00:00At this medical center, chefs prepare huge batches of food.
00:06For the final dishes, aren't your typical hospital meal.
00:10This food definitely does not look like any hospital food I've ever seen in my entire life.
00:14At Lenox Hill in New York City, Michelin-starred chef Andrew Bennett is dishing up seared scallops,
00:20lobster linguine, and salmon doused in truffle cream.
00:24We don't hold food over. We don't mass-cooked chill food.
00:27The kitchen is run by Northwell Health, New York's largest hospital network,
00:32which tries to serve restaurant-quality meals across all 28 of its hospitals.
00:37If you want great food, if you want great service, do it yourself.
00:42But that's not easy on a budget of $6 per meal.
00:46Hospitals across America have been accused of serving terrible food.
00:50More than half of them outsource food services, relying heavily on frozen meals and canned goods.
00:56Our patients used to write us later,
00:58the food is so bad, I would not serve that to my dog.
01:01Poor nutrition drives up patient hospital bills,
01:04and costs the U.S. healthcare system billions of dollars each year.
01:09Now, this problem could get worse, as hospital budgets across the country get slashed.
01:15So how did hospital food get this bad?
01:17And did this chef figure out a fix?
01:23Back in 2017, Northwell didn't make anything from scratch.
01:28A lot of people think that you come to a hospital to get medical, clinical attention,
01:34and food is nothing to worry about.
01:38And it was the case.
01:39There was absolutely no focus in food.
01:42Food is often a low priority in hospital budgets,
01:45with some spending just $4 per patient meal.
01:48Our patients used to write us later,
01:51the food was so bad, I could not eat anything.
01:53I was in your hospital for five days, and I lost 10 pounds.
01:59Then in 2013, the federal government put a program in place
02:02to motivate hospitals to do better.
02:04Hospital value-based purchasing.
02:07It ranked hospitals using patient survey data,
02:10including what they thought about the food.
02:12High-performing hospitals could receive millions of dollars in government funding,
02:17while low-rated ones could see funds cut.
02:21The patients, you know, who were telling us,
02:24you know, we had great medical, clinical care,
02:27but the food is so bad, we can't give you a five.
02:31So Northwell decided to invest in its food program.
02:34It reached out to Michelin-starred chef Bruno Tisson for help.
02:38I said, well, healthcare, I don't know.
02:40Never worked in healthcare.
02:41At the time, he worked as a fine dining chef.
02:45When you work at that level,
02:46you're never going to have a problem with what to buy.
02:49You can fly overnight black truffles from France.
02:52But Tisson wanted to serve a different clientele.
02:56I started to realize that it was an opportunity for me to give back.
03:01In 2017, he accepted Northwell's offer,
03:04began rebuilding its food system from scratch.
03:10Prep on a typical day starts at 5 a.m.
03:12Good morning.
03:13The kitchen only has two hours before they'll need to start serving hundreds of patients,
03:18staff, and visitors.
03:20Sauces, all the vegetables, everything's done fresh daily.
03:23We're going to prep everything in-house.
03:24We're doing that obviously three meals a day, seven days a week.
03:27To help with all this prep,
03:28Tisson leans on chefs he hired from the fine dining industry,
03:32including five Michelin-starred chefs
03:34stationed across different Northwell kitchens.
03:37Two of them came from his previous job at a five-star California hotel.
03:41We received letters telling me to stop stealing our people.
03:45And I said, I'm not stealing them.
03:47I've told them there's a better opportunity to hear.
03:49He offered to pay them up to 50% more.
03:52Bennett is one of Tisson's hires.
03:54He runs the Lenox Hill Kitchen.
03:57We want to get chefs that have not worked in hospitals before.
04:00We want to find chefs that have worked in restaurants and hotels.
04:03The point is that we're trying to make nutritious food that is tasty.
04:08Tisson also struck deals with suppliers to improve the quality of ingredients,
04:12opting for more organic, fresh, and locally sourced foods.
04:16You have that purchasing power that allows you to tell the vendor,
04:22if I buy two million pounds of chicken per year, what would be your best price?
04:27Northwell pays $6.50 for a pound of farm-raised salmon.
04:31That's about 50% lower than what other kitchens pay.
04:35Tisson argues that using fresh ingredients instead of processed products
04:38is actually cheaper in the long run.
04:41Take coffee pods, for example.
04:43I'll give you a little story.
04:45When I started, we were serving liquid coffee.
04:48It's a little cartridge you put in the machine, and you get something lukewarm that tastes terrible.
04:54And it's very expensive because the design, the cartridges.
04:58So we switched to freshly brewed coffee.
05:02We saved $250,000 by serving a better product.
05:06We did the same thing almost for every type of food.
05:10Now, chefs prepare antibiotic-free meat and cut in-season produce.
05:16And they use ingredients sourced from vendors that supply Michelin-starred restaurants,
05:20like this bread from Ore Washers Bakery in Brooklyn.
05:24They'll toss it on the grill to make French toast.
05:28By 7 a.m., breakfast orders start rolling in.
05:35Four hours later, the chefs start working on lunch tickets.
05:38Once an order comes in, they have about 30 minutes to make it.
05:42To balance serving food quickly and maintaining high quality,
05:45the kitchen uses both a buffet and a line cook system.
05:49Foods that are easy to prepare in batches, like pancakes and scrambled eggs,
05:53are loaded onto the buffet.
05:54The ones that require more attention to detail,
05:58such as lobster linguine and seared scallops, are dished up here.
06:03But hospital chefs can't use as many ingredients as a typical restaurant kitchen.
