Submarine Food & Navy Dining: The Truth About "Hamsters," "Chicken Wheels," and Mid-Rats

By Tony Grayson Tech Executive (ex-SVP Oracle, AWS, Meta) & Former Nuclear Submarine Commander

Tony Grayson, former Commanding Officer of the USS Providence. Some people think I am making this stuff up! :)

There is an old saying in the Navy: "A fed sailor is a happy sailor." On a submarine, that gets taken to the extreme. When you’re underwater for months, have no internet, and haven’t seen the sun in weeks, food stops being just fuel. It becomes your entertainment, your comfort, and your clock.

But feeding about 140 sailors in a steel tube with no grocery store nearby is a logistical nightmare. Here is the reality of culinary life and submarine food storage in the Silent Service (the unofficial nickname for the submarine force).

1. The Submarine Food Kitchen: Culinary Specialists (Not Lunch Ladies)

Let's clear up a misconception: our cooks aren't just opening cans. Our Navy Culinary Specialists (CSs) are some of the hardest-working people on the boat.

The Navy knows that bad food equals a bad mood, and you do not want a moody crew operating a nuclear reactor [Link to your post on Nuclear Leadership]. So, we invest in them.

Submarine CSs go through Navy "A" school, and many are sent to serious civilian training, such as the Culinary Institute of America and high-end restaurants in port cities. I have seen a CS who trained with top chefs in San Diego before baking prime rib, lobster, and scratch desserts in an 8x10 galley.

On paper, their job is simple:

• Feed everyone four times a day.

• In a kitchen the size of a walk-in closet.

• With ingredients that slowly degrade for three months.

• And turn powdered eggs into something people look forward to.

2. The Logistics: Walking on Your Submarine Food Dinner

Before a submarine leaves port, we load roughly 90 to 120 days' worth of food. The reactor can run for years; the thing that eventually forces you home is groceries. Submarine food logistics are the limiting factor for how long we stay at sea.

Since we don't have a real "pantry," we use the floor. We line the decks and passageways of the mess decks with #10 cans (those giant, institutional cans) of flour, vegetables, fruit, and coffee. We lay plywood over them, and that becomes the new deck. When you first leave port, you are literally walking on your dinner.

As the weeks go by and we consume the cans, the floor slowly lowers. We call this "eating your way out."

3. The Two Worlds: Wardroom vs. Mess Decks

While everyone eats the same food, how we eat it is very different.

The Mess Decks (Enlisted): This is the heart of the ship. It's loud, fast, and efficient. The goal is throughput...getting 100+ sailors fed in a tiny window so the next watch section can take over. You sit shoulder to shoulder, shovel it in, and clear the table in about 15 minutes. This same space serves as a classroom, movie theater, and card room.

The Wardroom (Officers): The officers eat in a separate space called the Wardroom. It is one of the few places on the ship that feels "civilized." It's a sit-down meal with real plates and silverware.

• The "Late" Rule: If you arrive late, you must tell a joke to the entire table before sitting.

• The Bull: The most junior officer is in charge of entertainment. If the playlist sucks, The Bull hears about it.

4. Post-Meal Ritual: Cribbage

Once the plates are cleared, the real work begins: Cribbage (always with coffee). Submariners are obsessed with it. It is the unofficial sport of the submarine force. The rivalry between the Captain and XO (Executive Officer) can get intense. If you want to understand morale on a long patrol, don't look at the movie list...look at the cribbage board.

5. Mid-Rats: Hamsters and Chicken Wheels

Because the boat runs 24/7, we serve four meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and

Midnight Rations (Mid-Rats).

Mid-rats hits around 23:00 for the oncoming watch team. It is rarely an Instagram-worthy meal. It's high-calorie comfort food designed to be eaten fast while standing in steel-toe boots. Boat slang varies, but the hits include:

• "Hamsters" / "Chicken Twinkies": Chicken Cordon Bleu. (Look at them. Tell me that isn't what a deep-fried hamster would look like.)

• "Chicken Wheels" / "Chicken Pucks": Fried chicken patties.

• "Pillows of Death": Ravioli, especially when it shows up on Mid-Rats.

• "Train Wrecks": Leftovers mixed together (eggs + whatever is in the fridge).

• Sliders: Burgers. A "slider with a lid" is a cheeseburger.

6. The Night Baker: Why the Boat Smells Like Heaven at 0300

One of the unsung heroes of submarine life is the night baker. Due to space limitations, most bread is baked fresh aboard. There's a dedicated baker assigned to work while most of the crew sleeps, turning out sandwich bread, dinner rolls, and pastries. The scent of fresh bread at 3 AM is one of the few things that keeps you sane when you haven't seen daylight in six weeks.

7. The Freshness Fade & The "Auto Dog"

You can tell exactly how long a submarine has been at sea by looking at breakfast.

• Weeks 1–2: Fresh eggs, lettuce, fruit, and real milk. Morale is high.

• Weeks 3–8: Fresh produce runs out. We switch to frozen vegetables and UHT "shelf-stable" milk, dispensed from a machine we call "The Plastic Cow."

• Weeks 9+ (The Powdered Era): Powdered eggs, powdered potatoes. Hot sauce becomes a primary food group.

