Louis Chabot, 30 years old, trained as an Army cook and then used his veteran's benefits to go to culinary school.

"Army cooks get a tremendous amount of abuse, no matter what the brass tells you," he said.

Army cooks demonstrated their ingenuity by making bakers ovens out of 44-gallon drums and designing Bain Maries to keep food hot.

Downstairs in a kind of cave is the kitchen, where an Army cook is baking square apple pies by the quarter-acre.

Sure beats the stuff the Army cooks bring on," Weiskopf said.

One is that of Thomas, 41, a former Army cook who looks like an accountant in his oval wire-rimmed glasses and shirt and tie.

The guy in charge had been a British Army cook then worked in one of the universities.

He was looking around for a spoon to taste a sample when a voice behind him said, "Ah, would you be the Army cook?"

Dr. Riggs, who was also an Army cook at Fort Knox, Ky., said his cooking style had improved considerably since then.

The title story describes a former Army cook who tied 42 helium balloons to a lawn chair and was lifted three miles into the air above California.