Skip to main content (Press Enter).
 News
    
        Photos

    Week in Photos

    Air Force TV

    Commentaries

    Features

    Art

    About Us
    
        Air Force Senior Leaders
    
        SECAF

    CSAF

    CMSAF

    Biographies

    Fact Sheets

    SECAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library
    
        CSAF Leadership Library 2022

    CSAF Leadership Library 2021

    CSAF Reading List Pre-2020 Archive
    
        2018 CSAF Reading List

    2017 CSAF Reading List

    2016 CSAF Reading List

    CSAF Leadership Library 2023

    CMSAF Leadership Library

    50 Years of the CMSAF

    Adjunct Professors

    Air Force Strategic Documents

    Arctic Strategy

    Empowered Airmen

    State Licensure Portability

    Careers

    AF Federal Advisory Committees

    AF 75th Anniversary

    Policy Updates

    AF Content Management

    Contact Us

    AF Sites
    
        Site RegistrationU.S. Air Force LogoAir Force

        Policy UpdatesNewsroomReoptimizationBIOGRAPHIESAF Senior Leaders      Airman 1st Class Alexandra Ayub, 90th Force Support Squadron missile chef, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., exits the elevator leading to the underground launch control center at a missile alert facility in the 90th Missile Wing Missile Complex May 17, 2016. Missile chefs are the chiefs of morale at each MAF, and a large part of their efforts to that end are fueled by providing Airmen on site nutritious, tasty meals. (U.S. Air Force photo by Lan Kim)Missile chef named one of Air Force’s best
                        
                        
                        Airman 1st Class Alexandra Ayub, a 90th Force Support Squadron missile chef, exits the elevator leading to the underground launch control center at a missile alert facility in the 90th Missile Wing Missile Complex at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., May 17, 2016. (U.S. Air Force photo/Lan Kim)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res
        


        Airman 1st Class Alexandra Ayub, 90th Force Support Squadron missile chef, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., takes account of the inventory in her kitchen in the 90th Missile Wing Missile Complex May 14, 2016. Ayub recently won the Arthur J. Myers Food Service Excellence Award, an Air Force-level award for contributing significantly to the food services career field. (U.S. Air Force photo by Lan Kim)Missile chef named one of Air Force’s best
                        
                        
                        Airman 1st Class Alexandra Ayub, a 90th Force Support Squadron missile chef, takes account of the inventory in her kitchen in the 90th Missile Wing Missile Complex at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., May 14, 2016. Ayub recently won the Arthur J. Myers Food Service Excellence Award, an Air Force-level award for contributing significantly to the food services career field. (U.S. Air Force photo/Lan Kim)
                
                Photo Details /
                        Download Hi-Res

Airman selected to attend culinary forum for top US military chefsPublished July 21, 2016
                    
