A Michelin-starred chef who catered the wedding of Donald Trump and Marla Maples is turning his focus from celebrity patrons to hospital patients.
Bruno Tison, 58, has already cut the the number of canned and frozen ingredients used by New York’s largest healthcare provider by 80 percent in his first few months after trading fish fingers for heart-healthy salmon fillets.
The former executive chef at the Plaza Hotel in New York started in December, training kitchen staffs in hospitals across the state how to make meals such as an antibiotic-free pork chop over Israeli couscous and a chicken soup from scratch with whole chickens and vegetables.
Food has long been seen as a weak area when it comes to hospital care despite the fact that the four leading preventable causes of death in the US, stroke diabetes cancer and cardiovascular disease, are directly linked to diet.
Michelin-starred chef Bruno Tison, 58, has taken over the nutrition program at Northwell Health in New York to provide healthier meals for patients. Pictured: Tison in one of the hospital kitchens
On the menu: One of the new items Tison has introduced to the menu at Northwell hospitals is a lean pork chop with Israeli couscous, green beans and carrots
Serving up to patients: Tison has taught chefs at hospitals across the state how to make a chicken soup using whole chickens and vegetables (pictured) instead of dehydrated powders
A la hospital carte: These two dishes (an eggplant Napolean, left; and a strawberry-banana Zabaione, right) are set to reach patients’ bedsides after chefs designed them for Tison’s recent cooking competition. He asked chefs from Northwell hospitals to come up with nutritious creative meals to would one day be on the menu
The majority of hospital patients are not meeting nutritional recommendations on a daily basis, according to a 2016 report by the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).
Meals in hospitals are often full of highly-processed ingredients that are high in salt, sugar and cholesterol, all of which have been found to have a negative impact on a person’s health.
A spokesperson for Northwell Health said that while food has not been the provider’s strong suit in the past, Tison is changing that.
‘I always think of cooking for someone as the greatest act of care and love,’ Tison told Crain’s New York Business.
‘I decided at this point in my career that I wanted to cook for people who are sick.’
He’s reduced the amount of meat-centric meals on hospital menus and has ensured that all meat products are free of antibiotics and fish is line-caught.
The system is in the process of getting rid of deep fryers in favor of baking to cut back on trans and saturated fats.
By focusing on whole ingredients and cutting back on processed ones, Tison hopes to significantly reduce the amount of salt and sugar in each dish.
Hospital meals are known for using a lot of highly-processed ingredients that are high in sugar, salt and cholesterol (file image)
Tison’s goal is to use more whole ingredients in the kitchens at each Northwell hospital. He is pictured mashing potatoes (left) and serving a vegetable soup (right)
‘I’m going to re-train and re-teach the culinary departments to provide not only the patients, but employees with fresh food,’ Tison said.
‘We want to keep patients and employees healthy and we want our patients to look forward to a great meal.’
In March Tison hosted a cooking challenge for chef from several different hospitals.
The chefs were instructed to build a three-course meal using kale, leeks and sweet baby peppers following certain nutritional guidelines.
‘This competition is part of Northwell Health’s effort to create a different level of food quality for our patients, visitors and employees,’ Tison said. ‘The food we create needs to fulfill the desires of our patients.’
A citrus salad with seared day boat scallops and roasted fennel was one of the winners from the cooking competition held in March
The winning dishes included an eggplant tofu Napoleon with mango sweet pepper coulis, a citrus salad with seared day boat scallops and roasted fennel, and a banana and strawberry Zabaione dessert.
This is the seventh year that the competition has been held at Northwell.
Tison became the first and only Michelin Star chef to be hired by a healthcare organization in the US when Northwell Health brought him on in December.
Tison said: ‘I think of all the celebrities I cooked for, [and] I never got a thank you.
‘Now when I walk through a hospital room, I see a patient with joy on their face, and they want to thank you for passing by. It’s very, very rewarding.’
Another chef looks on as Tison shows her how to plate up a dish with sauteed vegetables
The sauteed vegetables were topped with a grilled, antibiotic-free chicken breast
The importance of nutrition in hospitals in the US has been largely overlooked in the past few decades, with most government research on hospital food dating back to the 1980s and 90s.
According to the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, the majority of patients are not meeting nutritional recommendations on a daily basis based on a study of hospital menus.
It also reported a correlation between the quality of a hospital’s food offerings and the prevalence of obesity and diabetes in the community.
Those that scored better often have a lower prevalence; those that scored worse often have a higher prevalence.
In 2013 a group of physicians published a report on the sad state of hospital food in the American Medical Association’s Journal of Ethics.
Providing health-promoting food helps a hospital fulfill its mission to prevent disease and promote wellness and health.
‘Unfortunately, foods widely believed to be unhealthful are currently abundant in hospitals, and a substantial number of hospitals have fast-food chains operating their cafeterias,’ the report said.
‘Providing health-promoting food helps a hospital fulfill its mission to prevent disease and promote wellness and health, both by sending a message about proper nutrition and by nourishing patients, students, volunteers, staff, visitors, and others.’
Northwell Health is one of the many hospitals in the US making an effort to improve their food offerings.
An organization called Health Care Without Harm launched its ‘Healthy Food in Health Care’ initiative in 2006 with the goal of transforming hospital menus to be more beneficial for patients.
The organization has partnered with more than 1,000 hospitals across the country and reports that the percentage of its partner hospitals with farms or gardens on side has doubled since 2008 from 13 percent to 26 percent in 2016.