Senior Airman Ryan Scott serves a meal inside the Samurai Cafe Dining Facility at Yokota Air Base, Japan, March 14, 2024. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — The dining facility at this airlift hub in western Tokyo is the first to take the Air Force’s highest award for food service excellence four years in a row.
The Samurai Cafe won the John L. Hennessy Trophy, edging out three other top nominees in Region 2 (West). The trophy goes to the “best of the best” Air Force food service facilities, according to the Hennessy Award website.
“I personally believe that we win every year because we have a really tight knit team and we understand what is required of all of us,” Staff Sgt. Carlos Losferran, a Samurai shift leader, told Stars and Stripes during a recent visit to the dining hall.
For 68 years, the annual awards have gone to the best food service programs in the Air Force based on their management, food quality and other attributes, the service said in a March 4 news release.
Senior Airman Ryan Scott prepares vegetable soup inside the Samurai Cafe Dining Facility at Yokota Air Base, Japn, March 14, 2024. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
“There’s a total of five graded categories: Kitchen operations, training, personnel and readiness, sanitation and repair and maintenance and management,” said Master Sgt. Danelle Hilliard, sustainment services superintendent for the 374th Force Support Squadron.
Four judges inspected the Samurai on Feb. 13 and 14.
“If you’re asked a question, you don’t necessarily have to know the answer, but it’s very important to follow up on that question because the judges will take that into account,” Losferran said.
The judges are thorough, said Brian Lawton, the Samurai Café food service officer.
“They look at everything,” he said.
The Samurai Cafe Dining Facility at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo has won the John L. Hennessy Trophy four years running. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Senior Airman Zekerius Winding has been eating at the Samurai since September 2021.
“Service is always pretty quick; I don’t remember ever having to wait too long,” he said at the cafe on March 14. “Almost everything they have is pretty good. My favorites are the chili mac and the chicken wraps.”
Other winners include the 22nd Force Support Squadron at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, for Region 1 (East); the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., for Best Missile Feeding Operation; and the 701st Munitions Support Squadron at Kleine Brogel Air Base, Belgium, for the Food Service Small Site Award.
