A NY Hospital System Has a Big-Time Chef Making Big Changes
Nov. 23, 2022 — From the moment you walk into the massive kitchen at Northern Westchester Hospital, you quickly realize that bland, processed food isnât on the menu for patients at this Mount Kisco, NY, hospital thatâs part of Northwell Health, the largest health care system in New York state.
The first indication is the smell of apple and pear crumble that begins to waft through the massive space that resembles an industrial kitchen at a five-star resort. Next is the use of real china and utensils and a menu that reads like a fine restaurant.
A high-energy food-service team led by Andrew Cain, a Michelin-starred chef in a toque, is the exact goal Bruno Tison, Northwellâs vice president of food services and corporate executive chef, put into place when he joined the sprawling hospital system 5 years ago after serving as executive chef at New York Cityâs Plaza Hotel for 30 years and earning a Michelin star at Californiaâs Sonoma Mission Inn.
âWhen I arrived, we were buying frozen food, reheating it, and throwing it away,â Tison says of the food served at Northwellâs 21 hospitals. âWe spent as little time, attention, and money on food as possible, but food is health. Food is good medicine.â
The drive to apply hospitality practices to food prep and rethink whatâs served throughout the Northwell system began in 2017 when Michael Dowling, Northwellâs CEO, tasked Sven Gierlinger, his chief experience officer, to find the right person to reinvent the way hospital food is sourced, prepared, and plated.
At the time, Northwellâs patient scores of its food ranged from the ninth percentile to the 50th percentile in terms of quality and taste. With 21 hospitals that serve more than 2 million people a year, thatâs a lot of bad food.Â
âOur CEO got lots of letters, including one in which a patient wrote that âwe wouldnât serve this food to a dog,ââ Tison says. âThe last thing a patient needs to worry about is the quality of the food when theyâre trying to heal.â
When hospital food is so bad, it also places a burden on the family to bring food in from the outside to feed the patient, Gierlinger says.
âThis adds extra stress that family members shouldnât have,â he says. âIt also takes away from the overall patient experience we want people to have when theyâre being cared for by our incredible clinical staff.â
In the years since Tison hired 15 new executive chefs, nine Northwell hospitals are now in the 94th percentile or more, an accomplishment no other health system in the nation has achieved.
This hasnât affected the systemâs bottom line, either, even as Tison replaced freezers with refrigerators, removed all of the fryers, and replaced sources of added sugar with healthier options. In addition, heâs since partnered with two artisanal pastry companies, a fair trade coffee roaster, the hospitals are serving hormone-free meats, and plans are in the works to partner with several organic farms.
âWe spent $500,000 less last year because weâre not throwing anything away,â Tison says. âServing processed, pre-made food is actually more expensive than buying the raw product. You just need the labor and the skill to turn it into delicious food, and thatâs what was missing in our hospitals.â
Even brewing coffee has been a cost saver, to the tune of $250,000 across the organization, Gierlinger says.
âWe used to serve the most horrible coffee,â Gierlinger says. âIt came frozen in containers and weâd heat it up and serve it to patients and it tasted like burnt water. That was the standard.â
For Northwell leaders, a commitment to food and nutrition has been made â and wonât ever be compromised.
âWeâre paying competitive wages and paying more for our executive chefs, but thatâs the only investment weâve made,â Gierlinger says. âThe return is so much greater.â
In every way thatâs possible, the leadership at Northwell Health is poised to change how food is delivered to patients from this moment forward.
âWe want to show all the ways in which food is a foundation of good health,â Gierlinger says. âWeâve made it our mission to move away from the terrible reputation hospital food has and transform it into fresh, delicious food thatâs cooked with love.â
Besides these improvements in whatâs served, the team is planning to build a teaching facility with an apprenticeship program to train chefs as well as offer hands-on training for employees and patients, and cooking classes for the community.
For example, at some hospitals, new moms and patients who are food insecure are discharged from the hospital with a basket of produce grown at on-site gardens along with tips on how to eat healthfully, all with the goal of educating the community.
In the end, Northwell patients have spoken â with their stomachs.
âWe see it this way: Through the meals we serve we have this opportunity to transport patients to another world, one in which they start to feel hungry and actually look forward to meals while theyâre recuperating,â Tison says. âItâs gotten to the point where patients donât want to leave — the food here is so good.â