“We Train Cooks for Oil Fieldand Tug Boats. We Ain’t No

Culinary Arts School.”

282828---day handsday handsday hands---on course preparingon course preparingon course preparingonboard cooks for Supply Boats,onboard cooks for Supply Boats,onboard cooks for Supply Boats,

Towboats and Oil Rigs.Towboats and Oil Rigs.Towboats and Oil Rigs.Tuition includes room and board at coedTuition includes room and board at coedTuition includes room and board at coed

campus in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.campus in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.campus in Bayou La Batre, Alabama.

Offered through Sea School 1-800-BEST-ONE (237-8663)

SON OF A SEA-COOKWORKBOAT COOKING SCHOOL

At the site of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company in Bayou La Batre (Mobile),Alabama 9180 Little River Road Bayou La Batre, AL 36509

COURSE & PROGRAM

As the normal shift on a workboat is usually 28 days, Son of a Sea-Cook WorkboatCooking School has chosen to make it’s Basic Boat Cook(BBC101) course 28 dayslong. The curriculum of the course includes basic food production, biscuit making, foodsafety, food service, food management, purchasing, galley safety & sanitation, andgroup cooking with meat, poultry and seafood.

The curriculum is focused on a unique segment of the culinary sciences, with lots ofpractical hands-on cooking to help students become proficient and efficient in a work-boat kitchen.

Students have the opportunity to cook for real boat crews that are attending many ofSea School’s US Coast Guard approved courses.

Sea School, The Law School of The Sea, on the campus of The College of NauticalKnowledge, offers room and board, (they like to call it bread and bed) to all their stu-dents at the Bayou La Batre facility.

Son of a Sea-Cook Workboat Cooking School, is making the same offer.

The kitchen-classroom was specificallydesigned to help the student become apractical workboat cook.

The classes are limited in size to enable

us to give ample personal attention to

each and every apprentice Cook.

Classes start every two weeks, (on a

Tuesday) for the 28 day, Basic Boat Cook

(BBC101) course.

View of kitchen/classroom through serving window

IMPORTANT ELEMENTSThis career focused education, with the emphasis on boat cookery, offers qualityhands-on training that is essential to a successful career aboard workboats. Thisschool prides itself on teaching the practical application necessary for successful em-ployment in today’s highly competitive workboat cooking job market.

ADDITIONALLYThe school considers food-service sanitation to be high on the priority list.Our graduates are well prepared to pursue careers in the floating kitchens of the work-boat community.

GOALSon of a Sea-Cook Workboat Cooking School offers its students the necessaryand requisite skills to find decent paying jobs in the fishing, commercial, tug andtowboat industries as well as the booming market of offshore supply vessels(OSV), delivering supplies to the oil rigs and wells in the Gulf of Mexico.

LOCATIONThis school offers the unique opportunity of living and learning in the village made fa-mous by Forrest Gump and the Bubba Gump shrimp factory. Bayou La Batre, nearMobile (30 miles), is the shrimping capital of Alabama and one of the Gulf Coast’slargest provider of fresh oysters and shrimps.

AREA OF STUDYImportant elements of this training include soup stock, sauce, starch, sauces, roux, salads,menu planning, nutrition, basic food purchasing & production, costing, regional cuisine, cajuncooking, safe meat cutting & poultry handling, galley management, food-service sanitation,storeroom operations and introduction to baking.

FACILITYJust thirty miles Southwest of Mobile, Alabama, on picturesque Bayou La Batre (meaning" inthe woods"), the 12 acre campus includes dorm housing for 47 Sea School students and up to12 male and 6 female Son of a Sea-Cook cooking school students. Study halls and TV roomsare provided. Clothes washing machines are available.

Offered through Sea School 1-800-BEST-ONE (237-8663)

TRANSPORTATIONBayou La Batre is a world unto itself with one grocery store, two gas stations, one bar,a radio shack, Sidney’s chicken restaurant, Hardies hamburgers and a Sonic, lots ofboat yards plus tons of oyster and shrimp production/shipping companies. What morecould you ask for?

Cars are not necessary and transportation to and from Mobile Airport and bus stationare provided.

