Semper Gratus!

Yeah, I know — why would you want to do that? Well, I guess because it’s on TV!

Tony in Boulder alerted me to the show ‘Dinner Impossible’ on the Food Network, which tonight will air its season finale (tonight at 10:30pm EST) with the chef cooking the Warrior Dinner for 850 hungry, tired Marines.

Military.com has the story, which begins “When Chef Robert Irvine discovered his “mission” was to feed 850 Marines after they’d completed 30 days of desert warfare training at Camp Pendleton, Calif., his reaction was what one might expect.

‘Shock and, gasp, horror,’ Irvine, host of Food Network’s “Dinner Impossible,” and a former chief petty officer cook in the British Royal Navy, said.”

…Finally, the clock ticked off the last seconds of the challenge, and Irvine stepped out of the kitchen to address the Marines, who were still decked out in full “battle rattle.” As he offered his greetings to the battalion and asked if they were hungry, he said he got an overwhelming response.

“Of course all I heard was this tremendous, ‘Ooh Rah!’” he said. “I said, ‘First of all, as a non-American service guy, I want to tell you how proud I am of what you do every day for the country.’” “It’s very hard to put into words, but I was so proud of being there to give them their meal, and it was so personal to me,” he said. “When you’re a serviceman — I don’t care what branch you’re in, what navy, what army, what marine corps, whatever it is — there’s a brotherhood. It just resonates.”

The experience resonated so strongly with Irvine that he’s promised to cook the battalion a welcome home dinner when it returns from its overseas tour.

If you miss the show tonight, or want to watch it again, here is the upcoming schedule:

May 17, 2007 1:30 AM ET/PT

May 20, 2007 4:30 PM ET/PT

May 20, 2007 11:30 PM ET/PT

May 21, 2007 2:30 AM ET/PT