{"id":491576,"date":"2026-06-22T03:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T09:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/?p=491576"},"modified":"2026-06-23T08:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T14:34:46","slug":"fort-carson-soldiers-get-new-dining-options-thanks-to-celebrity-chef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradosun.com\/2026\/06\/22\/fort-carson-soldiers-get-new-dining-options-thanks-to-celebrity-chef\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Carson soldiers get new dining options thanks to celebrity chef"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FORT CARSON \u2014 <\/strong>Celebrity chef Robert Irvine eats eight meals per day, one every two and a half hours until he goes to sleep. He portions out a piece of protein the size of a deck of cards and pairs it with a carbohydrate the size of a computer mouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the way the body is designed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irvine has a regimented attention and has built brands out of being hardcore. He founded a line of protein bars and powders called FitCrunch and runs the only full-service restaurant inside the Pentagon. He has written five books that blend his background as a merchant marine and chef for the Royal Navy with healthy recipes and fitness advice. He became a TV personality on the Food Network\u2019s \u201cDinner: Impossible\u201d and \u201cRestaurant: Impossible,\u201d where he helped failing restaurant owners turn their fates around with recipe advice, hospitality training and the occasional humiliation in front of staff or patrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which makes him a great fit for his latest client: the U.S. Army, which tapped him a couple of years ago to help remake their dining options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Irvine repeatedly emphasizes that he is not being paid for his work with the Army. “They pay me a dollar a year to make sure that what you see here happens every day,” Irvine said during a visit to Fort Carson. Among his many business and philanthropic ventures, Irvine has made supporting the American troops a major part of his brand. (Parker Yamasaki, The Colorado Sun)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat tends to happen is we start off with a big bang and then it all implodes when nobody is watching,\u201d said Irvine, who emphasized that he makes no money from this gig. \u201cWell guess what? I\u2019m watching. I\u2019m the guy with the baseball bat with nails in it that\u2019s going to hit you if you don\u2019t do your job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, Irvine visited Stack House Bistro at Fort Carson, the second of five military mess overhauls modeled after university dining halls. Fort Hood in Texas opened Bistro 42 in February. Stack House at Fort Carson opened in April, and new dining halls at Fort Drum in New York, Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Stewart in Georgia are slated for later this year. Irvine\u2019s goal is to open a campus-style dining hall at all 176 Army dining facilities, and stock each with an executive chef and on-site dietician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his tour at the Fort Carson facility, Irvine visited each food station, pointing at items, lobbing questions at packs of chefs and gesturing around the room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan Lerro, Stack House Bistro\u2019s retail manager, presented Irvine with a Pink Cadillac smoothie, a blend of dragon fruit, pineapple, orange juice, acai and vanilla protein powder. Lerro rattled off the ingredients while she walked the bright pink smoothie toward him. \u201cWith 25-35 grams of protein,\u201d she added proudly, ending the spiel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irvine took one sip, grinned, and sent it back for another scoop of protein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Celebrity chef Robert Irvine talks with the chefs of Compass, a hospitality company contracted by the U.S. Army to open five new dining facilities, on June 18, 2026. Irvine has working as an unpaid consultant to the U.S. Army in an effort to overhaul food options for troops. (Parker Yamasaki, The Colorado Sun)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more of a sweeter, fruity, fun shake,\u201d Lerro told The Colorado Sun. \u201cRFK Jr. really liked that shake, that was his favorite.\u201d (Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Stack House Bistro on June 11<\/a> to assess the Army\u2019s new food strategy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lerro brought a new shake out, The Perfect 10, a blend of blueberries, bananas, peanut butter and protein powder. She used low-fat milk and added extra scoops of protein, bumping the total up to 55-60 grams, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toast, lima beans and milk<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, the Army acknowledged for the first time in decades<\/a> a severe lack of healthy and appealing food options for soldiers living on bases \u2014 the key word there being \u201cappealing.\u201d While official dining facilities adhered to strict nutritional standards, the food was often so bland that soldiers preferred to spend their money at the nearest pizza joint. Another issue was the operating hours of dining facilities, which often pushed soldiers to buy lunch from grab-and-go kiosks on the weekends and during odd breaks in the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the same time, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported<\/a> that the Department of Defense had not established a formal process for making food decisions, and wasn\u2019t adequately tracking its food-related costs, making any kind of reform nearly impossible to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Colt Varney, a regional chef for Compass who helped open new dining halls at Fort Hood and Fort Carson, tidies the salad bar before celebrity chef Robert Irvine’s visit on June 18, 2026. (Parker Yamasaki, The Colorado Sun)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By that time, troops at Fort Carson had reportedly been dealing with months of insufficient meals<\/a> and limited hours, according to Military.com. Troops were encouraged to document the shortages and the kiosks stocked with sugary snacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A June report by the Yelp-style site Hots & Cots, where troops can review barracks and dining facilities, noted that Fort Carson averaged about 3.56 stars out of 5, and was the most widely