Staff Sergeant Andre Ward, 32, was allowed to join his Fort Bliss-based unit in Mosul 14 days late after competing in the culinary World Cup, a similar event held in Luxembourg, two years ago. He's back on the team this year, and spent a recent afternoon piping chocolate onto a plate, then wiping it off and starting again, perfecting his designs for a dessert presentation.

The result of that exacting attitude is that the Army's culinary team has won more than 400 medals in international culinary competitions since 1976, when it started sending cooks to such events. And, unlike civilian teams, they have to do it all while mimicking combat conditions—they cook in a mobile field unit, limited to minimal equipment like pressure cookers and generators, while their civilian counterparts use more traditional kitchen settings.

Army competitors come from a variety of backgrounds and ranks—the team is made up of everyone from cooking novices to professionally trained chefs. They've gone into the military to learn skills, pay off cooking-school loans, and build résumés, and those who leave generally go on to careers in restaurants, catering companies, and other food businesses.

Specialist Valine Vukich, 23, who worked as a sous-chef at glittery Chicago eatery Bella Lounge, has been told that she will get combat cooking experience when she heads to Afghanistan with her Fort Carson, California, unit next March. "It will be a nice résumé builder," says Vukich, while cutting out sponge-cake rounds for a mimosa-flavored dessert. She plans to return to the restaurant business when she leaves the military in 2010.

The team is helping Sparks get good practice for his own post-military plans: starting an ice-sculpture company. For this year's Taste of America theme, the Army lifer created a Native American on a horse out of tallow, beeswax, and white chocolate. It will ride to the competition strapped down in a C-130 cargo jet. "This team brings out the best in you and can really give us employment opportunities whenever we retire," he says.

Jones, who has never cooked professionally, signed up to be an Army chef for just that reason. As part of the elite Ranger force based in Fort Benning, Georgia, he routinely heads overseas on specialized missions. Being on the culinary team doesn't help him on those classified operations, but practicing baking skills will give him a leg up in the job market when he leaves. "If I am in the Army," he says, "I might as well learn something."