‘Inedible’ Hospital Food Goes Gourmet Thanks to This Michelin Star Chef: ‘Everything Had to Change’
Melanie Dunea
In 2016, Sven Gierlinger — SVP, Chief Experience Officer at Northwell Health, New York’s largest healthcare provider — was tasked with hiring a chef who could redefine the company’s approach to food.
At the time, the food ratings for quality and taste at Northwell’s 21 hospitals were at an all-time low of 9%, with survey comments from staff and patients ranging from “inedible” to “tastes like plastic.”
“We need chef expertise who cares and can provide healing through the food,” Gierlinger, 51, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “The key is to focus not just on great food but healthy food, healthy ingredients.”
Gierlinger ultimately hired Michelin star chef Bruno Tison to overhaul the entire food system at Northwell. However, Tison — who spent 13 years as the executive chef at New York City’s star-studded Plaza Hotel — didn’t fully realize what he was in