Has Hospital Food Made a Recovery?

H ospital food . The very words conjure up visions of bland, awful stuff served on trays.

But some local hospitals are doing their best to change that image. The kitchen staffs at some of the best places are serving food so innovative that when they are not dishing up falafel, tacos and sweet-and-sour riblets to their patients, they are busy baking bread for sale to retail stores, running dining rooms open to the public and even catering weddings.

At Los Angeles’ White Memorial Hospital, for example, Karen Kile, the nutrition director, recently arranged a bridal tea. The menu included scones with clotted cream (brought in from outside the hospital), cucumber sandwiches, lemon-curd tarts and assorted teas for 500 guests.

On that occasion, regular tea was served, but normally the hospital does not permit caffeine or alcohol. That is because White, like many of the most nutritionally innovative hospitals in the area, is run by the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Church teachings play a part in what is and what is not served in the dining rooms of these hospitals. “We cannot ask people who are sick to change the eating habits of a lifetime,” says Clark Cowan, nutrition director at Glendale Adventist Hospital. And so, patients are offered meat with their meals. But Cowan says, “The public is another matter.” The cafeterias at Adventist hospitals such as Glendale and White Memorial are rooted in a vegetarian tradition.

In the cafeteria at White Memorial, one of the most popular dishes is a zucchini patty with a light cheese sauce. The kitchen has also copied the sweet-and-sour pecan “riblets” from a local Chinese vegetarian restaurant. There’s a salad bar laden with fresh vegetables, and there is always a choice of fat-free and “light” salad dressings. “We have always featured lots of vegetables and high-fiber food,” says Kile. “But for the last three or four years we’ve really been emphasizing low-fat eating.”

Drop in for breakfast at White and you’re apt to find granola, wheat germ, dried fruits, cottage cheese and yogurt, several kinds of toasts and muffins and a whole batch of herbal teas.

On the other hand, in the small, cheerful cafeteria called Le Cafe at the Simi Valley Adventist Hospital, both meat and vegetarian dishes are available. The menu also includes sandwiches made to order and constantly changing specials. Customers might eat from a taco bar, a spud bar, a falafel bar or a burrito-and-nacho bar.

At Loma Linda University Medical Center, neighbors are encouraged to come and eat in the restaurants. Senior citizens who wait until after the noon rush even receive a discount in the large, bright dining room.

“In the early days of our organization,” says supervisor Bert Connell, “we just had health retreats. Now we are into more acute health care. And we realize that for food to be nutritious it has to be consumed. In order to be consumed it has to be attractive--particularly on a buffet line. But we are dealing with something very tricky because what looks appealing to a meat-eating person may not appeal to a vegetarian.”

The staff at Loma Linda prepares a variety of ethnic dishes to meet the needs of the community it serves. The vegetables--all fresh--are prepared throughout the day so no one is stuck with tired food. Fresh fruit sauces are made for the desserts, and there are plenty of homemade sweet breads.

Bread is a key ingredient at many of the hospitals. Glendale Adventist Hospital (an institution that predates Glendale itself) proudly sells its bread in a bakery in the dining room. The bread is also sold to other hospitals--and to stores in the Los Angeles area.

“One of our customers is Mrs. Gooch’s,” says Glendale nutrition director Cowan. “And in order to have them as a customer we have to assure them we buy our own wheat berries and grind the flour fresh for our bread-making.”