Cooking and eating are one of the most basic of human activities. The quest for tastier ways to prepare and enjoy food has led to a grand tradition of cooks in all walks of life from every culture on the planet.

Not everyone who goes to cooking school is looking to be a master chef at a high end restaurant, some are trying to expand their skills to help their comrades-in-arms.

CulinAerie, a cooking school in Washington, DC offered a two-week boot camp for Army cooks from a unit based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The military cooks were getting extra training before being deployed to Afghanistan last month for six- to 12-month tours of duty where they would be making meals for 600 to 800 soldiers at a time, according to Gourmet magazine.

Careers in cooking and food preparation are plentiful. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, chefs, cooks, and food preparation workers held 3.1 million jobs in 2006. That number is expected to increase by 11%, to 3.5 million, by 2016.