{"id":69836,"date":"2026-08-12T00:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/69836\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T00:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T00:17:17","slug":"inside-the-adf-mess-halls-cooking-tens-of-thousands-of-meals-for-exercise-pitch-black-military-personnel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/69836\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the ADF mess halls cooking tens of thousands of meals for Exercise Pitch Black military personnel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inside the Royal Australian Air Force Airmen’s Mess in Darwin, dozens of chefs from all over the world are busy preparing thousands of meals.<\/p>\n

The kitchen is one of four mess halls that have been temporarily scaled up by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to support the country’s largest aviation combat training activity, Exercise Pitch Black, in Northern Australia.<\/p>\n

Over three weeks at the Darwin facilities alone, the ADF estimates a team of more than 80 military cooks from Canada, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the United Kingdom served up a staggering 80,000 feeds \u2014 equating to 3,600 dishes a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Typically, the 2,500 military personnel from 21 nations taking part are offered a dinnertime choice between goat, lamb, pork and beef, as well as two vegetarian options.<\/p>\n

With crews participating in the exercise for weeks on end, New Zealand Army Private Liam Mischefski said the chefs tried to vary the options on the menu, which can range from curry to pasta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The ABC has been given a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse into how chefs from air forces around the world, like Liam Mischefski, come together to cater for Exercise Pitch Black. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“It’s very important obviously with religion, [and] dietary requirements come into play, so we have to make a lot of different meals to kind of provide for that,” he said.<\/p>\n

“With people spending so much time away from home, it’s good for them to have a meal that kind of reminds them of where they came from and help them acclimatise to where they are.”<\/p>\n

Private Mischefski said working with international chefs had allowed him to learn different cooking techniques and add recipes to his repertoire.<\/p>\n

\"Ingredients<\/p>\n

Plenty of extra chefs are hard at work in Darwin, ensuring all 2,500 meals are ready in time for each service. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“I’ve learnt different ways to make rice, I’ve learnt how the Australian mess operates \u2014 how they might cook their steaks, for example, and just the different degrees we cook our meats to,” he said.<\/p>\n

While preparing nutritional meals is the key to fuelling aviators, Private Mischefski said “fat boy Fridays” had been a popular night in the mess hall, with more hungry mouths showing up on the days fried food and steaks were on offer.<\/p>\n

Variety of cuisines being prepared<\/p>\n

While barramundi is one menu item flying the flag for local Top End produce, another notable Australian fixture that appears to be missing from the mix is Vegemite.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t seen any yet,” Private Mischefski laughs.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Multiple Top End mess halls are serving thousands of military personnel from 21 nations, three times a day. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

The Aussie spread was not the only staple left out.<\/p>\n

Despite not having his country’s liquid gold on hand, Canadian Armed Forces Corporal Alex Bernier said he had enjoyed sharing familiar desserts from back home and trying new ones.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Alex Bernier enjoys sharing a little slice of Canada with the teams currently training in Darwin. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“We had a chance to do Nanaimo bars, sugar tarts, [but] unfortunately we don’t have maple syrup either, so we do our best and people have enjoyed it so far \u2014 our own Canadian desserts,” he said.<\/p>\n

“My highlights would be of course working with the different countries, different nations’ chefs.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s very rewarding, it’s getting to [learn] their knowledge, experience and exchange from each other.”<\/p>\n

\"Cooking<\/p>\n

A lot of time, money and effort go into keeping all of the troops fed. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Royal New Zealand Navy leading chef Nadia Mwila echoed that sentiment, saying she would be taking home a recipe book full of new meals to cook when she returned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s nice to meet different cultures from all around the world and take recipes, share your own way of doing things as well, especially all in one area,” she said.<\/p>\n

“They do some good curries here, so I’ve actually got a whole list that I’ve got emailed to me back home, [though I] haven’t got to try them yet.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nadia Mwila travelled over to Darwin from New Zealand for this year’s Exercise Pitch Black. (ABC News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside the Royal Australian Air Force Airmen’s Mess in Darwin, dozens of chefs from all over the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[94160,22,21,18755,94161,467,94163,52484,94164,94162,92120],"class_list":["post-69836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-army-mess-hall","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-cooking","tag-defence-chefs","tag-defence-force","tag-international-chef","tag-kitchen","tag-meal-preparation","tag-military-chefs","tag-pitch-black"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}