reviewed base out of the 123 installations covered by the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The troops at Fort Carson reported \u201crunning out of food by 5:30 p.m., undercooked and small portions, \u2018leather-like pork chop and rubbery pasta,\u2019 and overcrowding from rotating closures,\u201d the report states<\/a>. In one photo, a cafeteria tray holding a piece of toast, a pile of lima beans and a glass of milk made the rounds<\/a> as an example of the state of food at Fort Carson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsurprisingly, Fort Carson also had one of the lowest rates of soldiers using their meal plans, which are automatically deducted from their paychecks. Soldiers at Fort Carson were, on average, spending only about 23% of the $22.1 million collected for food plans, or almost $4,000 per soldier deducted each year for food that was never redeemed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quinoa cake and fat-free cream cheese frosting<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One idea that came out of the rash of reports and media attention was converting dining facilities from one-size-fits-all cafeterias into campus-style dining halls, with different counters offering a variety of foods, including full meals, smoothies and snacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the Army called in Irvine. Or, maybe, Irvine called them. According to The New York Times, Irvine heard the Army was interested in remaking their food systems and \u201casked to play a major role<\/a>.\u201d His background in the Royal Navy and ongoing support of the U.S. military \u2014 including a public charity he founded in 2004 \u2014 along with a dash of star power positioned him well for the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Stack House has various counters serving pizza, tacos, burgers and a rotating selection of \u201cglobal cuisines\u201d surrounding a large salad bar. Soldiers can order up to $39 worth of food each day using their meal cards. Family members, veterans and visiting civilians can also dine at the new hall, paying for items a la carte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Digital menus at each food station rate items according to a stoplight colored system: green means eat often, yellow means eat occasionally, and red means eat rarely. There are small symbols to signify \u201calerts\u201d like high amounts of sodium or sugar, and the nutritional content is displayed next to every item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The grill station at Fort Carson’s new dining hall, The Stack Bistro, serves made-to-order burgers and fries, as part of a larger initiative to provide troops with more access to better food. (Parker Yamasaki, The Colorado Sun)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Irvine wrapped up his tour of the food stations and made his way into the bright dining room, hungry, young troops flushed into the hall and formed lines at the counters. Right now, the bistro is serving around 3,000 meals per day, according to Jason Hays, vice president of operations for Compass, the hospitality company contracted to open the first five dining halls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The troops piled their trays with falafel wraps and warm jerk chicken bowls and red velvet cupcakes made with quinoa and fat-free cream cheese. They made their way swiftly through checkout lines and spilled into the dining room, where they sat in clusters at long tables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe give them the best boats, the best ships, the best submarines, the best uniforms, the best rifles,\u201d Irvine said. \u201cHow about the best nutrition?\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since opening in April, Stack House Bistro has collected five reviews from troops on Hots & Cots<\/a>, all of them 4 or 5 stars. \u201cWhat was once the worst (dining facility) on Fort Carson may now be the best one I’ve been to since joining the Army,\u201d one reviewer wrote. \u201cLet’s hope it stays good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Irvine is on a mission to overhaul how the U.S. Army feeds the troops. Fort Carson was one of his first stops.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":491567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-feature.php","format":"standard","meta":{"credibility_indicators":{"original_reporting":true,"on_the_ground":true,"sources_cited":false,"subject_specialist":false},"gigafact_has_fact_brief":false,"gigafact_remote_fact_brief_post_id":0,"gigafact_remote_sync_timestamp":"","gigafact_remote_sync_status":"","gigafact_remote_sync_response":"","gigafact_has_been_published":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-06-22T09:55:30Z","apple_news_api_id":"5ace350c-b401-44e5-8713-1feebf755218","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-06-22T09:55:30Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AWs41DLQBROWHEx_uv3VSGA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Robert Irvine is on a mission to overhaul how the U.S. Army feeds the troops. Fort Carson was one of his first stops.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[385,381,30],"tags":[1564,625,1786,3304,1391],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"type-of-work":[20869],"coauthors":[20062],"class_list":["post-491576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-colorado-food-restaurants-dining","category-news","tag-editors-picks","tag-el-paso-county","tag-food","tag-fort-carson","tag-military","type-of-work-news","entry"],"credibility_indicators":[{"description":"This article contains firsthand information gathered by reporters. This includes directly interviewing sources and analyzing primary source documents.","label":"Original Reporting","slug":"original_reporting","icon":"<\/svg>"},{"description":"A journalist was physically present to report the article from some or all of the locations it concerns.","label":"On the Ground","slug":"on_the_ground","icon":"<\/svg>"},{"description":"This article includes a list of source material, including documents and people, so you can follow the story further.","label":"References","slug":"sources_cited","icon":"<\/g><\/svg>\n"},{"description":"The journalist and\/or newsroom have\/has a deep knowledge of the topic, location or community group covered in this article.","label":"Subject Specialist","slug":"subject_specialist","icon":"<\/svg>"}],"fact_brief":null,"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nFort Carson soldiers get new dining options thanks to celebrity chef - The Colorado Sun<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n