TYPICAL STUDENT PROFILEThere is no typical student profile,although the school gives preferenceto those with some type of boatingexperience. The motion of the ocean(rock & roll) is a limiting factor in theGulf of Mexico, but less of a factor onOil Rigs in the Gulf and inland towboatsworking on the Mississippi and theWestern Rivers.The OSV industry seems to attract ayounger crowd, while the commercialfishing industry and towboats seem tobeckon to an older more mature group.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTSMost vessels in the oil industry require the crew (including the cook) be a member ofthe Merchant Marine service and to have a Merchant Mariner Document (MMD), alsoknown as a Z-card, to work on the boats. At the entry level, this security card, issuedby the Coast Guard, allows employment on US vessels, as ordinary deckhand, foodhandler, stewards department and wiper.

Cooking students for the oil industry will be required to have a drivers license and birthcertificate or other acceptable forms of identification to acquire this card. Also requiredis a physical and drug test. Assistance to provide these requirements is offered at theschool.

Many of the above requirements are not mandated yet for the commercial fishing ortowboat jobs.

ADDITIONALLYMany oil field boat companies are in need of able seaman (AB) to fill the manning re-quirement of the Certificate of Inspection (COI). In many instances the person respon-sible for the cooking can also fill the AB position, making him or her more valuable tothe boat company. For those that may be qualified by experience on vessels to be eli-gible for the AB rating, Sea School has agreed to make available time slots and in-structors to train cook students for the AB MMD.

FINANCIAL AIDSome partial tuition scholarships have been offered by boat companies wanting a firstlook at our graduating students.

We have renewed our approvals with the VA for VA student loans to veterans.Many agencies including incumbent worker workforce, rehab. and state unemploymentcan help in financial aid.

HOUSINGFree room and board for cooking students.

On the top deck (3rd floor) of the main building there are 9 clean dorm rooms with 3double decker beds with custom made mattresses in each room for Sea School stu-dents. On that floor is a separate sleeping room with 12 beds for male cooking schoolstudents. Showers and bathrooms are convenient, as well as a quiet study room forthe studious. No TV, video games or cell phone conversations are permitted on the 3rd

deck quiet zone.

Female’s Bunk Room: light, airy and comfortable.

On the 2nd deck of the main building which houses the front office, office of the SchoolDirector, Harold McKerchie and the security officer (24/7), there are two dorm roomsavailable for up to 12 females attending Sea School or Son of a Sea-Cook WorkboatCooking School.

Study hall, TV room, shower and bathroom, refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot andcomputer work area are provided for the ladies on this deck.

CONTACTINFORMATION

Registration for thecooking school ishandled throughthe Sea SchoolBayou La Batre,AL Campus.

Please ask tospeak to Nellie at1-800-247-3080

A well equipped kitchen/classroom is the beginning if a great career as a workboat cook

The only thing missing in the kitchen/classroom is Rock’n’Roll. The motion of the ocean needs to beconsidered if contemplating a career in the gulf of Mexico

Reprinted by permission of Workboat Magazine (the Dec 06 issue)

What’s Cookin’On workboats, cooks play a big role in keeping the crewshappy and healthy.

By Pamela Glass, Washington Correspondent

As most crews on workboats will tell you, If the cook ain’t happy, we ain’t happy.₤

“If the cook ain’t happy,

we ain’t happy.”

And as most company managers will tell you, if the crew isn’t happy, the companyisn’t happy, because productivity suffers and then profits slip. There’s little doubt thatthe talent level in the galley can have a big influence on onboard attitudes and per-formance.

If the cook is unfriendly or prepares consistently bad fare, morale can hit rock bottom.Workers can become grumpy, and their attitude can turn sour. But if the cook is pleas-ant and a galley pro, crews look forward to their next meal, and can sleep better andimprove their job performance.

“It’s a generally accepted rule that the captain runs the boat, and the cooks run thelifestyle on the boat,” said Mark Knoy, president of AEP Memco Barge Line, St.Louis, which employs about 60 cooks on its inland towboats that ply the MississippiRiver system.

