EDWARDSVILLE, ILL. – It’s one of those stereotypes you hope is true.
Firefighters spend days together at a time – living, sleeping and battling blazes. It’s almost like a family, but with more danger.
They cook for one another, too, and over the years they hone their cooking skills to an art. There is nothing like coming back to the fire station after fighting a blisteringly hot, smoky fire and sitting down to a satisfying meal.
This is where the stereotype comes in: Firefighters are reputed to be great cooks. Every fire station is said to have at least one guy or gal who whips up terrific food.
“I’ve known a lot of firefighters who have been very good cooks, and I’ve known a few who have not been very good cooks,” said Rick Welle, chief of the Edwardsville Fire Department, who has the firehouse reputation of being a good cook himself.
Everyone takes turns cooking at some firehouses; at others the duty tends to fall to just a couple of the firefighters. Dinner is served every night, and some houses also make breakfast on weekends.
“Hopefully, if you do it right you get leftovers for lunch. It’s whoever gets to it first. You have to be hungry at 10:30 (a.m.) sometimes or you don’t get any leftovers for lunch,” said Jake Lickteig, a firefighter in the Mehlville Fire Protection District.
Firefighters often are called to substitute for one another at different houses or float their schedules from one station to another. Each firehouse has its own way of dividing its cooking duties, but at the firehouse Lickteig is regularly assigned to, they use a method called dinner club.
A schedule is prepared in advance, so everybody knows when his turn is coming. The day’s cook buys food for the whole house with his own money and does not chip in when it’s another person’s turn to cook.
“At the firehouse, the choices are (1). take it, or (2). leave it,” said Nick Smith of the Monarch Fire Protection District, which covers Chesterfield, Mo., and nearby areas.
“At the firehouse, if you’re going to be a part of the crew you have to eat with everybody and everybody has to eat what everybody eats,” he said.
But that came to be a problem for Smith, who became seriously overweight. Through hard work, diet and exercise – “cutting back a little bit and moving a little more every day,” he said – he managed to lose 90 pounds.
“Portion control was tough for me. In order to try to do better, I had to cook alone for a while. The others started to see what I was cooking, and they would say, ‘I want to be in your crew,’ ” he said.
His healthier food caught on at the firehouse, but he is always sure to first try something new at home with his wife and two children. If they like it, he will make it for his colleagues.
“The firehouse critics are always worst,” he said.
One of Smith’s favorite healthy meals to cook is a Chicken Fajita Bowl, which puts strips of baked chicken breast on top of quinoa. Colorful sautéed bell peppers and onions are draped over the chicken, topped with black beans, a chopped avocado and nonfat Greek yogurt.
In Edwardsville, Ill., Chief Welles’ Baked Potato Soup is considerably less healthful.
“There is absolutely nothing in it that is good for you, but it is a very good soup,” he said with a laugh.
He developed the recipe himself, through several years’ worth of trial and error. He now serves it every year to the workers who help out at his department’s annual open house, and he makes it a handful of times for either his family at home or his co-workers at the firehouse.
“It’s not the usual fare we make for them. Everyone here is heart healthy. It’s for their rare treat to bring the calories up for a cold-weather day,” he said.
How could it not be? It begins with chopped-up baked potatoes and then adds everything you could want on one: bacon, sour cream, butter, cheddar cheese, green onion and more.
“It’s definitely feel-good food,” he said.
In Mehlville, Mo., Lickteig has a reputation for several of his dishes, including a chicken spiedini. He is also known for his Taco Pizza, which he calls “My tribute to Happy Joe’s,” a pizza and ice-cream restaurant in Marlborough, Mo.
He begins with a ready-made pizza crust and bakes it with refried beans, sliced olives and shredded cheese. While the crust is baking, he sautés ground beef in taco seasoning and mixes it with Rotel tomatoes with lime and cilantro.
Sour cream goes on top of the crust, along with the meat, more shredded cheese, shredded lettuce and Doritos taco-flavored chips (“pour half in a bowl to keep the guys satisfied, then let someone who has had a bad day crush the other half in the bag,” he said).
“It’s not the healthiest of meals.
“You don’t have it all the time. It’s definitely a guilty pleasure,” he said.
