Phelps Hospital Brings Home The Bacon At Northwell Chef's Challenge

SLEEPY HOLLOW, NY — Hospital food sometimes gets a bad rap, but one Hudson Valley hospital is not only wowing patients, but impressing celebrity judges as well.

Phelps Hospital recently won Northwell Health’s 13th annual Chef’s Challenge, a hospital cooking competition, which was judged by a panel of culinary and wellness experts, in front of a live audience at the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan.

Plainview and Syosset hospitals came in second, while Lenox Hill Hospital took third place.

Judges included celebrity chef/restaurateur/author Marcus Samuelsson, Northwell’s Corporate Executive Chef Bruno Tison, Chief Medical Officer Jill Kalman, MD, SVP Chief Experience Officer Sven Gierlinger, and President/CEO Michael Dowling.

Teams of chefs, cooks and dietitians from Phelps, Lenox Hill Hospital, and Plainview/Syosset Hospitals were given 90 minutes to come up with a rainbow beet appetizer, a monkfish entrée and a dried prune dessert, while adhering to Northwell’s rigorous nutrition guidelines.

"At Northwell, we believe that food is health, medicine, and healing. We have transformed the way we buy, cook, and serve food throughout our organization," Gierlinger said. "The days of bad hospital food are over. Patients everywhere deserve healthy, nutritious, well-prepared, high-quality meals."

Phelps’ executive chef Andrew Cain led his team of three to culinary victory. Their winning dishes were:

• Appetizer – Golden beet and brussels sprouts potstickers, roasted and raw rainbow beets, boro beet coulis, vegan horseradish mousse;
• Entrée – Black trumpet mushroom crusted monkfish, spring onions, fava beans, garlic pesto puree, saffron and tomato emulsion;
• Dessert – Valrhona chocolate and prune Napolean cake, dark chocolate ganache, Armagnac poached prune puree, cinnamon whipped cream, almond brittle.

As part of its goal to transform hospital food and treat patients like restaurant patrons, Northwell hired Michelin star chef Bruno Tison in 2017 to overhaul the menus. Frozen, processed meals were replaced with fresh, prepared-from-scratch food that is as nutritious as it is delicious.

Today, nearly 10 million gourmet meals are prepared and served to patients and visitors throughout Northwell Health every year. The health system is ranked in the 84th percentile nationwide for food quality and eight of its hospitals are above the 93rd percentile.