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LifeCare's Dining
Services |
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Redefining
Dining
 Create a
passion
for
food!
That's
the goal
of
LifeCare's
most
recent
efforts
in the
kitchen,
according
to
Director
of Food
and
Nutrition
Services
Carletta
Rhen-Mlodzik,
R.D.
Following
her
recommendation,
LifeCare
has
added a
full-time
in-house
chef to
oversee
the
daily
food
production
for the
hopsital's
patients,
staff,
and
visitors
as well
as
residents
of
LifeCare Roseau Manor.
"It
definitely
adds an
exciting
new
dynamic
to the
traditional
approach
of
dining
in
healthcare,"
she
says.
"We no only want to nourish our customers, we want to delight them as well."
Employing
chefs in
healthcare
is not a
new
concept,
but a
full-time
chef for
LifeCare
is.
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Certified executive chef Robert DeSantis and LifeCare's new full-time chef Wanda Thompson stop for a photo while visiting LifeCare Roseau Manor. |
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"Our intent is to reorganize the department and rethink how we approach food production. Our cooks have a proven track record when it comes to satisfaction with meals and service. Now is the right time to take it even a step further."
The statistics, it seems, support her claim. Healthcare surveys continue to rank LifeCare's Dining Services for all are above the state average when it comes to food enjoyment. |
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In November, LifeCare hired Wanda Thompson as the hospital’s first full time chef.
Already a gifted cook with the skills to lead her team of coworkers, Thompson began her new job with an intense one-on-one training session with certified executive chef Robert DeSantis.
A longtime coworker and friend of Mlodzik, and member of the American Culinary Federation Phoenix Chapter, DeSantis has done training for LifeCare staff in the past and happened to be in the process of a job transition. |
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Local students
including
Bethany
Erickson, Emily
Knochenmus, and
Emily Carlson
served guests of
LifeCare's
Partners for
Health event. |
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“The timing was perfect!” Mlodzik says. “We were in the market for a chef and he was available to help us with the hiring and training process.
DeSantis, known by LifeCare staff as “Chef Bob,” spent three weeks in Roseau helping Mlodzik formulate a plan for implementing a chef program.
During that time, he worked with Thompson and her team on menus and recipes for their customer groups and shared some of his artistic insight on preparing and plating attractive meals.
“I’m not only here to teach culinary skills, I am also here to teach caring for the customer,” says DeSantis. “You can not have one without the other if you truly want to delight the customer.”
From a fiscal perspective, Chef Bob demonstrated how to reduce costs by preventing food waste in the kitchen. |
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“Because every ingredient is precious to a chef, he gave us new insight into incorporating ingredients from one meal into a flavorful addition for another,” Mlodzik says. “Using ingredients wisely to create great products that wile the customer is the true measure of Chef Bob’s culinary skill and
is what we want to incorporate into our program.”
In addition to all this, DeSantis took on the monumental task of planning and preparing a gourmet menu for LifeCare’s highly successful Partners for Health event in November.
“In my book, that was the ultimate demonstration of his culinary skills,” she says. “Over 175 plates and each one was a masterpiece.” |
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Dinner
guests
Mavis Whalberg,
Sally
Norton,
Barb
Erickson,
and
Roxanne
Fabian
enjoy
the five
course
meal
planned
by
certified
executive
chef
Robert
DeSantis
fro the
fourth
annual LifeCare
Partners
for
health
event. |
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DeSantis also used his connections in the food service industry to coordinate an in-service training, bringing six area food brokers representing several national food manufactures to LifeCare so Mlodzik, Thompson, and the kitchen staff could experience the behind-the-scenes work in getting to know the suppliers of the ingredients they use everyday in the kitchen.
“What better way to kick off this chef training than with a kitchen full of food service professionals!” she says.
Mlodzik says having the food brokers on site was an educational experience.
“The workshop gave us an opportunity to meet them and they got to meet the people who ultimately use their products.”
It also provided direct feedback from patients and residents who sampled the foods prepared by the brokers during their visit.
“Doing this allowed our staff, patients, and residents to have a voice in the decision making process,” Mlodzik says. “We wanted to get staff members fired up about new ideas in food. This definitely did it.”
For most artists, direct feedback from an audience is crucial.
Chef Bob is no exception. He made several trips to LifeCare Roseau Manor to personally ask how they liked the meals he had prepared. |
| A Food Broker prepares samples of his company's desserts during a workshop organized by visiting chef Robert Desantis at LifeCare |
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“Then, we started getting handwritten notes from hospital patients delivered to the kitchen thanking us for the meal we had prepared,” Mlodzik says. “You can’t ask for better feedback than that!” |
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Six food brokers prepared samples of their menu during a workshop in September that introduced them to LifeCare dining staff. |
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In addition to the artistic challenge of creating a three meal a day, 7 day a week menu, an in-house hospital chef is also met with practical diet challenges regarding patients and residents. Some need modifications to nutrients such as sodium, sugar and fat in their diet. Others may have difficulty chewing or swallowing and need texture modifications. Still others may have food allergies or require a gluten or lactose free diet.
“Taking that into account plus fulfilling the desire to nourish and delight all the customers we serve... therein lies the real challenge,” Mlodzik says.
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For more information about nutrition and dining services at LifeCare, call (218) 463-2500 |
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