How to Make Pizza on a Submarine - Smarter Every Day 246

The limiting factor on how long a nuclear submarine can stay submerged is the crew's stomach. A U.S. Navy nuclear submarine has technology that allows it to stay submerged for an incredible amount of time. It can make its own freshwater. It can even generate its own air, and the reactor that generates the power to sustain these systems can operate for years, but it can't grow food. So what do they do? This is the next video in the "Smarter Everyday" Deep Dive series in the nuclear submarines. And we're about to get a rare, behind the scenes look at how food is stored, prepared, and served on a U.S. fast attack nuclear submarine on the USS Toledo, as it operates under the ice in the Arctic Ocean. Today, we're gonna talk to Chief Doug Chatlose, who's in charge of cooking all the meals, but first we're going to talk to Lieutenant Mike Mace. Mike, otherwise known as Chop, is the supply officer responsible for acquiring and storing all provisions on board.

"So this is my freezer."

[Destin] "So this is your freezer."

"Yep. This is, I'm accountable for all the food on the boat. So this is how we store the majority of our proteins on the ship here."

"Dude, it is cold. I guess it's a freezer, of course it's cold, but holy cow, look at all this meat. Is that like a whole side of beef back there? What is that?"

"Yep, so we've got some corn beef back there. We've got some prime ribs back there. We've got a lot of chicken. We got a lot of chicken pucks, which are essentially breaded chicken breasts, chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, breakfast sausages. We've got fish. We've got mozzarella sticks, which you can see here. We've got jalapeno poppers. We've got a ton of bacon."

"So how long can you, how much food can you put on a ship? Like how long can this last? Well, is that, are you allowed to tell me?"

"I am required to maintain 30 days at all times, and I have to be able to load up to about 90 days of food onboard."

[Destin] "Really?"

"Yep, so we are getting pulled in underwater for quite a long while. We get roughly $10.60 a day per person, to feed three meals."

"Right, your home port is in Connecticut, right?"

"It is, yes."

"So are you always purchasing food there? Or like if you're, if you hit a port in like the UK?"

"Nope, we order food based off of where in the world we're gonna be, right. So if we pull into a base in Spain, then I'm gonna be ordering food out of the Spain catalog, which is not always the same. So that comes up with different challenges, right. I have to tweak my menu, so that it can support the food that I'm able to get in whatever port we go to."

"This crew loves Carolina Gold barbecue sauce. We can't get that back home, so before we, you know leave an overseas port, we'll load up on Carolina Gold barbecue sauce, 'cause we'll make the crew happy. So we have to think ahead and, you know base our menu based on what we can get from the catalogs we're ordering from."

"How many ports do you have to hit, before you kind of like understand what the crew's like?"

"It generally takes a few ports. I've been on board for a couple of years now. So it's, you know I have a good feeling of what the crew likes and doesn't like, so it was a little bit easier to do. So next time we pull up to a foreign port, I would be looking at that catalog months in advance, and making sure we get from there, what we can't get from home."

[Destin] "So, do they let you guys know, when they don't like the food?"

"Oh yes, oh yes. Real quick."

"This is dry storage."

[Destin] "Dry storage. What? Can I walk in?"

"Yeah, yes."

"What was your name, sir?"

"Hi, I'm Tyler Sokane."

[Destin] "I'm Destin, pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you."

[Destin] "I've noticed you've got chocolate here. Am I seeing that right?"

[Tyler] "Cocoa powder."

[Destin] "How do you distribute the candy?"

"Me personally, I'll walk out and just kinda hand it out. 'Cause I put it out, people just swarm on it."

"What are those big, I don't know what you call 'em. Is that like molasses or something back there?"

"Oh, those are things of syrup, for breakfast. The crew loves syrup."

[Destin] "Do they? (chuckles)"

"If their waffles aren't swimming in it, they aren't happy."

[Destin] "Really."

"So we make sure we have plenty of syrup. Beef bases, chicken base, stuff that we use all the time. We got powdered sugar. We got cake mixes, the yeast to make the bread."

[Destin] "Can you show me the yeast?"

"Yeah. We have, I wanna say about 65 yeasts on this shelf alone. That's 40 pounds of sugar."

[Destin] "That's just a block of it."

"There's four individual bags in this one. And then you have like the fry oils, tea."

