The chef behind CHEO’s food revolution talks turkey
Turkey dinners to go are just part of a revolution in hospital food at CHEO
On the night before Christmas, some CHEO staff and friends will be snuggled in their beds dreaming about hospital food. Chef Simon’s hospital food, to be exact.
In a world in which “hospital food” is still commonly code for the bland and inedible, it is almost impossible to describe the revolution inside the kitchens of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
But the lineup of people picking up their packaged Christmas turkey dinners prepared by hospital cafeteria chef Simon Wiseman is a pretty good illustration.
“I admit I’m biased,” CHEO CEO Alex Munter tweeted last week. “But, really, think about this: People are ordering their Christmas dinner from a hospital cafeteria. That is how good our amazing chef is.” He ended the tweet with the hash tag# Not Your Grand mas Hospital Food.
No, it is not.
The turkey dinners — $37 for a dinner for two and $129 for a meal for six to eight people — were a last-minute idea, said Wiseman.
“It is kind of a dry run for now. We decided to offer a nice stressfree holiday for people who want it. It was a success.”
Wiseman is becoming CHEO’s own celebrity chef. The 40-yearold has made a name for himself with daily specials that include mushroom duck on wild rice, Fogo Island North Atlantic cod and lowfat butter chicken with cashew cream. The made-to-order meals are built mostly around locally sourced, organic, fresh ingredients. And they are healthy.
Business is up by 10 per cent since the cafeteria began taking giant steps away from the frenchfries-and-steam-table cafeteria fare and tempting diners.
“The hospital is, first and foremost, the place where you want to eat well and have good-quality food — not only nutritious food, but food that you actually want to eat, so it has to be enticing and exciting,” Wiseman said.
Wiseman is part of a team that has been turning hospital food on its ear at CHEO for several years.
Another cook in the hospital cafeteria, Samol In, does dim sum and dumplings.
CHEO was the first hospital in the country to model its patient food after hotel room service. Instead of delivering standard meals at set times of day — many of which were left uneaten — patients can order from a menu on demand anytime between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. If that means spaghetti for breakfast and cereal for an evening snack, so be it.
“We want these kids to eat and often they don’t feel like eating when they are in the hospital,” Munter said.
Not only did patients start eating their meals, but satisfaction levels around the food skyrocketed, no mean feat in a world facing pressures from dietary to budgetary, not to mention fighting the dismal reputation of hospital food.
Beginning in 2003, CHEO began its room service program — with food ordered by phone and delivered to the child’s room within 20 minutes — and patient satisfaction went up to 98 per cent.
“There is zero reason for hospital food to be crappy,” Munter says.