Could a hospital cafeteria someday earn a Michelin rating? It may seem about as likely as first class subway cars, but gourmet, low-calorie hospital food could just be the craze of the future, even as patrons continue to show up to dinner in matching pajamas.
Sushi, organic greens and coal-oven pizza are cropping up on hospital menus around the country. And who’s cooking up all this fancy fare? None other than chefs from big-name hotels and restaurants.
“Chefs in health care are the most misunderstood people,” Eric Eisenberg, who was a chef in French restaurants and a country club before becoming executive chef at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, tells the WSJ.com. “People think we slop gruel on trays.”
Eisenberg is a past gold-medal winner of the National Society for Healthcare Foodservice Management’s cooking competition, and helped run the contest this year. For five years, hospital chefs (don’t call them cooks) have been gathering to compete in the event sponsored by Tyson Food Service. Contest dishes are limited to 600 calories, 20 grams of fat, and 1,000 milligrams of sodium — and include no more than $5 worth of ingredients.
“We want to show the world that health-care food is so much different. It can be creative. It can dazzle,” Betty Perez, a board member for the society and a hospital food administrator in New Jersey, told WSJ.com.
This year’s competitors included a chef from Le Cordon Bleu culinary program in Minneapolis, a Ritz-Carlton-trained chef and an award-winning casino steakhouse chef. The winner, Daniel Skay, is chef at Parker Adventist, which includes an herb garden and serves Kobe beef and wild salmon.
I can see it now: Hallmark comes out with a card that says, “Take your time getting well. I’m enjoying the food too much.”
Photo courtesy of Nemo’sGreatUncle via Flickr.