Word: benstead
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...most influential people. Here, our focus is on Australians who live away from the big cities and reveal other facets of the nation's character. Tom Dusevic met Peter Burton, who turns grass into T-bones in the Kimberley; Elizabeth Keenan visited the kitchen of Warrant Officer John Benstead, 22 years an Army cook and now based in Townsville; Michael Fitzgerald tracked down Doug Pekin, a dogger who maintains 500 km of dingo-proof fence on the Nullarbor; Daniel Williams joined hands at a Sunday service with the dwindling faithful of Darnum, Victoria; and Rory Callinan met the crocodile-shooting...
...spuds the way combat platoons go through ammunition. Piled in the kitchens behind the base's Chauvel mess are five bulging 20-kg sacks, a day's supply of mash and chips for the 300 soldiers who eat here. They're all very active, says Warrant Officer John "Benny" Benstead, the head chef, "So their metabolism is cranking over a fair bit." As a dietitian might say, they know how to put it away...
...mission of Benstead and his white-clad cuisine team to put it in front of them. For today's lunch, the "livin' innies"-as he calls the resident troops who use the mess-will hoe into offerings like beef stroganoff, BBQ pork chops, chicken ? la king, Swiss roll and pavlova. Steak's "an old favorite," and there's a potato option at every meal. But the modern soldier is at ease with terms like parmigiana, and unfazed in the face of quiche. He's not slow to criticize, either: "You are only as good as your last meal," says...
...Army cook-and Benstead's been one for 22 years-must not only take the critical heat but get out of the kitchen. "We are soldiers first," he says. So between meals, it's off for an 8-km march with full pack, or training sessions in navigation and weapons handling: "It's quite demanding, making sure everyone gets fed as well as doing our soldierly...
...deployments and exercises, troops are served from trucked-in field kitchens, or carry "high-quality meals" in self-heating combat ration packs. "There's no chance of a soldier going hungry in the field," says Benstead, who'd clearly regard that as a personal defeat. "A happy soldier is a well-fed soldier," he says. "I always push into my chefs that we are the morale of the unit." More morale, at times, than some can handle: "Often after an exercise people say, 'What have you done to me? I should lose weight in the field...