Go for surgery, stay for food

Ralph Reinertsen of Southold had his hip replaced at Peconic Bay Medical Center (PBMC) in Riverhead in the final days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly after the surgery, he was given a menu unlike anything he’d ever seen in a hospital before and had a lunch he called “Manhattan-y.”

Pictured above: Inside the kitchen at Peconic Bay Medical Center

The hospital was still closed to visitors due to the pandemic, and when he spoke to his wife, Nancy, on the phone after lunch, he couldn’t stop talking about how much he enjoyed the lunch.

“I don’t think the anesthesia has worn off,” Nancy recalled telling someone else in the room. “He keeps talking about food.”

Ralph was no ordinary patient. He is also the Snail of Approval coordinator for Slow Food East End, a division of Slow Food, an international organization dedicated to providing good, clean, and fair food for all. He set out on a mission to give the hospital the Snail of Approval award—making it the first hospital in the country to receive an award recognizing the commitment of its food suppliers to Slow Food practices.

Ralph Reinertsen and PBMC chef Chris Singlemann

He interviewed many other patients and staff members to see if his experience was unique. He had a hip replacement and was able to take Nancy with him to show her what he meant by food. He discussed the award with the Slow Food East End board, who said, “if it’s true, of course.” He submitted the nomination to Slow Food’s national headquarters for consideration, where he discovered that “not a single hospital, school or university” had yet received the Snail of Approval. He got a call from the Slow Food office, which places snail avatars to mark Snail of Approval locations on a national map, saying, “This must be a mistake. It says ‘Peconic Bay Medical Center.’”

And then the Snail of Approval review process was complete. PBMC was there. After serving lunch to all the patients, almost the entire nutrition and dietetic staff gathered in a conference room at the hospital on July 30 to celebrate the award.

It turns out that Ralph wasn’t just wide awake when he first noticed how good the food was, he’s not the only one who’s been pleasantly surprised by a meal at one of Northwell Health’s hospitals. For the better part of a decade, the hospital chain has been working to make good food an integral part of the healing experience.

“Hospital food has been terrible for decades. Food should bring joy and be part of a healing experience,” said Sven Gierlinger, Northwell’s Chief Experience Officer, at the awards ceremony. “Northwell started this journey eight years ago.”

This commitment began with the hiring of chefs from fine restaurants to create menus in collaboration with hospital dietitians to ensure they meet the health requirements of hospital patients.

Mr. Gierlinger said the hospital chain is continuing to refine the program, moving to plant-based foods, no frozen foods, no deep-fryers and using local produce whenever possible, all under the supervision of executive chef Bruno Tison, a former executive chef at the Plaza who now serves as vice president of Systems Food Services for the hospital chain.

Chris Singlemann serves as executive chef at PBMC, where he works not only to provide patients with access to a world-class menu, but also to innovative programs, including an apiary on the former McGann Mercy High School property next door to the hospital, which was recently purchased for the hospital expansion, and a plan to plant a vegetable garden there.

“The restaurant business is brutal,” he said at the ceremony. “I was working 80 to 90 hours a week, and I had to think about it.”

He said he read an article about Northwell’s food program and thought it would be the perfect place to continue pursuing his passion for great food.

“We’re constantly evolving and getting more involved in the community,” he said. “When I started, the hospital menu was the same, and now we have a four-season menu.”

“When you’re in the hospital, there are three things you can look forward to — visitors, television and food,” he said. “Now we’re hearing that people wanted to wait until the next meal to be discharged, so now we’re sending them home with a meal.”

As is often the case with commercials, we weren’t entirely convinced, so we decided to ask a young mother who recently gave birth at Peconic Bay Medical Center about her culinary experiences there.

“It was really good,” said Ocean Van Der Loos of Riverhead, who gave birth to her daughter at PBMC in August 2021, at a time when the hospital was still limiting visitors.

“I was hungry after giving birth, but I didn’t want meat,” she said. “They had so many vegetarian options, vegetable pasta, hummus, pita bread. I kept ordering more and more food, and they kept bringing it. They even brought me angel food cake for dessert.”

Her experiences would not have surprised the Slow Food crew.

“You’ve established a position here that is so forward-looking,” Ralph Reinertsen said at the awards ceremony. “I wish I had three hips so I could come back.”

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