The Auto Dog. When the fresh food vanishes, the most critical piece of equipment isn't the reactor; it's the soft-serve ice cream machine, nicknamed the "Auto Dog." This isn't just a treat; it is a morale lifeline. On some boats, you aren't allowed to touch it until you are fully qualified and earn your dolphins. If the Auto Dog breaks, the machinists fix it faster than they fix the atmosphere control equipment. The Auto Dog dispenses soft-serve, but what it really dispenses is happiness.

8. Gedunk and Unwritten Rules:

Outside of the four meals, there is a constant low-level economy of "Gedunk"—chips, candy, and sodas from the ship's store.

Gedunk is a shadow currency. Anything that feels like home (Girl Scout cookies, a specific brand of chips, or a hometown candy bar) can trade at 1,000x its cost. A $3 box of cookies from home is suddenly worth a week of favors, a prime watch swap, or the last clean bottle of hot sauce.

Bug Juice There’s always a bright-red or neon-green drink in the dispenser: "bug juice," the Navy’s universal sugar-water that somehow pairs with everything.

The Unwritten Rules:

• If you are a "nub" (non-qualified sailor), you do not get anything.

• If you complain too loudly about the food, you are volunteering to crank (wash dishes) in the galley.

  
  

9. Special Meals: Halfway Night

Submariners are spoiled compared to most of the rest of the military. We have steak and lobster nights, "Southern comfort" days, and Pizza nights. But the real event is Halfway Night—the moment the patrol is officially half over.

• Pie in the Eye: Crew members bid to throw pies at officers.

• Halfway Night Crank: The Captain or XO works in the dish pit washing bowls while the crew cheers.

• The Halfway Box: Families pack special boxes that sailors can't open until this night. It's often the only link to home for months.

10. Cranking: Paying Your Dues

Before you earn your dolphins, you pay your dues—and part of that means Cranking. Most junior sailors are assigned to the mess decks as a "Mess Crank." You aren't cooking; you are serving, cleaning, scrubbing pots, and being the galley's pack mule. It’s not glamorous, but it’s where you learn the crew’s personalities and figure out who to stay on the good side of.

Years later, you won’t remember many PowerPoint slides, but you’ll remember who treated you well when you were a crank.

11. Steel Beach Picnic: When the Captain Says "Surface"

Life on a submarine is monotonous. But when weather and schedule permit, the Captain may call for a Steel Beach Picnic.

We surface the boat, the cooks haul a grill up through the hatch, and we fire up burgers and hot dogs on the missile deck. The crew eats topside in the open air, sometimes for the first time in weeks. If you are lucky, the Captain authorizes a "Swim Call," and you get to use a billion-dollar submarine as a diving board into the middle of the ocean.

Submarine food isn't Michelin-star dining. It's heavy, salty, and comes out of cans. But when you are 400 feet down, a hot "Hamster" at midnight or a bowl of soft-serve ice cream is more than a meal. It's a reminder that someone in that 8x10 galley is killing themselves, so you can have 15 minutes of normal.

Ask any submariner what they miss when they leave the Navy, and somewhere in the list you'll hear: "The food was pretty damn good."

A fed sailor is a happy sailor. On a submarine, that’s not a joke. It’s policy.

Question: What do submariners eat?

Submariners typically eat four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and "Mid-Rats" (midnight rations). The menu changes based on how long the boat has been at sea. For the first few weeks, the crew eats fresh produce, milk, and eggs. As the deployment continues, the menu shifts to frozen vegetables and meats, and finally to canned goods and powdered ingredients (like powdered eggs) after about 90 days.

Question: What is a "Hamster" on a submarine?

In Navy submarine slang, a "Hamster" (sometimes called a "Chicken Twinkie") is Chicken Cordon Bleu. It is a popular item served during Mid-Rats because the deep-fried, oval shape resembles a hamster. It is a high-calorie comfort food favorite among the crew.

Question: How do submarines store food for months?

Submarines store food in every available inch of space. This is often called "walking on your dinner." Before leaving port, crews line the decks of passageways with #10 cans of dry goods (like coffee and flour) and place plywood over them to create a new floor. As the cans are eaten, the floor level physically lowers.

Question: What are Mid-Rats in the Navy?

Mid-Rats, short for Midnight Rations, is a fourth meal served around 23:00 (11:00 PM) or 01:00 on Navy ships and submarines. It is designed to feed the oncoming night watch team and usually consists of fried foods, burgers (known as "sliders"), or leftovers from dinner.

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Tony Grayson is a recognized Top 10 Data Center Influencer, a successful entrepreneur, and the President & General Manager of Northstar Enterprise + Defense.

A former U.S. Navy Submarine Commander and recipient of the prestigious VADM Stockdale Award, Tony is a leading authority on the convergence of nuclear energy, AI infrastructure, and national defense. His career is defined by building at scale: he led global infrastructure strategy as a Senior Vice President for AWS, Meta, and Oracle before founding and selling a top-10 modular data center company.

Today, he leads strategy and execution for critical defense programs and AI infrastructure, building AI factories and cloud regions that survive contact with reality.

Read more at: tonygraysonvet.com