Chad Shaner is chef and partner at Freek's Mill, a popular restaurant in New York's Gowanus neighborhood. Before Freek's Mill, he did stints at Gotham Bar and Grill and Union Square Cafe after attending the Culinary Institute of America. And ahead of him is Claro, a new Oaxacan-styled restaurant in Gowanus where he will be a partner, opening in July. Before the culinary acclaim, Shaner's introduction to cooking was, in a word, intense: He learned while serving aboard the USS La Salle during a four-year stint in the U.S. Navy, which he began after graduating high school. While stationed in Gaeta, Italy, Shaner rose to Mess Specialist, 3rd class, and was the captain's personal chef. He didn't hone his skills aboard the warship—the military isn't exactly known for culinary excellence—but he did pick up a few habits, which he shared with Esquire.

Shaner went from ship painter to salad bar specialist.

When I first got in the Navy, I was undesignated—I painted the ship. Everybody on the ship has to serve so many people; there were 800 people on ours. Everybody that is D3 or below, they have to do this thing called "cranking." They called it "cranking" because it was miserable, and you had to go work in the kitchen. I worked there for four months, and I fell in love with it, everything about it; I decided to be a cook.

It wasn't miserable. It was the salad bar, but it was fun for me, because I wasn't painting the ship; I was working with the people in the kitchen. They inspired me.

The kitchen wasn't 'miserable,' but it wasn't easy, either.

Cooking in a kitchen that is constantly moving left and right the whole time is challenging. We worked way more hours than everybody else, because we had to be there for three meals. Also, being on a ship, we would have drills that we were going into battle and you would have to drop everything.

I did that for six months, and then I was recommended to just cook for the captain of the ship. The previous captain's cook recommended somebody, and he recommended me. I got really lucky.

They called it "cranking" because it was miserable, and you had to go work in the kitchen. I fell in love with it.

Cooking for the captain gave him access to the fleet's best chefs.

The admiral of the whole fleet was on our ship. He's a three-star admiral—a really big deal. I cooked out of the admiral's mess for the captain, so I worked with the cooks who worked for the admiral. Some of them went to culinary school, some of them came from the White House. I learned a lot from them, and that's what really inspired me to do it professionally.

Cooking for the captain, I had privileges. He was an incredible person—we still talk to this day. I had a nice schedule, because whenever he was off, I was off. And I found out things other people wouldn't find out. During 9/11, we were out for two months, and everybody was coming to me and asking me when we were pulling in, because I worked for the captain, and he would tell me before he told the staff.

He got to eat filet and lobster.

I remember my mom—during 9/11 when all that was going on—there were mothers getting together [talking about] the harsh conditions that everybody was in; I didn't really have that. I was serving lobster and steak for the admiral and the captain's officers during that time. We had filet, tenderloin, and lobster, and crab night, we did a Filipino night, because the officers were paid a lot better than the rest of the staff. So I had it really good; I got to cook better food, and I actually got to eat that food as well.

Shaner at Freek's Mill.

Right after 9/11, the La Salle headed out to sea.

During 9/11, I was watching it on TV. We were in port; everybody had to report to the ship immediately. You had like two hours to get your stuff together, and we were going out for we didn't know how long. We ended up going out for a month, and Marines and Seals came onto our ship. If there was a ship that was noncompliant—like you could tell it wasn't doing what it was supposed to be doing—the Seals would go up to the ship and find out. We were looking for terrorists.

It was tough. You had to do what you had to do, and everybody had their duty. We were just serving the country. If I had to cook for everybody, I had to cook for everybody. It was an intense time, and when you're out to sea, you're working 15 hours every day, seven days a week, and you don't know when they're anchoring. The USS Cole was bombed at that time as well, so we were on high alert all the time. People were manning machine guns.

The amount of work you have to do when you're out at sea and in those conditions is just grueling. And never getting a day off for three months or really getting to see outside, because you're in the kitchen. I didn't even want to see that much, but I just wanted to go outside, be in the air.

We were just serving the country. If I had to cook for everybody, I had to cook for everybody.

Shaner left the Navy in 2003.

There was a lady that was in charge of the admiral's staff—she was an officer, and she went to the CIA—and she put me under her wing and really got me pumped up to go to culinary school. I wasn't really into the military that much; I really wanted to connect with professional cooking.

The military affects how he runs his kitchen today.

The whole military in general kind of made me what I am today. Every morning we have a get together with our section; everything's very regimented, everybody's over top of you. It's structured me as an adult and also as a chef, how organized we are, and just your daily routine—you do the same thing every single day, over and over again, building it.

Presentation of people and how organized we are is really important to me. I think that all comes from the military. I think I had a leg up on people when I got out of the military, because I care about presentation, respecting my chefs—I was below them, and all that really helped me with taking orders.

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