Rising to the occasion: Walter Reed’s culinary specialists embrace cake making traditions
The tradition of cake making in the U.S. Navy holds a storied place in military culinary history. Dating back to World War II and the post-war era, Navy cooks and bakers (later called commissarymen) created elaborate cakes to celebrate significant milestones for Sailors deployed on board their ships for months at a time. These cakes served dual functions: as celebratory symbols and as a way to strengthen morale and reward Sailors for their extended service.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s (WRNMMC) Nutrition Services Department (NSD) is exploring the custom of Navy cake making, viewing it as an important facet of its mission to feed the patients and staff of the nation’s premier military medical facility.
The NSD is responsible for providing thousands of specialized meals daily to inpatient heroes, outpatient wounded warriors, hospital visitors, and medical staff. As a participating member in the Association of Healthcare Foodservice (AHF), the department works hard to meet the organization’s high standards for self-operated dining, where providing nutritious, high-quality meals serves as a critical part in patient care and healing.
“We won the AHF’s culinary competition in 2015,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Michael Noyes, NSD director. “Then, over the years, due to situations like COVID and staff turnover, our focus naturally shifted to meeting baseline operational demands. Now, we are aggressively expanding our advanced culinary capabilities.”
Expanding those culinary capabilities meant launching targeted, peer-to-peer training initiatives within the galley. “Morale is the primary thing for me,” Noyes said. “People need to feel like they’ve got skills that are being used and valued and that they’re being invested in through training and that it’s not just about getting food out onto trays. They want to know that they’re coming in and learning something new every day. That they’re worth investing in.”
An important opportunity for just that purpose arrived when a high-profile command event required a traditional centerpiece.
“This all started because the command requested a cake, and we wanted to use the opportunity to build and showcase specialized baking training within the department,” said U.S. Army Maj. Abby Steiner, deputy director for the NSD. “We have someone who works with us that is actually phenomenal at making cakes, but she’s leaving us soon. So, we’ve been having her train the Soldiers and Sailors in the department, because when she leaves, she’s taking that knowledge with her.”
One of those team members, U.S. Navy Culinary Specialist 3rd Class Xiadani Gallegos, accepted the responsibility of baking the ceremonial cake to honor the recent 15th anniversary of WRNMMC’s opening. Gallegos joined the NSD in January 2026 after serving on board the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush from December 2020 to December 2025. Since arriving at WRNMMC, she’s asked to be involved with baking, as it plays an important part in the role of the Navy culinary specialists. When approached with the idea of being in charge of making the cake for the anniversary, Gallegos experienced a wave of emotions.
“I was worried, but also excited,” Gallegos said. “It was only the second time I would be making a cake on my own. It was fun working with the process and experimenting, creating the cake, and switching the design a couple of times.”
Prior to the actual anniversary cake-cutting, Gallegos baked a test cake, and she said she was very pleased when WRNMMC’s leadership reacted very favorably, not only to the design, but to the taste as well. On the day of the event, she said she was shocked when they handed her a commemorative command "challenge coin," which is awarded by WRNMMC leadership to facility staff for meritorious service.
“I was very surprised to receive the coin because I didn’t expect it at all,” Gallegos said. “I was just hoping they would admire the cake and enjoy eating it. For us, whenever someone gets a coin, it’s a sign of recognition, and it means a lot to us. It’s something to be proud of.”
In addition to the internal training on cake making the NSD staff has been receiving from the departing team member, Noyes has identified a number of official training opportunities available to his team. Currently, several of his team members are scheduled to participate in a one-week training course in Norfolk, Virginia, that will focus on cake baking.
The U.S. Army’s Joint Culinary Center of Excellence (JCCoE) out of Fort Gregg-Adams (formerly Fort Lee), Virginia, is where Army, Navy, and Marine Corps culinary specialists attend their primary or advanced "A" school training courses following basic career training. The JCCoE holds an annual training/competition called the Joint Culinary Training Exercise (JCTE), which is the largest American Culinary Federation-sanctioned cooking competition where teams from the various branches compete. Noyes also plans for members of his team to participate in the JCTE at some point.
As the NSD team looks to the future, Noyes and Steiner agreed that they are passionate about regaining their glory by recapturing the AHF’s annual culinary competition again, as they did in the 2015 contest. And, of course, a good deal of all this training and competing will focus on cake making. “Everybody loves cake,” Steiner said. “Cake makes you happy, and more importantly, it’s common ground. It’s huge for morale.”
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