California Chef Finds Cure for Bland, Unhealthy Hospital Food

>From Santa Cruz (California) Sentinel

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/February/16/style/stories/01style.htm

February 16, 2005

Dominican Hospital chef Deane Bussiere was trained at the Culinary Institute
of America and is updating the menu from the regular bland hospital food to
the type of meal one would find at a fancy restaurant. (Shmuel Thaler /
Sentinel)

Chef finds the cure to bland hospital food

Sentinel staff writer

The Wednesday lunch special is Roasted Garlic and Tomato Soup, Pork Loin
with Cider Gravy and Herb Roasted Red Potatoes.

It's the kind of meal power brokers might ink a deal over, or the kind
socialites might lean across to whisper a piece of particularly delicious
gossip to each other.

Instead, you'll find this lunch being eaten at long Formica tables in the
cafeteria of Dominican Hospital, where new executive chef Deane Bussiere is
turning the world of bland, institutionalized hospital food upside down.

That's because the Culinary Institute of America-trained chef has decided
there's no reason harried nurses and doctors can't eat organic,
sustantainably grown, in-season food that tastes good enough to be in a
restaurant.

Or that patients have to eat Salisbury steak and instant mashed potatoes.

Bussiere sits in the hospital cafeteria, a black ball cap on his head, and
says there's no reason people in a hospital can't be as satisfied as the
patrons who frequented the popular, high-end Shadowbrook restaurant where he
ran the kitchen before he came here.

"I just want people to be happy and healthy," he says.

Good-bye, fried

Bussiere isn't the kind of guy you'd expect to be running a hospital
kitchen.

He graduated with honors from the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde
Park and worked as a chef at a number of prestigious restaurants before
landing the job as head chef at Shadowbrook in Capitola.

But the 37-year-old says he found himself working 50-hour weeks and never
being home to read bedtime stories to his three young sons and missing
holidays because he had to work.

So when he saw the ad for a new executive chef at Dominican with a
traditional 40-hour week, he jumped at the opportunity.

Things at the second-floor cafeteria have not been the same since.

"Basically, I was shocked when I got here," said Bussiere of the menu cycle
which hadn't changed for three years. "It seemed like unhealthy food was the
most popular."

Even hemmed in by contracts and budgets, Bussiere knew he could make his
clients feel like they'd eaten at a high-quality restaurant.

So, instead of fried chicken, he made chicken mole.

Instead of frozen fish, he served fresh salmon and tilapia.

"There used to be mashed potatoes, fried potatoes and Uncle Ben's Rice,"
says Bussiere.

Now there's polenta, quinoa and a winter root-vegetable medley.

Wander through the cafeteria and the changes are evident.

Crisp garnishes make the fruit salad offerings look like they belong at a
Sunday brunch. Menu cards spotlight Thai Basil Tofu and Spinach. Upcoming
menus list Roasted Garlic and Gorgonzola Bread Pudding.

Of the 70 menu items offered, 40 are vegetarian and 20 are vegan.

"ER" was nothing like this.

But probably nothing is more startling than the fact Dominican Hospital's
cafeteria now features a selection of locally grown, organic produce.

Farm fresh

Bussiere heads out to the hospital's organic garden, walking so fast a
visitor has to jog to keep up.

His philosophy on organic food is simple. "Maybe small amounts of
pesticides aren't shortening our lives, but they will damage the soil
forever," he says.

"I'm fully behind sustainable resources."

So, Bussiere started buying produce from a nonprofit, community-based
organic farm program in Salinas called ALBA (Agriculture and Land-Based
Training Association).

What the program does is train farmworkers to be organic farmers by giving
them their own plot of land and teaching them to practice sustainable
farming methods.

Bussiere buys organic produce directly from those farmers-in-training.

It's part, he says, of Dominican Hospital's commitment to bettering the
community as well as healing the sick.

It's also the direction, he wants to take the hospital's food offerings.

Bussiere's kitchen also includes organic produce grown by Soquel High
students under the direction of the hospital's Michael Raciti.

The garden is on a small plot of land on the hospital grounds, that will
soon triple in size.

Bussiere unlocks the gate, stepping past raised beds of chard and herbs
like rosemary and oregano and says making food tasty and nutritious is
important to patients who may be undergoing treatments or are so sick their
appetites have disappeared.

When people don't eat, their immune systems are jeopardized, he says. So
he's looking at things like adding sea vegetables Asian-style to improve the
taste of low-salt, and adding more herbs to low-fat offerings.

"We have to keep things flavorful and healthy," he says.

He stops at the edge of the garden.

He's even planning to ask gardeners to plant edible flowers to garnish his
food offerings, he says.

Baby steps

Change is a slow but steady process, Bussiere says, as he heads back to the
kitchen. He's training his assistant chefs in classical cooking methods,
he's redoing recipes so there is less food waste, and he's trying to figure
a way to buy meat and chicken raised without antibiotics with his budget.

He's even reading books on healing foods and working on a long-range plan
to set up patient meals on a room-service-style model.

It is, he believes, the wave of the future for hospitals.

Bussiere doesn't mind when his chef friends tease him about leaving the
more prestigious world of restaurant kitchens for a hospital cafeteria.

About serving people in bed, instead of at the table.

That's because meals like Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Ponzu Salmon
are putting smiles on the faces of Dominican's staff.

And that makes Bussiere happy.

Contact Peggy Townsend at ptownsend@santacruzsentinel.com.
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yle.htm
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