"You guys have been underway for quite a while now, so that's why it's so low at the moment?"

"That, and we load out for how many days of food that we need for the underway. We like to have a couple extra days, just to make sure, in case we extended or anything, but I've had this storeroom up to the overhead, and all the way to the door, full of food."

[Destin] "Really?"

"Yes. And it's awful, 'cause when you have to get back all around the backside of the storeroom, you have to crawl all over everything, or pull everything out to get back there to get it."

[Destin] "So it'll take you hours back here."

"Hours."

[Destin] "Thank you very much, man."

"No problem, sir."

"That's awesome."

"Generally on submarines, almost everything we do is gonna be from scratch. So you know, pizza from scratch. When we do burger day, we do the burgers from scratch, we do the bun from scratch, we do the cooking from scratch. Everything is from scratch."

[Destin] "You do the buns from scratch?"

"That's right, so we love makin' bread. Yeah, the grilled chicken sandwiches you had earlier, you know those were from scratch too. So we try to do as much scratch as we can."

"It was really good too. I was expecting when you said pizza night, I was expecting frozen pizzas."

[Tyler] "Oh no, no, so-"

"Why, why are they not frozen pizzas? Why are you guys making it from scratch?"

"Quality's a whole lot better. Quality's a whole lot better. That is so much space too. Honestly, it's a lot easier to stow flour, yeast."

[Destin] "What happens if you burn a pizza one night? (chuckles) Does it happen?"

"Not generally with pizza, but there's been a few times where we've overcooked it. Does it happen? (chuckles)"

"It happens sometimes. (laughing)"

"There's a lot of pizzas we gotta make, and it's hard to manage all of them at once."

[Destin] "Well, can we get throw some pizzas in?"

"Oh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely."

[Destin] "I'll follow you."

"We're in the galley. So, we're given everything we need to be able to prepare meals for the crew. We have 180 people on board, or I'm sorry, 140 people on board. We can have to up about 180. We have an oven right here, oven right here. We have a grill top, you know, we use this for every breakfast, do eggs, stuff like that. When we have chicken, we'll grill chicken on the grill top right there. We have a deep fat fryer, which is actually really nice to have, 'cause submarines are the only ships in the Navy with deep fat fryers still. So the crew loves it. It's definitely good for morale, especially for pizza night. We can do cheese sticks, poppers, chicken wings, all that kind of stuff that the crew likes to get."

[Destin] "Legit."

"Yeah, yeah."

[Destin] "What's your hands say?"

"The Blade Cafe's the name of the galley on board, the Toledo here."

"Nice."

"Yeah, we got a food mixer right here, so anytime we need to make bread or desserts, frosting and stuff like that, we have this here for it. And then we have two kettles right here, so."

[Destin] "What do they do?"

"Soups, sauces, gravies, you know some of the entrees we'll make inside the kettle, depending on what it is."

[Destin] "So what's going on here?"

"Right here, we have pizza crust going. It's proofing up right now. So, normally we go through about 14 to 16 pizza crusts a night, on pizza night. So we have a lot of pizzas made up, ready to go. We have a few on standby here. That way whenever some of these sheet pans start to clear out and we can make up some more. I think one of the most challenging parts of cooking on the submarine is just the space. 'Cause as you see in here, we have every countertop taken up with ingredients and pizzas."

"Yeah, I'm seeing how much room you don't have to work. I got hot grease behind me. So how many people will normally be in the kitchen here?"

"Just one."

"One."

"Just one."

[Destin] "Just one, so this is crowded."

"Yeah, pizza night usually gets crowded, though."

[Destin] "I see all the stuff you got going on here, but I don't see where you wash the pans or is that what this is?"

"Yes, sir."

[Destin] "So, you wash the dishes and everything all in this one room?"

"Yep."

[Destin] "That's legit."

"Yes, sir."

[Destin] "Is it hard?"

"Yeah, (chuckles) it's not easy. Buffalo chicken pizza, just finished right there. We have a half pepperoni, half meat lovers. So he's got a few made up right here. So we can throw some in here."

[Destin] "Nice."

"This is getting ready to go to chief quarters. Chief quarters normally does like throwing a little pizza night in their quarters. And this is gonna go out on crew's mess."