Cooks on workboats conjure up two different images. One is the crusty old salt, with afew tattoos on his biceps and a heavy hand with the saltshaker and frying pan. Anotheris of a petite grandmother who possesses a quick wit, an acerbic tongue and a talentfor turning out biscuits, gravy, mashed potatoes or a seafood gumbo that would givefancy New Orleans restaurants a run for their money.

It takes a special kind of person to be a workboat cook, and they aren’t easy tofind, industry officials say.

The job description is enough to scare off many landlubbers. After all, a vessel cookmust often run a 24-hour-a-day restaurant. A cook also must conform to an unusuallifestyle. He or she is away from home for as long as a month at a time, and it can getlonely. There are different tastes to please, from the meat-and-potatoes appetite to theguy who has sworn off fats and butter to bring his cholesterol down. A cook must bewell organized because he or she can’t just run out to the store when short on sugar. Acook also must roll with the waves and have a strong stomach, as cooking in roughwaters can be dangerous and tricky. And he or she must be a nutritionist, able to pre-pare balanced meals and explain the effects on the body of too much caffeine or notenough whole grains or vegetables.

Inland and offshore companies have different ways of hiring cooks. Some recruit di-rectly from culinary schools, while others get applications from cooks who are lookingfor higher pay, more time off, and better benefits than their land-based jobs. (Most ves-sel companies offer full-time salaries, health benefits and pension plans.) Many cookshear about the jobs from friends in the workboat industry, while others apply throughemployment agencies or listings on a company Web site. Backgrounds of the cooksvary, with some coming from the military, while others have food-service experience atrestaurants, diners, school or hospital cafeterias or grocery stores. A small number at-tended cooking schools or worked with great chefs, such as one food service managerfor an offshore company who learned his culinary skills from renowned New York ChefDaniel Boulud.

INLAND VS. OFFSHORE

Cooks who work on inland river towboats tend to be older women, age 50 or more,while offshore cooks tend to be older men. Inland river cooks are not required to belicensed mariners, so generally they are not. But the river cook does more than pre-pare three or four home-cooked meals a day for a small crew, and keep the pantrystocked and grocery list filled. She often badgers the captain to fix things on the boat,or reminds the crew to clean their rooms or call home. She can also be a good listener— a friend or adviser who’s there when a crewmember has a problem. “She helps theyounger guys deal with some of life’s issues, and can also cut a crewmember’s hair oract as a seamstress,” added Dave Brown, vice president, marine human resources atIngram Barge Co. The Nashville, Tenn.-based barge operator employs 140 cooks on80 of its line-haul towboats.

Offshore cooks, because they work on larger vessels that can go up to 200 miles off-shore and serve up to 40 or more workers, often have their mariner documents aswell as cooking experience. Being licensed (most go for their AB) is not a require-ment, but offshore companies recommend that cooks seek documentation becauseit can improve their chances for pay raises and advancement, and it contributes toproductivity on OSVs.

At Montco Offshore Inc., which specializes in 145' to 245' liftboats that service theGulf of Mexico energy industry, 25 cooks work on the Galliano, La.-based company’ssix liftboats. Those with documentation are paid more. The average pay for non-documented cooks is $180 a day, while a documented cook can earn from $240-$270 a day, according to Robby Gisclair, Montco’s food services manager.

“Documentation is definitely a plus in getting hired,” said Gisclair, who has a degree inculinary arts and worked in a New York City restaurant under a French chef, “becausevessels mandate a certain amount of licensed personnel onboard. The more docu-mentation they get, the more your pay will go up.”

Dominic Fava, a cook for Edison Chouest Offshore, another Galliano-based offshoreservice vessel operator, has an AB rigger’s license and is working toward his mate’slicense because it opens doors to advancement. “They let you work on deck — twoweeks in the kitchen, two on deck. It shows the company that you’re willing to advance.The galley pays the least in the fleet and there’s no advancement for cooks.”

Vessel cooks are not required to take food handling or sanitation courses like many inthe land-based food preparation business, but companies often provide this training. AtMontco, the company is working with a national restaurant association to get its cooksa certification on food sanitation, while Memco trains its cooks in proper food handlingtechniques.

