Top Chef Published July 11, 2011 By Senior Airman Danielle Campbell 94th Airlift Wing, Public Affairs DOBBINS AIR RESERVE BASE, Ga. -- "I just love making great food," he said. Since he was a kid his family owned several small businesses, mom and pop shops and the like. Michael W. Medford, Dobbins Air Reserve Base chef, said he remembered running in and out of the kitchen taking mental notes on how to handle food and how to mix dishes that would bring a smile to people's faces. Instead of pursuing a career in culinary arts, Medford decided to take a different path and enlist in the military. He served a total of six years with both the Army and then the Navy Reserve until an injury from an earlier deployment with the Army eventually caught up with him, forcing him to leave the military. "It was at that time when I had to decide how I was going to rebuild my life." That is when Medford decided to return to his true passion - cooking. Medford has had a history of success in the academia of culinary arts from his formal inauguration into the field in 2008, graduating magna cum laude from Le Cordon Blue in Tucker, Ga. to his more recent graduation, number three in his class, from the Culinary Institute of America's satellite location in San Antonio, Texas. "CIA is the gold standard of culinary classes," Medford said. "The main location is in High Point, N.Y. - it is a top-rated facility to learn new [cooking] techniques and methods." The course comprised a combination of text book instruction and meal preparation. Medford said he found one of the most challenging aspects of the class to be learning French terminology. Medford said the class provided instruction in mass troop feeding. It also helped give him additional ideas to combat some of the challenges mass feeding presents like creating a baseline to satisfy a wide range of pallets. "I look forward to incorporating all that I learned, both at the institute and in my career so far to help re-vamp the dining experience here at Dobbins," Medford said.