[Destin] "So chief quarters, are they pretty high maintenance?"

"Ah, no the work, the officers are the ones that are normally the high maintenance."

[Destin] "The officers are?"

"Yes, sir. (laughing)"

"Are we allowed to say that?"

"Ah, well I just did. (laughing)"

"Hot pan!"

[Destin] "This pizza came 3000. (laughing)"

"I'm following you then."

"Hot pan. Hot, hot, hot."

[Destin] "Hot pan, you kinda have priority, don't you?"

"I think so, I mean out of the hot pan. (chuckles)"

[Crew Member] "Ooh, looks good."

"Request enter with pizza."

[Chief] "Enter."

"There we go."

[Destin] "Nice. [Television Presenter] He's comin' to town next week."

[Destin] "So is this a big deal? Is this a good night?"

"Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, they ah, yeah. Definitely a good night whenever we have pizza in here. Usually we have the lights dimmed a little bit and we're playing some Mad or playing some Cribbage. So, it's nice to be able to just relax, enjoy some pizza."

[Destin] "Sweet."

"While gaming out."

[Destin] "Rock and roll."

[Television Speaker] "Everything we did here was-"

[Destin] "You don't look excited about it."

"Just 'cause there's no poppers out here yet. (laughing)"

"Yeah, you can't make everyone happy."

"So you get a, - A lot of times we get the pizza from scratch, and they'll still find something to gripe about."

"That's just the way it goes, huh? They're just revving you a little bit."

"Yep."

"What's the deal with the poppers? What's he talking about?"

"Pizza night, we usually do wings, cheese sticks, and that jalapeno poppers. So he's apparently waitin' for poppers."

"Hey, your pizza's back there."

"Waiting for it."

"Yeah, you want one. (chuckles)"

"I'm gonna get some drinks and stuff. I'll bring the poppers."

"Hey, pizza's back there. Is the Cribbage about to happen? (chuckles) I'll come in a minute."

"So, we just got a call down from chief, let us know that we're gonna be doing 10 to 15 degree angle. So that's where it gets really fun as a cook, because we have crusts out. We have pizzas coming in and out. We got a sheet pan full of pizzas, and now we're about to take some angles too, so."

[Destin] "Meaning the boat's gonna roll?"

"Up and down, - Like this."

"Up and down, so 15 degree angle's a pretty good angle. So if we took it right now, a lot of those pans right there may come off the counter, took it down angles, this hot stew would spill. So it's one of the most challenging parts, about cooking on the submarine, is being able to manage everything you have to do. And then you throw on the angles, on top of that too."

"Sir, sir, they just messing with you in the control room."

"No, no, that'd be pretty messed up. (laughing)"

"We have a cycle menu, so we can maximize our sustainability. So we have four weeks, or 28 days with the submarine, where we have set meals that rotate through. So every month on week one, you're gonna get the same meals. Week two, you're gonna get the same meals. That gets populated by the leading chief cook."

"Oh, my bad. So one of the interesting things about being on a sub is there's no day and night, there's no windows, right? So this meal that happens every eight hours, on this 28-day cyclical calendar, is important to mark the passage of time. Even me, I was only on the sub for 24 hours. And when I got off, because I was so mixed up because of all my time zones, I marked the passage of time by when pizza was. Seriously, I was like, 'Oh, that happened two days after pizza.' or, 'Oh, that happened the day before pizza.' It was a weirdest thing. It was like I was indexing my whole life around pizza, which I mean maybe I just really like pizza. I think having regularly scheduled high quality, satisfying meals is a critical psychological component. We had ice cream on waffles one day, and that was amazing. They do that every Saturday or every Sunday. I forget what day it was. It was ice cream and waffles day, that's all I know. If you have good food, it makes you happy. And that's critical for success, when it comes to being underwater for long periods of time."

"So now what are you doing?"

"I'm gonna get some mozzarella sticks and the poppers ready for 'em. Gotta keep the chiefs happy, man. (laughing) Chiefs aren't happy, no one else is happy. Mozzarella sticks, you overcook them, the cheese comes out of 'em, and then they're just not very good at all. So you gotta, you really gotta watch the mozzarella sticks."

[Destin] "So I noticed you didn't start a timer."

"Ah, no."

[Destin] "You just know?"

