Winning recipe comforts refugees and redefines hospital food

Shekeba Samadzada and Dan Hess on giving Afghan refugees a taste of home, serving plant-forward in the Midwest, and winning the 2021 Health Care Culinary Contest

Chefs and students from the College of Food Innovation & Technology at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island judged the recipes

The story behind the recipe

Comforting refugees with a taste of home

I first made the veggie korma for the Afghan refugees because I wanted something they could be comfortable eating, that came, like me, from Afghanistan, and was healthy with a lot of flavors in it.” — Shekeba Samadzada.

I first made the veggie korma for the Afghan refugees because I wanted something they could be comfortable eating, that came, like me, from Afghanistan, and was healthy with a lot of flavors in it,” said Samadzada. “When Lisa and Dan told me they wanted to create meals for the refugees, I was just happy to do it.”

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I think a lot of times people don’t think about the crossover between patient service and the café…we’re also serving this dish to customers.” — Shekeba Samadzada

I think a lot of times people don’t think about the crossover between patient service and the café,” Samadzada said. “We’re also serving this dish to customers. We try to do that with a lot of recipes, because it doesn’t make sense to make one kind of chicken noodle soup for patients and then a different kind for customers. If we’re serving it to one population, it should be something that can serve everybody.”

“No matter how much we make, it just doesn’t last…that’s both good and bad — it’s good that so many people like it, but our stockpots are only so big!” — Dan Hess

“No matter how much we make, it just doesn’t last,” Hess added. “That’s both good and bad — it’s good that so many people like it, but our stockpots are only so big!”

“I just fell in love with it. It’s flavorful, and with the rice, there’s just something special about it.” — Lisa Boté.

“Shekeba was making the korma, and it just seemed like the right recipe to share,” said Boté. “The story was important — it was about patient care. And of course, the recipe was good. The first time Shekeba made this recipe, I just fell in love with it. It’s flavorful, and with the rice, there’s just something special about it.”

Interview with the chefs

From selling out before the end of the day, to strategies for serving plant-forward in the Midwest, and how hospitals can be as ‘home-like’ as possible, hear how these chefs won our appetites and our hearts.

“I hope the work that we’re doing is helping to elevate hospital food and at the same time helping patients look forward to their meals.” — Lisa Boté

Hess: I’ve worked in a lot of different food operations, delis, grocery stores, restaurants, catering companies, and retirement homes, and I kind of wanted to test myself with a different approach to food. Many of those organizations are worried about the lowest food cost and the profit margin, but for the hospital, we seek out better products and healthier recipes, at an affordable price for everyone. So it was the broader view on things and having more opportunities to create, be creative, and not have to worry about the financial impacts you have to worry about at some other types of organizations.

“I just love veggies. You can do so much good with them. They are nutritious and colorful, but you have to add and enhance their flavor. You have to know how to pick the right ones.” — Shekeba Samadzada

Boté: We know that eating plant-forward can be delicious, and we’re a creative bunch. We’re always looking for opportunities to bring something new to our customers. The pandemic really put a kibosh on a lot of fun things and a lot of creativity. But when we do have the opportunity to do something different or to bring a new recipe or some new ideas, that’s really what we want to do. Our customers love it. When we do something special in our main cafeteria, it garners a lot of attention. Customers come in, get their dish, and then an hour later, somebody else will come down and say, “Hey my coworker had this, do you still have it? Can I get it?” We understand that eating plant-forward has a smaller impact on the environment too — and we’d like to be a part of that.

“I think we’ve become even more adaptable, especially with all the supply chain disruptions, and staffing and workforce challenges.” — Lisa Boté

Hess: We’ve had to deal with all the staffing shortages and supply chain issues, so it’s really made us change the way we do a lot of things. We’re still trying to produce the same amount of food and serve the same amount of people with fewer people to do it. So it’s been a bit difficult. At the start of the pandemic, food service staff (including Shakeba) were reassigned to screen people at the entrance to get into the hospital. So many people that worked in our department were needed to go screen people on a daily basis. Shekeba and others were actually splitting their cooking time with checking in patients. It was hard to try to keep morale up. Things are starting to go back to normal, but we’ve learned a lot during the pandemic.

“This contest encourages your staff to be creative.” — Dan Hess

Hess: This contest encourages your staff to be creative. Sometimes you might feel like you get in a rut doing the same old thing every day. My team loves it when I give them an opportunity to do something different.

Feeling inspired?

Dive into the #PlantForwardFuture with our resources for hospitals including the Plant Powered 30: A fun, new, and free employee engagement activity.

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Health Care Without Harm seeks to transform health care worldwide so the sector reduces its environmental footprint and becomes a leader in the global movement.

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Health Care Without Harm

Health Care Without Harm seeks to transform health care worldwide so the sector reduces its environmental footprint and becomes a leader in the global movement.