CAF Story – A cook at sea
Video / March 02, 2023
Transcript
(TB) I was all he had at that time, when we were aboard ship.
That gentleman cried. That gentleman cried and said, thank you so much. Sailor Second Class Bammy, my first name is Tanveer, and I'm a cook by trade.
I was actually born in Mauritius. We got Chinese, Indian, South African influence. We kind of do a fusion. My mom taught me how to cook. Yeah, from a very young age. I would always be hip by hip with her.
Came to Canada. I knew Canadian Armed Forces was the way. So, I came in applying for a combat position. Because of medical reason, I didn’t go through with that. So, I figured, why not try cook.
My mom showed me a lot of tricks. It was the best decision I ever made. So, as a cook, you really get to know the crew. You see the same faces three times a day.
It's very important to make that joke on the steam line, to pick them up, to know when to maybe just give them some space. What really made me appreciate this trade and really care for this trade is when we were sailing during COVID times. Many places we’d go, we weren’t allowed off the ship.
So, morale was really low on ship. Join the navy, see the world.
Well, we weren’t seeing the world. Being at sea for, the longest we'd been was 62 days. I actually walked around and asked people what they would like to eat, or how to pick up morale.
That's the only thing that got the galley on board the ship. The thing that hit me the hardest was, I have a guy on the last ship, that during COVID times, his grandma passed away and we were at sea. A SEAL at the time gave an idea, he said, go ask him, go ask him what reminds him of his grandma.
So, I went and asked him. He said, tandoori chicken and naan. That reminded me of when my grandma passed away, but I had the support of my family with me. He didn't. It was just us at sea. So, I tried my best to make the best version I can, similar to his grandma. That hit home. He cried.
I cried. Just handing over that plate, after them dragging their feet, waiting in line to be fed, it's a second wind. I see it’s a second wind in a lot of people's faces because this is all they were looking forward to.
That's what makes my day, that's what makes my day, when people are eating, and laughing, enjoying themselves over the food we made. At least my way of keeping these guys in was to give them a little happiness on board. We stuck together as a team and we made it through.
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