is a member of the California Army National Guard’s Company A, 132nd Engineer Battalion (Combat). He is a professional chef and was running his own catering business when the unit mobilized in August 2002. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Gail Braymen, National Guard Bureau)

About five inches of snow have fallen overnight, and it’s still coming down hard enough this morning to hide the mountains surrounding this military maintenance and storage installation about 30 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. Soldiers in the dining facility are still devouring their breakfast eggs and pancakes, but Spc. Kevin Allen is already in the kitchen getting started on lunch.

“We’re just doing something simple today,” he shouts over the racket of the industrial dishwashers, “ribs and mashed potatoes!”

It may be a simple menu for a family of four, but Allen and his coworkers are cooking for 400. And that’s 400 Army National Guard soldiers, stomachs empty and growling after hours of guard duty, patrolling and training in the cold.

But Allen, who grew up in south central Los Angeles with four brothers and four sisters, knows how to satisfy hungry people.

“When I was seven years old, I would help my grandfather after Sunday school with pancakes,” Allen said. “My mother didn’t like to cook much, so I started cooking for the family. I was going to study art after high school, but I joined the Navy instead.

“I wanted to do something creative, so I became a cook.”

After leaving the Navy in 1980, Allen went to a culinary school in Los Angeles, apprenticing at a four-star, classical French restaurant. After graduation, he worked for Marriott for about five years as a sous chef, then became a working chef at a three-star, California French Radisson restaurant in Huntington Beach, Calif. He went back to Marriott next, working as a food service manager, and at the same time started a catering business – Babycakes Culinary Artisans – with his wife, Naomi. While still doing his own catering, Allen left Marriott to be a chef on a West Coast Amtrak luxury train.

“When you work hotels, you have really long hours, six days a week,” he said. At Tooele, he works five days a week, leaving time to prepare for the Army’s Primary Leadership Development Course by working on soldier skills such as land navigation. In his spare time, he also helps fellow soldiers with remedial physical training.

Allen has been a cook in the California Army National Guard’s Company A, 132nd Engineer Battalion (Combat) for only about two years, but he’s already earned national recognition for his talents. At last year’s U.S. Army Culinary Arts Competition at Fort Lee, Va., he came home with an honorable mention.

“Before 9-11, there were big dreams for the California Guard in terms of cooking,” he said. “Just before my unit was mobilized in August, I was putting together a culinary team to compete at Fort Lee. We had purchased all the equipment and were getting participants to come in. And then we’re here.”

The California and Utah troops at Tooele and the adjacent Deseret Chemical Depot have been providing security there since last September. Although Allen arrived at Tooele the same time as everyone else in his unit, he’s only been in the kitchen since January. He started out guarding the front gate and patrolling with the rest of the Californians, while Utah Army National Guard cooks prepared their meals.

“He was pulling security and it got so cold, he said, ‘I wanna cook!’” joked Staff Sgt. Marv Tuckett, a cook with the Utah Army National Guard’s 145th Field Artillery.

“He’s very knowledgeable about food service,” Tuckett continued. “(The cooks) work in three rotations, and he’s beneficial to every rotation.”

“Just don’t get in his way,” warned Sgt. Douglas Parks, another cook with the 145th Field Artillery. “He’s quick!”

Allen is quick. He darts around the Tooele kitchen almost as fast as he tells his life story. Dodging cooks shaping dinner rolls, Allen carries box after box of frozen racks of ribs to a table where three enormous empty silver pots sit. He strips the plastic wrap from each rack and places it upright in a pot.

“These are St. Louis ribs,” he explains, holding up a 16” length of meat and bone. “They’re a lot better in a pit over mesquite, but here we’ll boil them until tender, then season them with smoke and special secret seasoning.”

Secret seasoning?

Allen laughs, then starts reeling off ingredients: cayenne, ginger, molasses, brown sugar “and a bunch of other things.”

After seasoning the ribs, he says, “we’ll put them in the oven about 35 minutes to brown, then dip them in barbecue sauce, then bake them about 15 minutes more.”

Allen’s favorite cuisines are Cajun, Creole and fusion, and he said he does what he can to liven up Army menus. “You have a standardized recipe,” he said. “It’s a guideline. You use herbs and spices to enhance existing menus.”

As a former culinary instructor, Allen enthusiastically shares his expertise with the other cooks in the kitchen.

“I recommend resources and references where they can get recipe material,” he said. “They’re pretty receptive. They go to websites and get recipes and practice at home.”

Allen clearly enjoys himself in the kitchen, but providing hot, tasty meals for hard-working soldiers is a job he doesn’t take lightly.

“The soldiers are out in the cold and snow, and we try to make meals nice for them,” he said. “I know (duty at Tooele) from both sides, and that makes me want to do a better job. I have a big responsibility to make sure soldiers are taken care of. I take it seriously because I’ve been out there.”

For Allen, creating in the kitchen is a recipe he’s following for life.

“This is my profession,” he said. “This is my passion. This is my love.”