06:09They have to follow strict dietary requirements, including limits on sodium and fat.
06:14When I started, the dieticians were running the kitchens.
06:18You have so many dietary restrictions, so the menus were pretty boring and very, very limited.
06:25So, Tissot switched things up, putting chefs in charge of the menus,
06:29with dieticians guiding them along the way.
06:32We're going to have a different chef in each hospital,
06:35and we're going to let them express themselves and let the chef be creative.
06:40Creativity allows Bennett's team to come up with tasty dishes without compromising dietary needs.
06:45They used puree cauliflower instead of high-fat heavy cream
06:49and leaner proteins like fish and chicken to avoid red meats.
06:54And since foods can't be high in sodium, they go heavy on herbs and spices.
06:59As tickets continue to roll in, some of them list special dietary accommodations.
07:05Patients with dysphagia have trouble swallowing.
07:08It's a common problem for people who've had a stroke.
07:11So chefs will cut their salmon and mix it in gravy.
07:15So as long as we can get them to start eating and then realize, oh, this tastes great,
07:19even if it's modified texture, we've won half the battle there.
07:23Once a chef finishes making a meal, servers race against the clock to get it out before it goes cold.
07:29If the chef cooks you the best food in the world, but if you serve it an hour later, it's
07:34going to be cold.
07:35And no matter what you cook, it's not going to be appreciated.
07:38Tissot replaced paper plates with china to help keep food warm and set up heat lamps above the pass.
07:44To set up 30 trays, it's going to take you about 30 minutes.
07:49And then after that, you have to serve each patient.
07:52The 30th patient will be served an hour and 10 minutes later.
07:57So you need to create menus and food that keeps hot for an hour and 10 minutes.
08:02Chefs avoid entrees that don't hold heat well.
08:05Instead, they offer stews and other foods that stay hot for a long time.
08:09The hospital only has one elevator to get all this food out the door.
08:14Instead of serving 25 patients at a time, we decided to serve about 10 to 12 to 15 patients maximum
08:21per cart.
08:22Taking small trips allows dishes to stay warm under the kitchen's heat lamps.
08:26When you are in pain, you don't have much control of anything.
08:32The only thing that you have control of is what you can order on the menu.
08:35And if it's not good or so cold, you have a terrible experience.
08:39And at Nohfer, we've changed that.
08:41I decided to try the food out for myself to see if it's really up to restaurant standards.
08:46They treat the person like a king.
08:48The food is like that, like a five-star restaurant.
08:51I ordered the ratatouille topped with scallops.
08:57They're buttery, they're flavorful.
08:59The cauliflower steak.
09:01That's fire.
09:03Mmm.
09:03And the gnocchi doused in truffle sauce.
09:06I am so excited for this.
09:14So good.
09:16No words.
09:17That one actually like made me close my eyes and second-guess my life.
09:22But it wasn't just these fancy dishes that surprised me.
09:25I ordered some of their special dietary options as well.
09:29Like pureed dishes for patients that have trouble swallowing.
09:33I feel like at a lot of hospitals, whatever comes in puree form probably just came in a bag,
09:39squirt it out, heat it up.
09:41Here, they made their purees from scratch.
09:43Like that salmon in gravy.
09:48Tastes like saucy salmon.
09:50Broccoli.
09:55Yeah, that just tastes like wet broccoli.
09:58And short ribs.
10:02Okay, it's actually really good.
10:04I did not think I would be saying that.
10:06It's the texture of mashed potatoes, but it tastes like the short rib.
10:09It is so trippy on the brain.
10:11Lennox Hill says patients aren't charged extra for ordering these upscale dishes
10:15because the investment in its food program has paid off over time.
10:19But making better food for patients isn't as easy an option for many hospitals.
10:24About 30% of U.S. hospitals operate on negative margins,
10:29making it tough to invest in better meals.
10:31They have to have food for patients.
10:35They have to be able to have all of these medications in the building.
10:38All of this really expensive equipment, like a CT scanner.
10:41Not only do you have to operate 24-7, but you also need to pay staff to be there 24
10:46-7.
10:48And the situation could get worse.
10:50In 2025, U.S. Congress passed Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
10:55It's cutting millions of dollars for Medicaid,
10:58which provides health care for low-income Americans.
11:01And is one of the main funding sources for hospitals.
11:04Because as outrageous as hospital bills can feel to patients,
11:09it isn't enough to keep hospital doors open.
11:13So with Medicaid cuts looming,
11:15hundreds of hospitals are expected to have little choice but to reduce services.
11:19And in some cases, shut down altogether.
11:23Emergency rooms, labor and delivery units, mental health units,
11:26are actually far more likely to close than something like cosmetic surgery.
11:32Because something like cosmetic surgery is a reliable source of income,
11:37whereas an emergency department takes a huge amount of staff and resources.
11:41Clinics in poor and rural areas will be hit hardest,
11:44since they tend to rely more heavily on Medicaid.
11:47Hospital closures leaves patients having to drive hours if they are having a baby or they need help.
11:56The growth of these health care deserts is a huge issue.
11:59Despite financial struggles and Medicaid cuts,
12:03multiple hospitals outside of Northwell Health Network are following in this kitchen's footsteps.
12:09Prioritizing better food.
12:10Food in the hospital can be great.
12:12And it doesn't have to be what that standard of hospital food was.
12:15If we're dealing with health,
12:17how are we not treating food with that same level of care, execution, seriousness?
12:23I think it's a question of desire.
12:25It's a question of leadership.
12:28If your CEO wants better food, then hire the right people to do it.
12:32If your CEO wants better food, then hire the right people to do it.
