Whether it’s five course, drive-through or family style, food is a fundamental part of our lives. It’s no different in a hospital. Whether you’re a patient or a staff member, food is vitally important. So Adventist Health is focusing on food to increase satisfaction and extend its health care mission.

Chef to the stars brings freshness to Glendale Hospital

Designer cuisine is not what you expect from a hospital cafeteria, but that’s what you get at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. Thanks to chef Adam Aviles, employees and patients of the Southern California facility experience fresh, high-quality cuisine on a daily basis.

Aviles came to GAMC two years ago after working with such renowned chefs as Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck. After many years at Twentieth Century Fox Studios, Aviles felt a calling to find a new challenge. So, he went to work at GAMC to join forces with nutritional services director Mark Penno in an effort to revamp the hospital’s food.

“We wanted to move in the direction of providing fresher, healthier options for our employees and patients,” said Penno.

“We came to realize that the public is well educated about food and what is healthy,” said Aviles. “In turn, we wanted to bring the hospital’s food into the 21st century.” This has been accomplished by revising patient menus, introducing new features to the cafeteria and, above all, making food delicious and healthy.

One improvement was the addition of made-to-order delights in the cafeteria, using fresh ingredients and spices when possible, and infusing cuisine with Aviles’ continental style.

“They say an army marches on its stomach,” said Aviles, whose kitchen provides an average of 80,000 meals a month to patrons. “Food is quite a morale issue.”

“We have a captive audience that wants change,” added Penno. “More choices, more food bars, more freshness.”

And luckily, the leadership team at GAMC is on board.

“Our administration is very supportive of our mission to emphasize the health ministry and health message of our organization through food,” said Penno.

L.A. hospital features “Show Cooking” to the delight of patients and staff

At White Memorial Medical Center, the nutritional services team was looking for new ways to wow their customers. Staff were receiving mixed reviews from diners and satisfaction surveys showed patrons preferred the fresher, healthier food options in the cafeteria. With this information in mind, the team remodeled the cafeteria and expanded their popular grill into a new “show cooking” area.

Based upon the restaurant model of tableside cooking, WMMC’s nutritional services team brought in an expert chef to cook made-to-order meals once per week—the beauty being that patrons can order customized meals and watch their food prepared immediately. Now with options like panini sandwiches, gourmet salads and tasty tacos, fresher and healthier options abound.

“Our show cooking chef, Sergio, does a phenomenal job creating innovative cooking,” said Steve Engle, associate vice president of ancillary services at WMMC.

After introducing do-it-yourself meals such as a pasta bar and enlarged salad bar, Engle is happy to report, “Our customers really have choices now.” Indeed, show cooking has expanded to two luncheons and one breakfast per week.

The future in food at WMMC is looking rosy too. Along with expanding choices, nutritional services is working to eliminate all transfats from menus, label all foods with nutritional information and provide staff training about healthy eating principles.

“We’re excited about our progress,” said Engle. “We’re pleased to provide our staff and patients with delicious, healthy food and of course, plenty of options.”

Organic garden brings fresh produce to hospital cafeteria

Mouth-watering tomatoes. Auborgine eggplants. Fragrant herbs and spices. At St. Helena Hospital in Northern California, this bountiful produce finds its place in the cafeteria every day, thanks to the time and expertise of Bertine Loyola and Erick Neuharth.

Loyola, nutritional care supervisor, and Neuharth, chef for the Center for Health, started the organic garden three years ago, renovating it within the last year. What began as a simple herb garden has expanded to include six varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, artichokes, basil, lavender, rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, lemon verbena, chives, parsley, dill, cilantro and mint.

“We began the garden to make a sustainable source of spices for the chefs to use in the kitchen,” said Neuharth. Years later, the extensive variety of fresh produce is used in the cafeteria to make employee and visitor meals flavorful and healthy.

An avid gardener, Loyola spearheaded the agricultural effort, with Neuharth an eager student. Today both work hard, in their spare time, to keep the garden growing.

“Bertine knows so much about gardening and has worked hard to make the garden what it is today," said Neuharth. "The nutritional services, maintenance and landscaping departments have given us funding and building and irrigation materials—we couldn't have done this without their help.”