Army cooks, food preparation, cooking, and related sunjects.

In general Army cooks are pretty good. I am sure that RAN and RAAF cooks are as well. 

It is hard to take huge quantities of food and turn it into appetising meals for 1,000 people who all need to eat at the same time.

However please protect my reputation and don't tell the cooks I said anything complimentary about them.

<< This is how Army Public Relations sees the food.

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Click on a link to see what the troops were fed and how the food was prepared and cooked.>>>

• "An Army marches on it's stomach"

  • Napoleon Bonaparte

He could have added, "or dies on it's belly".

The Men who make the stew   

• We may point out all the factors that we think had won the war;
  • We may boast of decorations men have won;  
  • We may talk about the good work of the Army Service Corps,  
  • Or the men who stood behind a Lewis gun;  
  • But there's just one group of Diggers to whom words of praise are due;  
  • It's the greasy, grimy chaps that kept the troops supplied with stew.  

• We may think back on the dangers of the old days on the Somme,  

  • We may prate about hard times in Palestine  

  • But we never had to worry where our food was coming from  

  • When we stood in mud and water in the Line.  

  • For we knew that, black and grimy, somewhere just beyond the Fuss,  

  • Were some good old brother Diggers making army stew for us.  

• We may brag about the dangers that we faced through nights of storm,  

  • When the Huns threw hurtful scraps of steel about;  

  • While we cursed old Kaiser Willhelm till the atmosphere grew warm,  

  • And we wondered when the Heads would pull us out.  

  • But the cooks were ever cooking, through the cold and rain and heat  

  • For they had to feed the army; and the troops must always eat.  

• We may growl about the marches that we did on blistered feet,  

  • With backs that almost broke beneath the strain;  

  • But the blessed cooks were with us and we had some grub to eat,  

  • To feed the worms and ease our stomach pain.  

  • And an epicurean pleasure, and a certain peace of mind  

  • Was engendered by the knowledge of the cookers on behind.  

• Armies march upon their stomachs, so old Bonaparte has said.  

  • And thoughts like this have come to not a few  

  • There's a great sustaining power for the fighting men ahead  

  • In a dixie full of hot and steaming stew.  

  • And our hearts were singing praises as we backed our carts for more  

  • To the grimy, greasy Digger cooks who helped to win the war.