 Culinary Specialist Fast Class Frida Karani, and then listed eight for the Vice Chairman and Joint Chiefs of Staff. I'm the Armed Forces Chef of the Year 2016. It's quite an honor to actually have been selected to have won the award. When you go up for the Armed Forces Chef of the Year, you get a mystery basket with different ingredients in it. I saw all these ingredients and I was in shock actually. I didn't know where to start. So what I did is just a simple sear to the snapper and I did the gnocchi and made a broth out of tomatoes that were in the basket and put it all together. The adrenaline at the last minute is always a good thing. It keeps you on your toes and it keeps you thinking and just, you know, it challenges you to stay on top of your game. Somehow the judges loved it.