Seacor Marine LLC, Houma, La., one of the largest OSV operators in the Gulf, utilizesa combination of cooks — those who work for a catering company and crewmemberswho double as cooks. On Seacor’s large anchor-handlers, cooks are also marinerswith AB certificates or other merchant mariner’s credentials. “Our view is that whenyou’re not cooking, they can hold navigational watches or assist on deck,” said JohnFontenot, Seacor’s director of safety and human resources. “We like to have all ouremployees be mariners. It’s really unique. We don’t have any typical cooks.”

“We don’t have any typical cooks.”

Finding people who can cook and are also interested in becoming mariners is difficult,Fontenot said, as it requires another level of training and exams. ‚It is a unique individ-ual who is both a cook and a mariner.

ONBOARD NUTRITIONIST

Increasingly, today’s workboat cooks are also assuming a new responsibility: playing akey role in the health and well being of the crew by serving healthy food and informingthem about the importance of healthy eating habits. This is driven by the many nationalhealth reports that warn of the negative effects of obesity, high blood pressure andhigh cholesterol — conditions that are being found increasingly among aging mariners.

The Coast Guard has gotten into the act, taking a more aggressive role in this aspectof mariner training and job performance. With the industry’s help, it is developing theCrew Endurance Management System. CEMS identifies risk factors that contribute toa drop in physical stamina and mental alertness among mariners.

One of the key recommendations is improving a mariner’s diet. This often means eat-ing better, avoiding caffeine and drinking more water. CEMS suggests that vesselcooks modify daily menus to include more fresh vegetables, fruits, fruit drinks, whole-grain breads and low-fat meats such as turkey, fish and chicken. How much and whatcrewmembers eat impacts on energy, mood, stamina and sleep, a recent CEMS re-port to Congress said.Following the lead of CEMS, Memco is training its cooks on how poor nutrition relatesto job fatigue. “Cooks can help with this,” said Paul Werner, who is in charge of safetyand the CEMSprogram at Memco.

However, cooks and the vessel operators they work for acknowledge that changingmariners’ eating habits is a big challenge, as most crews are accustomed to a high-calorie diet that includes fried foods, lots of butter and other fats and starches. Workerslove their steak and potatoes, seafood gumbo, fried chicken, deep-fried catfish, corn-breads and cakes. Many cooks are making efforts to put out more salads, vegetablesand fruits, but it’s been hard to break old habits.

“Oreos, Doritos and Coke are still at the top of the shopping lists, but we do our bestto provide nutritious choices,” said Seacor’s Fontenot.“Providing a balanced diet is a big concern for us,” added Montco’s Gisclair. “Three ofour employees had heart attacks recently, and one died after 27 years with us. So weknow we must provide healthy food.”

“Oreos, Doritos and Coke are still at the top of the shopping list.”

Caloric intake is also a challenge. On inland boats, for example, deckhands are muchmore active than those in the wheelhouse. The challenge to the cook is to accommo-date a guy who is burning lots of calories, and the guy who is burning far less, saidBrown of Ingram.

Cooks say they are adopting more healthy cooking methods, with less frying, andmore broiling, baking and steaming. But there are no set guidelines or mandates, soit’s up to individual cooks, with the encouragement of their companies, to institutegradual changes.

Some companies, however, are also taking steps to improve employee nutrition,which can increase productivity and lower medical insurance costs. Many are en-couraging employees to improve their diets and exercise more, both on and off theboat.

At Ingram, the company is working with experts at Vanderbilt University todevelop personalized diet and exercise plans for mariners.

“Our employees have a physical every two-and-a-half years to coincide with thefive-year license cycle. They go to Vanderbilt, see a nurse, and she helps develop aplan with them to improve their diet, exercise or stop smoking,” said Brown. “We’redoing the same wellness sessions with the cooks. A person who is in better healthand in good shape will be more alert and able to deal with emergencies.”

Already, Brown said, things are changing. “We’ve got treadmills on all our boats andother kinds of exercise equipment, and guys are walking around the boats. I thinkwe’ve changed a lot of guys’ habits.”

