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Show While Walter Winchell is away, this month, hi column will be conducted con-ducted by guest columnists. Lady, Learn to Cook or Your GI Will Go Home To the Army! By Captain Ben Irvin Butler 'Founder tni President of the Society ol Amateur Chefs.) 'Sitting by the roadside on a Summer day 'Chatting with my mess-mates, passing time away 'Singing in the shadmvs underneath the trees; 'Goodness hnw de-li-ri-ous eating COOIiEIl PEAS!" That's an old Civil war song. And t goes to show that in all wars up-ermost up-ermost in the soldier's mind is ood. I should spell that word with lapitals FOOD. Zora Layman, the radio and re-lording re-lording artist, sang "Eating Goober Peas" the other night at a cocktail arty. I don't know whether it was ler singing or what, but Zora Lay-cnra Lay-cnra nrantirnllv started a iiau a aunt, f ' riot. I was the center of it all. The women at the party began isking me questions. They wanted o know all about Army food. And lelieve me, I told 'em! I told them oth as an ex-Air Corps captain and is the founder of the Society of Ama-eur Ama-eur Chefs, an exclusive New York ilub composed of famous men who nake a hobby of cooking. First of all, I explained about this lusiness of KP. The movies and fiction have paint-id paint-id kaypee mostly as a business of leeling potatoes and cleaning gar-lage gar-lage cans. But that's a lot of non-ense. non-ense. Many soldiers try to get on P. And why not the kitchen is one tf the warmest spots around the amp in the Winter time. The du-les du-les are easy enough. And there's ilways the pick of a well-stocked order from which to select one's ood. I'm not kidding. Instead of leing a punishment job handed out ly the army to recalcitrants, kaypee b one detail GI Joe doesn't mind. According to Bill Rhode, who B one of the editors of Gourmet, nany of their fan letters come from oldiers and sailors. I had lunch pith Bill the other day and he toW ne how many requests for epicure-in epicure-in recipes there had been from nen in the various services. That ery day, he'd received a letter from in Admiral asking how to smoke I lerring. The slogan, "the best fed Army n the world," has been tossed iround a great deal. People don't mv lnneer erasD entirely what it neans. y The Army kitchen is no harum-icarum harum-icarum affair. In many instances t is an electrical job, spic and span, iffering an open invitation to good :ookery. It has everything in the vay of equipment and, believe me, he medical officers see to it that it s as sanitary as a kitchen can pos-dbly pos-dbly be made. No foolin' you can ust about see your face in the bot-om bot-om of an Army garbage can. Thousands of Army lads have, jeen carefully trained in cooking, lutchering and baking and most of hem have become good cooks. Some, at least, have become effi-jient effi-jient cooks, although perhaps un-nspired. un-nspired. And then, of course, some vill never learn. Hence the dis-srepancy dis-srepancy between reports from various va-rious camps and units. Some men will rave about the food they en-loyed en-loyed in their outfit. Others will ceep on yearning for Mother's beef itew and apple pie. But, take it rrom me, very few are telling their pals what a wonderful cook the girl ' s they left behind. And there's something else I told : lie ladies at the cocktail party to jonder over. ; Though the Army food wins no iquawks, the GIs occasionally yearn L or the finer things of life. For in-jtance, in-jtance, a nephew of mine, John Piper, Pi-per, who is an Army pilot somewhere some-where in the South Pacific, upon learning that I was back in New york, wrote to me for a recipe for Wild Duck a la Press. My old mess sergeant, now stationed in a south- ern climate, inquired as to now to make a tart lime marmalade. Another inquiry came to me from a service man far away I'll let you , guess asking how to - make j "Tuiles." These are thin wafers that accompany curry when the latter lat-ter is served in the elegant manner. An officer connected with the j Army's dietary service told me that ! he'd had an inquiry from a mess sergeant asking how to make wine out of berries a reasonable enough . request only the Army doesn't give out with answers to such questions. They Knoto Ai'otti All Food Doesn't Come Out of Cans! With repeal came the renaissance of American gastronomy. Slowly, an interest in good food returned. But with the War, millions of boys are i learning and discovering that all food does not come out of tin cans. And this interest is growing by leaps and bounds. In camps, soldiers have eaten freshly baked bread and the old "cotton wadding" type of bread from the corner grocery store won't have much appeal to these boys in the future. |