Chef Bruno Tison has joined Northwell Health, becoming the first and only Michelin Star chef hired by a health care organization in the United States.
“This is the first time Northwell has hired and created a position such as this because there’s a real need for it,” said Tison, who spent 14 years as the Executive Chef at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
Tison plans to visit all Northwell hospitals to train kitchen staffs at their individual facilities. His first stop was to LIJ Valley Stream Hospital, where he prepared the quintessential comfort food for convalescing and cold weather—healthy chicken soup from scratch. The chef’s seasoned techniques included whole chickens and vegetables, and no dehydrated powders, which are used in hospitals.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to work with such an amazing chef like Bruno,” said LIJ Valley Stream Executive Chef Patty Sobol. “He’s got a wealth of knowledge and we can’t wait for Chef Bruno to inspire us and help us make our food even better.”
As part of Northwell’s Food and Nutrition Wellness transformation, kitchen staffs across the system will learn to create food that supports healing and well-being by using less salt and sugar while avoiding saturated fat. The goal is to minimize the use of frozen and canned goods, serve foods with minimal processing that are baked, not fried.
“I’m going to re-train and re-teach the culinary departments to provide not only the patients, but employees with fresh food,” said Tison. “We want to keep patients and employees healthy and we want our patients to look forward to a great meal.”
Under his leadership, Tison’s team at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa in California has received Michelin Star recognition for three consecutive years. His role at Northwell Health will include system-wide oversight of food quality, culinary training and menu and recipe development.