SIDEBAR

GALLEY MASTER DOES MORE THAN JUST COOK

Sue Perryman has been cooking up a storm on the inland rivers for years. But theinland towboat cook would prefer to be remembered for how she cooked after a storm.

Because that’s just what she did soon after Hurricane Katrina devastated the GulfCoast in 2005. Her towboat, the 7,200-hp Douglas J. Fischer, and other AEP MemcoBarge Line boats were loaded up with supplies and became impromptu relief centersfor small vessels less equipped for longer runs.

“Within one to two days after Katrina hit, we were pulling barges back into the river,and when Igot on the boat there were cases of food and water. I was impressed thatthis was for the hurricane victims,” Perryman said. “People on tugs would come on ourboat and eat a meal and take a shower.”

Onboard the 1 92'x52' line-haul towboat, Perryman, 64, found herself cooking formore than the boat’s normal 11-member crew.

“I served 300 extra meals beyond our crew,” she said. “Many of these people had losteverything and were living on tugs.” On one of the vessels there was a baby in need ofmilk, which Perryman supplied from her galley.

Katrina was an exceptional call to duty, she said. Most of the time, however, her daysare much more mundane — and she likes it that way. She’s up at 3 a.m., and in thegalley getting breakfast ready at 4 a.m. By 9:30 a.m., she’s back in the galley again toget lunch going. After the midday meal is over and the galley is cleaned up, there’s justa short break before she’s back at it again around 3:30 p.m. to whip up dinner.

Like many workboat cooks, Perryman is older than the majority of her crew, and is re-garded as a combination mother, grandmother and counselor figure. She feels thatshe’s not only responsible for the nutritional well being of her charges, but the emo-tional side as well. Many confide in her and talk about whatever is on their minds.She’s the only woman onboard.

“We get along real well on this boat, and you get to know the guys pretty well,” saidPerryman,who works a 28-on/28-off schedule. The crews are on 14/14 schedules.

With a background in catering and experience in a meat department, Perryman is wellorganized in the galley. She’s in charge of ordering groceries and preparing meals thatare well balanced and nutritious. “I always have fresh fruits and vegetables, and I try toprovide choices for those watching their weight and those who are not,” she said. “Ifthey ask me to cook special things, I do it. My job is to keep them happy with the food,and I’m very happy doing it.”

“My job is to keep them happy with the food.”

“I really believe that if the crew is happy and healthy the are more likely to stay with us.”

Perryman heard about river cooks from a friend in the industry. She said it tool nearlythree years before there was an opening. “Cooks hardly ever leave,” she said.

The Douglas J. Fisher’s galley was renovated three years ago and offers the latestamenities. She treats it like her kitchen at home, with a well-stocked pantry and hand-made curtains on the windows.

“I like to make it look homey.”

— P. Glass

School offerstraining tofuture OSV andtowboat

methods have had con-sequences. Workers have got-ten sick from unsanitary food.Many cooks, unprepared forthe a floating kitchen, havequit. And workboat operatorsmust deal with the after-math:unhappy crews, empty galleysand the expense of hiring newpeople.

Enter Ron Wahl, who sawa need and an opportunity.Last fall, he launched the

Son of a SeacookWorkboat CookingSchool in Bayou LaBatre, Ala., a shrimp-ing and fishing townmadefamous by the "ForrestGump" movie. It ispart of St. Petersburg,Fla.-based SeaSchool,also founded by Wahl,that offers U.S. CoastGuard approvednavigation, deck, en-gine room and tanker-men courses."This is simplecooking," Wahlexplained. "Not

WB Focus Cooking School

he job requirements for a workboat cookare usually pretty basic. Can you makebiscuits? Can you cook chicken? Unlike

other jobs that require training and certifica-tion, the cook's position comes with no stan-dards for employment. Yet as Most boat crewswill tell you, a cook is a very important andcomforting person to have onboard. A personwho can provide good hearty fare contributesto a happy work environment.But lack of training and unfamiliarity with boththe workboat environment and basic sanitary

Based on a typical workboat shift rotation,the school teaches a 28-day cycle of meals,with emphasis on basic food production, bis-cuit making, food safety, food managementand purchasing,galley safety and sanitation, and group cook-ing with meat, poultry and seafood.