"Ah yeah, once you're here for a long time, you just sorta kinda know how long you gotta put things in."

[Destin] "Literal silverware. Ha, you steal a popper."

"Request to enter to-"

[Chief] "Hot food. Poppers and Mozza sticks."

"Oh, yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about. Sweet."

"There, you need anything else? CSE has the cups."

"I think we're all set."

"Whenever he shows up."

"Thank you, appreciate it."

"Yeah, thank you."

"You're welcome."

[Destin] "All right, man what's up? You happy now?"

"I'm happy. (laughing)"

[Destin] "There's a little bit of a smirk now."

"Yeah, you gotta have fried food, and we're good to go. (laughing)"

[Destin] "Rock and roll. Okay, now that the crew chiefs are fed, we're gonna go to the pizza party in the back, in the crew mess, which is amazing. But we have an order of business before we do that. I told you in a previous episode, here on the 'Deep Dive,' that there is required listening for the 'Smarter Everyday' Deep Dive series. And that is 'Thunder Below' by Eugene Fluckey. Now, Audible sponsors 'Smarter Every Day' and you can get this audiobook for free, by going to audible.com/smarter or texting the word 'smarter' to 500-500. But here's the deal. I pulled the data and I have a list of names of people that did not download 'Thunder Below' for free. It was free, why didn't you do it? Okay, so Jacob, you need to do this. Emily, we talked about this. We had a conversation about you getting 'Thunder Below' by Eugene B. Fluckey. Michael, Joshua, Josh, you're on a submarine. Why didn't you do this? Anyway, I'm joking. Samantha and Jessica, I just wanna throw your names out there. But here's the deal. I just wanted to tell you this because I did this gag one time before on 'Smarter Every Day.' And I told people they had to get 'Skunkworks.' And I actually met a guy named Andrew, at an electronics store. And Andrew apologized to me for not getting 'Skunkworks.' I was like, 'Dude, it was a joke.' He was like, 'I know, but I was watching it. And my mom was there and you said, I didn't read it. And she looked at me and I just laughed so dang hard.' So in all seriousness, the point of this little gag, there's no data. I just made all these names up. The point of this is to demonstrate that this is a real person recommendation to a real person, to you. Like, I genuinely think you are going to enjoy 'Thunder Below' by Admiral Eugene B. Fluckey. If you just watched the video about making pizza on a submarine, you will be fascinated to find out what they did with the cakes after engagements in a submarine in World War II. It's amazing. So please consider going to do that. If you go to audible.com/smarter or text the word, 'smarter' to 500-500, a little link will pop up on your phone. You just click it. Big change, what an audible subscription looks like. You now not only get a book every single month, you also get access to a huge Plus catalog, which has all kinds of stuff, that'll just feed your mind, and just make you genuinely a smarter person. So I love audible, you will too. audible.com/smarter. And Andrew, you are absolved of not listening to 'Skunkworks,' because I trust that you are going to get 'Thunder Below.' Anyway, just a little fun there. Let's go back to the Toledo and go to a pizza party."

"Yeah, Saturday night's the movie night. Everyone watches movies while we eat. It's a day to relax a little bit."

[Destin] "So this is movie night. So this is where all the enlisted guys eat?"

"Yes."

[Destin] "Yeah, and so how often do you do this?"

"Once a week."

[Destin] "Once a week, on Saturdays?"

"Every Saturday, movie night."

[Destin] "So it's like a morale boost. Everybody gets together?"

[Crew Member] "Yes, for sure."

"That's awesome, man. So they're watching 'Down Periscope,' which is a comedy about submariners apparently. So are they exaggerating on the movie here?"

"Yeah, you don't take an angle that big."

[Destin] "Yeah. (chuckles)"

"And the way everybody fell. (chuckles)."

[Destin] "Just stow away."

"Usually when we take a roll, you'll start to feel it, and everybody's body naturally adjusts. In this one, they made it sound like they went from here straight to like a 30 or 45. It doesn't happen like that. (chuckles)"

[Destin] "Sweet, rock and roll. Thank you very much."

"Yes, sir. All right, that's how to cook food on a submarine. Well, specifically on pizza night, poppers and mozzarella sticks. I'm Destin, getting 'Smarter Every Day.' Have a good one, bye." (country fiddle music)