President’s Spotlight: Senior Chief Jeremy Andersen

Through the end of my time here at the U.S. Naval War College, I’m regularly highlighting someone or something that’s caught my attention over the previous couple of weeks. It might be a person – student, faculty or staff – who deserves recognition, or it might be an occasion I want to draw more attention to. These short ‘President’s Spotlight’ pieces will be posted about once every two weeks.

You can tell a lot about someone based on the legacy they leave behind, and I will be among the many people who will be talking about Senior Chief Culinary Specialist Jeremy Andersen long after he retires from the Navy this December.

If you’ve been to a reception or a dinner at Quarters AA – the Naval War College President’s House – you’re familiar with Senior Andersen’s obvious excellence. He plans, procures and, with some help, perfectly prepares the mouthwatering food for those events.

Those receptions aren’t catered by some outside, critically acclaimed restaurant, even though they look and taste like it. They’re prepared by Senior Andersen, Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Marcia Robinson and our talented CS team.

The accolades he’s accumulated throughout his distinguished career are numerous. As a 2nd Class Petty Officer about 10 years ago here at the war college, he was named the American Culinary Federation’s Armed Forces Master Chef of the Year.

To claim that honor, his winning meal included foie gras, stuffed pheasant breast, wild rice pilaf, butternut squash puree, caramelized apples with pecan and maple, glazed root vegetable and roasted pheasant mustard reduction.

To earn a silver medal a few years earlier, he prepared bacon-wrapped rabbit loin and rabbit sausage, with creamy polenta and potato croquette, wilted spinach and pickled rhubarb and stone-ground mustard sauce.

I’m getting hungry just writing this…

But to complete the thought, last year, he was named the federation’s Rhode Island Chef of the Year, and he has garnered additional professional recognition by the Culinary Institute of America.

I could go on forever about Senior’s brilliance in the kitchen – as you can see from the dishes described above, every recipe he writes and every morsel he serves up is infused with the passion and joy he brings to his work. And his principles will not only go with him to whatever job he takes after his military service, but will live on in the world’s greatest Navy through the sailors he’s mentored.

Years from now, you may be attending a reception or Navy Ball or another ceremonial event, and you may see a menu of carefully prepared dishes, guided by Senior’s three guiding tenets of Seasonality, Locality and Sustainability. Handcrafted meals made with fresh ingredients, sourced from local producers in a way that’s replicable and environmentally sound.

Prepared for a U.S. Navy audience and most of the time served by enlisted personnel and officers who volunteer to assist at our events.

You’ll see that menu and you’ll have to at least wonder: Was the culinary specialist here a student of Jeremy Andersen at some point?

That will be a warm memory, and it’s part of that enduring legacy that I spoke about.

But Senior Andersen’s story is about more than his food, as truly delicious as that food is.

His legacy is one of hard work and resilience. Growing up on a farm in Minnesota, he learned at a young age about the sustaining value of the natural environment, and how to use the resources around him to maximize nutrition, taste and – most of all – joy. His family taught him not only to keep his shoulder to the grindstone, but to see the awesome potential in everything around him.

Those values came with him to the U.S. Navy.

His first jobs in the Navy were to prepare meals in the galleys of the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98), vessels with austere kitchens, sometimes limited supplies and hundreds of demanding sailors.

But like on the farm, he saw the potential in the ingredients he had, and he worked whenever he could to make the mess decks a special place for the shipmates all around him. He wanted those American heroes to feel important, because he knew they were and he took pride in giving them the best meals he could.

When supplies were limited, he made sure the enlisted personnel onboard had their fair share of the favored sauces and freshest foods.

Once he became a chef for Navy flag officers, mostly on-shore, his access to ingredients expanded, but his work ethic, humility and ironclad commitment to Seasonality, Locality and Sustainability stayed true. I’m proud to say Senior Andersen’s approach to my receptions is the same as his approach was in the galley of USS New Hampshire.

Both Laura and I truly thank him for staying on for our time at the college and know that he will always be our friend. He has made so many people comfortable and welcomed at Quarters AA.

Thank you, Senior Andersen, for all that you do, all that you’ve done and the Navy legacy you’ll leave.

– Rear Adm. Darryl Walker,
President, U.S. Naval War College