The goal, Wahl said, is to provide profes-sional food training to cooks who will take jobson either offshore service vessels or inlandtowboats.

“There were a lot of guys getting sick be-cause cooks didn't know how to handle meats

T

And poultry,"Wahl said. "Our studentsare trained in safe handling techniquesand in how to keep a galley clean. Wetell them that they must use glovesbecause the guy on the boat doesn'twant to see your fingers in his food."

The school follows food-handlingstandards set by the FDA and DOT. Alot of instruction time is spent teachingabout the importance of refrigerationand food handling, including propercooking temperatures and defrostingmethods.

COOKING AND A Z-CARD

All students leave the program witha health certificate for safe handling offood. Those who will work on an OSVwill also have a Merchant Mariner'sDocument (MMD), since most vesselsin the oil industry require the crew -including the cook - to carry an MMD,also known as a Z-card. At the entrylevel, the MMD permits employmenton U.S. vessels as an ordinary

deckhand, food handler, steward andwiper. The school helps with all theprocedures in obtaining an MMD, in-cluding the physical exam and drugtest. The price for the 28-day course

A cook is morevaluable if he orshe can also fillthe AB position.

is $3,500, which includes room andboard.

Wahl said that that since many OSVcompanies need able-bodied seamento fill Coast Guard manningrequirements, a cook becomes morevaluable to the boat operator if he orshe can also fill the AB position.

For those who have enoughexperience on vessels to be eligible forthe AB rating, Wahl said the SeaSchool offers time slots and instructorsto train cooking students for the ABMMD.

The school's kitchen duplicates atypical workboat galley, without therock and roll of the water. Instructorsoffer up recipes that focus on healthyand nutritious food. "There's no reasonto fry food on a workboat," said Wahl,who has had a long career in the mari-time industry. "You have an oven, soyou can do oven `fried' chicken andpotatoes. You can offer more vegeta-bles. We push salads and fruits."

Wahl said that there is no typicalprofile of a cooking student, but heprefers those that have had some typeof boating experience. He's honestwith the students, telling them that thejob can be boring and sometimes iso-lated from the rest of the crew.

He also explains the differences be-tween cooking on offshore and inland

vessels. "The biggest problem withcooks is that they don't understand themotion of the ocean," he said.

Offshore cooks often prepare mealswhile the vessel is plying rough water,while inland cooks have the luxury ofa steadier ride. Faced with rough seas,offshore cooks must plan ahead andprepare their meals in advance. "Ifsomeone won't like the rock and roll, Isuggest they switch to a brownwaterjob"

No matter where they work, though,cooks must have a thick skin. "Thecrew won't complain about the captainor the engineer, but they will about thecook," he said. "And they'll tell thecook when they don't like the food,when it doesn't measure up to mama'scooking. I just tell the cooks to turn itinto a positive, to ask for mama's rec-ipe so that they can make it" on thevessel.

Students get hands-on experience asthey prepare meals for boat crews that

attend many of the Sea School's U.S.Coast Guard-approved courses. Theschool offers room and board for allstudents, including a separate securearea for female students.

No matter wherethey work, cooksmust have a thick

skin.

Wahl said his graduates are in greatdemand. They are either hired directlyby boat companies, or they have beensent for cook training by their employ-ers. "I have waiting lists for thecourses," which run every two weeks,he said. "I could place 30 cooks .amonth, but only take 12 to 16."

The boat companies, he said,

"need the cooks but don't want to getinvolved with training, so they arehappy that someone is finally doingit." Wahl said that his facility is theonly workboat cooking school in op-eration.

Wages are good. Many cooks canexpect to make $220-$250 a day,while those with an AB can com-mand about $325.

Wahl said he advertises his cook-ing program in boating publicationsand those that specialize in cooking.He also sends mailings to highschools. "I'm not having any troublefinding students," he added.

"I interview all of them, and ask whythey want to work on a boat. I empha-size that this is not a glamorous job,and that you're not wearing a whitechef's suit and working at a fancy ho-tel. These are workboats with oddhours, where people get dirty in theirjobs and don't leave you a tip at theend of the meal."

WB Focus Cooking School