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Hospital Chefs
Compete in
Healthy Cooking
Challenge
By Betty Olt
GLEN COVE — Hospital food
usually gets a bad rap, but
chefs from 11 North Shore-LIJ
hospitals recently competed in
the health system’s first-ever
cooking challenge to prove
that hospital chefs can serve
up gourmet restaurant-quality
meals, but without high fat,
calories or sodium.
Coinciding with National
Nutrition Month, culinary
teams from Queens, Nassau,
Suffolk, Manhattan and Staten
Island faced off at Glen Cove
Hospital’s Pratt Auditorium,
which was transformed into a
giant kitchen equipped with
stove-top burners, a pantry
and farmers’ market for the
Ultimate Chef Healthy Entrée
Challenge. Each team had
one hour to create a delicious,
attractive and nutritious meal.
Three celebrity chef judges
awarded Forest Hills Hospital’s
chefs with the top prize for
their original dish of spinachstuffed
pork tenderloin with
cranberry wild rice. Lenox
80 Summer 2012
Hill Hospital
received second
place and
Syosset Hospital
came in third.
Michael
Kiley, director
of nutrition and
food services
at Glen Cove
Hospital, who
also helps
coordinate North Shore-LIJ’s
chef committee, organized
the cook-off. “Patients often
compare hospital food to
restaurants, and this event
showcases that hospital chefs
can prepare appealing food
that tastes really good and is
nutritious,” said Mr. Kiley.
Judges rated all entrees and
side dishes prepared during
the competition based on taste,
nutrition, originality and
presentation. Each hospital
culinary team was paired with
a registered dietician from
a North Shore-LIJ hospital
to ensure that each dish
contained no more than 500
calories, 15 grams of fat and
600 milligrams of sodium.
Teams worked with a “surprise
protein” — such as halibut,
shrimp, chicken and pork
tenderloin — to build a creative
meal around the item.
Winning chefs Gary
DeFreitas and Dale Lyons from
Forest Hills Hospital said they
are used to preparing meals for
600 to 700 patients each day.
After the awards ceremony, Mr.
Lyons said, “This event gives us
the opportunity to show what
we can do in the kitchen.…
It’s a dream come true.” Mr.
DeFreitas, who has been
cooking since he was 19 years
old, said it was a “great honor”
to receive first prize in the
competition but pointed out
that “love is the most important
ingredient in cooking, and it
always comes out in the dish.”
Above: Chefs from Forest Hills
Hospital won North Shore-LIJ’s
Ultimate Chef Challenge cook-off.
Dale Lyons chops an onion for the
winning dish — spinach-stuffed
pork tenderloin with cranberry wild
rice — while Gary DeFreitas consults
with Malgorazata Rokoszak, RD, of
Staten Island University Hospital.