                    By Senior Airman Jason Wiese
                    
                    
                    90th Missile Wing Public Affairs
            **F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. (AFNS) --**Airman 1st Class Alexandra Ayub, a 90th Force Support Squadron missile chef, won the Arthur J. Myers Food Service Excellence Award for the Western Hemisphere earlier this year.As a result, she’s now been selected to represent the Air Force at the Armed Forces Forum for Culinary Excellence at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, California, from July 30 to Aug. 6.Ayub, who’s also a 90th Missile Wing ceremonial guardsman, earned the award after she received dozens of positive comment cards lauding her efforts as a chef in the wing’s missile complex, including her performance as a chef, attitude, personality and professionalism.The Air Force-level award is given to two junior enlisted Airmen who’ve made a significant and positive contribution to the food services career field.One missileer who frequents the missile alert facility (MAF) where she usually works said her quality as an Airman and a chef goes beyond simply cooking food well.“She’s very enthusiastic and very flexible to us as a capsule crew, and I’m sure it’s the same for the people upstairs,” said 1st Lt. David Barnhart, a 320th Missile Squadron missile combat crew commander, who spends most of his time underground in a launch control center while deployed to the missile complex.Ayub prepared food outside of normal mealtime hours to ensure Airmen in the complex were able to do their duty, showing her dedication to her role as chief of morale, he said.“When there’s an emergency out in the field, and we need an emergency crew to come out, they haven’t eaten,” Ayub said. “It could be 10 o’clock at night and our facility manager can knock on our door and say, ‘There’s a crew coming in. Can they put in an order?’ and I’m more than happy to get up and cook for them because it’s actually them out there doing the work and maintaining our missile field.”Ayub said she hopes to build up her teammates and make their deployments to the field like a home away from home.“I put a lot of personality into my work,” she said. “I do care what goes into my team’s body. If they don’t eat well, or I don’t cook it well, or they don’t enjoy it, it brings down the morale of the MAF.”She attributes her skills and drive partially to her upbringing and marriage.“I progressively started learning to cook, and I want that childhood feeling to be felt by other people when they eat my food, so I provide three nutritious, healthy meals a day,” she said.Ayub married her technical school sweetheart, Airman 1st Class Ozzie Galvan, a 90th Force Support Squadron fitness specialist who’s currently deployed overseas, and the couple began a long-running cooking competition, she said.Galvan won a culinary excellence award in technical school, beating out Ayub. Now, she said, she has her Air Force-level award to hold over him until he can swing the pendulum back his way.The upcoming armed forces culinary forum brings together chefs from across the Defense Department for higher-level training and culinary education.“I can’t wait to do it. I’m hungry for more -- pun intended,” she said. “I’ll get with all these other service members from different military branches, and we get to learn things from one another. Not only that, we get to learn from master chefs from all over the world.”When she returns from the forum, Ayub will spread the knowledge she receives to other chefs in her squadron and make her whole unit better, she said.“It is a once in a lifetime experience. To taste and see how the other branches are. It’s going to be very uplifting for my spirits, and I’ll be able to bring it back to show what I’ve learned,” she said. “This is an experience for all of us chefs. If I can run that down the line with other chefs, our morale will go through the roof and we’ll have a happy and safer field.”This experience is not the end for Ayub’s professional development, she said. While this is the highlight of her burgeoning career thus far, she will continue to better herself.“I know I can be the best, so I know I need to get better,” she said. “I’m going to fly high.”food 



F.E. Warren AFB 



chef 



award 



AFGSC 



FSS Featured News
        Senior Leader Priorities
                Kendall, Allvin, Saltzman urge modernization while warning Senate of delayed budgets
                    
                    Readout of Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s travel to the Philippines
                    
                    Air Force senior leaders visit Eielson AFB
                    
                    Air Force leaders focus on ACE during Kadena AB visit
                    
                    USAF senior leaders visit Mariana Islands on ACE tripInnovation
                F-16s arrive to be modified for autonomous testing
                    
                    AFWERX director discusses role of tech startups, quick innovation in Great Power Competition
                    
                    DAF delivers lethality at the speed of data during Project Convergence Capstone 4
                    
                    DAF welcomes industry partners to HQ development program
                    
                    DAF announces Spark Tank 2024 finalistsMAJCOM News
                Cope Tiger concludes in Thailand
                    
                    Safety enterprise announces new mission, vision, goals in 2024 strategic plan
                    
                    Air Combat Command welcomes new commander
                    
                    USAFE-AFAFRICA commander discusses Integrated Air, Missile Defense during Munich Security Conference
                    
                    Flosi to AFMC family: Embrace change, make every day count
 Quick Links
AccessibilityContact UsEqual OpportunityFOIA | Privacy | Section 508Information QualityInspector GeneralJAG Court-Martial DocketLink DisclaimerNo FEAR ActOpen GovernmentOSI Tip LinePlain LanguageQuestionsResilienceRSSSite MapVeterans Crisis LineCareers
Join the Air ForceAir Force BenefitsAir Force CareersAir Force ReserveAir National GuardCivilian ServiceConnect
            Get Social with Us
            
            Official United States Air Force Website
    Hosted by Defense Media Activity - WEB.mil