NPMC offers ‘from scratch’ cooking
National Park Medical Center’s cafeteria may not fit the public’s perception of a traditional everyday eatery, but Karle Johnson, the hospital’s executive chef, is helping to change that.
Living in Texas, “surfing too much and not going to school enough,” as he said, Johnson decided to move back to Arkansas to be with his family.
“I took a job at The Purple Cow in Little Rock and the owner is the chef responsible for bringing all the French chefs to Little Rock,” he said. “After butting heads with him forever, he took me under his wing and he got me into cooking.”
Originally a journalism major in college, Johnson realized his true calling was in the culinary industry once he received an offer to take culinary classes at University of Arkansas-Pulaski Tech College. He was working as a cook for The Purple Cow, and one of the owners was also the dean at the college.
He learned a lot of what he knows about cooking now from his mother, he said, noting he refined his skills when working at The Purple Cow and at culinary school.
“Dinner time, when I was a kid, was important to my family,” he said. “It’s when you get together and you talk and everything.”
The Little Rock native worked as the food service director for Heifer International until the COVID-19 pandemic began to shut down the world, including his job.
Although he has worked in the Hot Springs area ever since, Johnson started in the executive chef position at NPMC in December 2021. The “challenge” is what initially drew him to the position, he said.
“I’ve never worked in a hospital before,” he said. “I came from restaurants, education and business.”
With a background in restaurants, the food NPMC serves could be considered simple in
comparison. The cafeteria provides “simple food prepared well,” Johnson said, noting some of the items served can’t be found in many other hospitals.
“You’re not gonna get just a plain meatloaf here,” he said. “You’re not gonna get fried, plain old catfish. You’re gonna have a little bit of a twist to everything.”
The cafeteria has a schedule, which includes serving Mexican food on Tuesdays, Asian food on Thursdays and fried fish on Fridays.
“I just kept pushing for more from scratch cooking,” he said, noting the change in service was a joint effort between himself and the hospital. “You put more heart and effort into stuff from scratch, as opposed to, say, throwing a bag of something in the oven and calling it a day. You care more about something you’re putting out if you’re making it yourself from scratch.”
While the nurses and doctors at NPMC heal the patients’ bodies by practicing medicine, Johnson helps them by nourishing those patients’ bodies with the food he and his staff prepare, he said.
“That’s just as important sometimes, in certain cases,” he said. “Good food makes you feel better. You eat well, you live well.”
Johnson said many people will make trips to the hospital just to visit the cafeteria, especially on Fridays.
“Last week, we had a couple come in and they ordered 10 orders of catfish each, so 20 orders, and wiped me out in the first five minutes of us being open,” he said. “So, we had to keep going. We had to fry more in a hurry. And that’s a compliment for sure.
“The best thing in the world, when you’re in our line of work, is people eating you out of house and home.”