Former Cook On Subs Keeps Kitchen Afloat At Good Samaritan

For a good chunk of 21 years, Mike Jost prepared meals in a tiny kitchen hundreds of feet under water.

He was cook and baker on seven submarines during his stint with the U.S. Navy. Working in a kitchen the size of a large closet, Jost would single-handedly prepare and serve 175 men meals of roast beef and potatoes, prime rib, fried shrimp and a sea of other foods.

He would work 10 to 15 hours a day, for 120 days - 90 days underwater on patrol, the rest of the time getting ready for or cleaning up from the mission.

Being underwater for long patrols never bothered Jost. “You don’t dwell on it. You get used to it,” he said.

Jost, 43, left the Navy in 1995. He’s working in the Valley now, in a roomy kitchen, a landlubber’s luxury.

At the Good Samaritan Center Rehabilitation & Health Services on Mission Avenue, Jost is captain of the kitchen, he’s also known as the food service director.

The center is a nursing home and Jost’s job includes overseeing the cooks, ordering food, and creating meals for residents with special diets.

Some mornings Jost rolls up his sleeves and scrubs plates and silverware - the dishwasher having malfunctioned.

When the nursing home is at full capacity - 130 residents - Jost will have 20 to 25 people working under him.

It has been a 23-year career in cooking for a guy who never touched food before entering the Navy unless he was going to eat it.

Though he’s swimming in room at Good Samaritan, to Jost “a kitchen is just a kitchen.”

But listen to him compare the sub to the center and you can’t but marvel at the differences.

Before submerging for a patrol, a submarine takes on more than 100,000 pounds of food for its crew. Freezers are packed as tight as possible - open the door and there would be a wall of food, Jost said.

He was on seven different subs during his Navy tour. There was the diesel-engine sub that had bunks so small a crewman couldn’t turn over in bed. There was the fast attack sub, a hunter of other subs. And there was the Trident, the luxury liner of the sub world - a giant craft carrying nuclear missiles.

“I think it seemed like more of a challenge, more unique than being a regular sailor,” Jost said of his decision to go underwater.

Now he has windows, sunlight and wears a dress shirt and tie to work. The deck no longer moves under Jost’s feet, but he still has his crew make food the Navy way - from scratch.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo