Maximizing the Nutritional Value of the Dining Experience

1. Maximizing the Nutritional Value of the Dining Experience Chef Ryan Parker – Sysco Oklahoma

2. Food Creates a Culture • As foodservice managers and workers; we are responsible for the culture we create. • We must be held accountable for the energy and atmosphere we create.

3. “Inspect what you expect.” • What we expect from our employees is what we inspect of our employees. • Do not assume anything is getting done. Inspect that it is getting done. • Excellence is in the details of a day to day operation.

4. Two Example of Changing the Culture • A multi-unit nursing and assisted living center. • A drug rehab facility (hosting women and children).

5. 5 Key Areas • Fight the Current Food Culture in America • Creativity in Menu Planning • Become a Food Chemist • Educate and Expose • The #1 Ingredient

6. Fight the Current Food Culture • “If America is what she eats; then she’s fast, cheap and easy” - Alice Waters • We live in a country that is obsessed with convenience, (in)expense, and ease. • We are so saturated by this culture; it is hard to notice.

7. Fight the Current Food Culture (cont) • Parable of the Two Fish. What is water? • We live and breath the culture of convenience and ease. • We have to fight against the current that moves us.

8. Fight the Current Food Culture (cont) • In my experience, I have found that people cook at work like they eat at home. Even if this means going against what they are asked to do! • By default, people cook what they have seen and eat what they have already tasted.

9. Fight the Current Food Culture (cont) • For Example – An innocent burger cutting: • Frozen = 240 mg of cholesterol and 150 mg of sodium. • Fresh = 70 mg of cholesterol and 65 mg of sodium. • We could not convince him that the fresh patty was better!

10. Creativity in Menu Planning • Creativity isn’t doing something no one else does; its doing something everyone else does in unexpected ways. • Creativity and Innovation drive our markets. However, they also drive us to do crazy things for attention too. • Chefs with Dirt!

11. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) • How do you get creative? In a meeting? • The best ways to get creative are through: • Constant observation and reflection • Journaling • Accounting for our ideas and practices

12. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) • It’s as much about what we put in our meals as it’s about what we leave out. • Menu planning is not all about calories. That is the trap. • We can’t menu plan only to a calorie count! That is always menu planning through subtraction.

13. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) • We want to menu plan through addition! • All of our menu items have a purpose. • We add ingredients to benefit the overall health of the residents. • Menu planning for the whole body…not for calorie intake.

14. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) • What we put into our bodies matters! • Everything we eat will affect our body one way or another. • We need to menu plan with that in mind. • Let’s move beyond menu planning without saturated fats, oils, sodium, etc.

15. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) • Memory Boosting Foods: • Cruciferous Vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, dark greens) • Berries and cherries (fresh or dried) • Omega-3 rich seafood (salmon, blue fin tuna, and sardines) • Walnuts

16. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) Added Fiber: Less Processed: • Skins or peel of fruit • Beans, lentils, barley, and whole grains • Seeds • Raspberries • Avocado • Almonds • Black beans • (Air popped) popcorn • Apple Sauce Example: • Whole Apple (with peel = 4.4g of Fiber • ½ Cup of Apple Sauce = 1.4g of Fiber • 8 oz Apple Juice = no Fiber

17. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) • Eye Health: • Kale • Sweet Potatoes • Omega-3 rich seafood (salmon, blue fin tuna, and sardines) • Strawberries • Green Tea (or matcha powder)

18. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) • Immune Boosting Nutrition: • Lean Protien (eggs, beans, nuts, soy, seeds, seafood, turkey) • Vitamins A, E, and C • Zinc • Iron

19. Creativity in Menu Planning (cont) • Get organized when it comes to menu planning. • Keep lists like these front and center. • Add these ingredients when considering a vegetable of the day or a new dish. • It matters what we feed our residents. Its our responsibility!

20. Become a Food Chemist • All chefs and cooks are (at least) accidental chemists! • The best foods apply scientific sense. • Chemistry is all around us in the kitchen. • I’m not talking about molecular gastronomy.

21. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • Why does lettuce brown faster if cut as opposed to torn? • Why the difference in cooking a sirloin steak and a brisket? • Why does fruit brown when exposed to oxygen? • Why does meat brown when depleted of oxygen? • Why is sweet tea better when the sugar is added to warm brew? • Why does some mayonnaise separate when spread on hot toast?

22. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • All the answers are found in Chemistry! • The more we understand the better quality we produce. • It’s not just quality of taste either. • It’s quality of nutrition!

23. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • Why are my green beans brown and the broccoli gray? • We all know that when we overcook the vegetable we cook out all the vitamins and nutrients. • We poor off the beautiful green water and serve brown vegetables. • But why does this transition happen? Can we stop it?

24. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • Broccoli becomes brown when the cooking process breaks down the cell walls that separate the bright green chlorophylls from the acidic elements within the broccoli. When these cell walls collapse the acidic elements attack the chlorophylls and they become olive green to grey. Its at this point that the water soluble vitamins and photochemicals rush out into the water. This is how we get green water and brown or gray vegetables.

25. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • We can stop it. Our goal is to cook the broccoli to the point that the stems and florets are tender but the cell walls remain intact. We have several options. • We can steam the broccoli at 135 degrees. Steam is less dense and boiling water and will not wash away the vitamins. The cell walls will not break down at only 135 degrees. We will have perfectly green and nutrient rich broccoli. • 2) We can blanch the broccoli for two minutes followed by a quick shock in an ice bath. This locks in the chlorophylls and stabilizes the cell walls. We can then retherm the vegetables while retaining color and nutrients.

26. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • For the purposes of talking about maximizing nutritional value; I want to look at the side dish of “southern style green beans.” We will break it down and then offer an alternative that tastes just as good (if not better). • Let’s look at why this dish is so delicious and not so nutritious.

27. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • “Southern Style Green Beans” • Canned Green Beans • Beef Base or Bullion • Chopped Bacon • Sautéed Onions • Seasonings

28. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • The canned green beans start with lots of sodium (flavor enhancer) • We then add beef base or beef bullion. • We then add bacon fat and pieces. • Then we add sautéed onion. • Lastly, we adjust the seasoning with more salt or pepper (to taste).

29. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • Why its delicious: • This recipe is loaded with glutamates. In either the sodium salt form (MSG) or in the naturally occurring form (glutamates from curing the bacon). These two processes give all the flavor. • Why its not so nutritious: • The green beans are laced with sodium, overcooked, devoid of as much as 40% of their nutrients when done cooking. Not to mention the added fat and sodium from the beef base, bacon and sautéed onions.

30. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • So here is an alternative: • “Fresh Green Beans” • Fresh or Fresh Frozen Haricot Vert (thin bean) • Sliced Red Onion • Baby Tomato Halves • Sliced Button Mushrooms • Chopped Garlic, a Pinch of Salt, & Cracked Pepper

31. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • Glutamates are naturally occurring in many foods. In fact, they are the reason we like so many different foods. Here are a few: • Parmigiano-Riggiano, soy sauce, fish sauce, tomato paste, cured ham, tomatoes, garlic, onions, red wine, shrimp, beef, pork, mushrooms, tuna, and green tea. (*) • We can look to incorporate some of these ingredients to achieve a similar profile without added fat and excess sodium. *food chemistry (1988) by George R. Skurray and Nicholas Pucar

32. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • Our healthier alternative uses the naturally occurring glutamates in tomato, onion, and garlic to create a “umami” flavor that rivals the MSG and sodium nitrate added “southern style” green beans. • We can effectively decrease sodium, MSG, and fat all while freshening up the dish with added color, taste, and less fat and salt.

33. Become a Food Chemist (cont) • By allowing our selves the freedom to deviate from how we have always done things. We can embrace the world of food chemistry and find new and healthier ways of doing things. • Here are some great resource for you: • The Science of Good Cooking. Cooks Illustrated. Brookline, MA. 2012. • The Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry. ACS Publications. Current

34. Educate and Expose • The easiest part of this whole process is too educate and expose. • We can use the same marketing tools and structures that restaurants and retails do in order to educate our residents.

35. Educate and Expose (cont) • Here are some of the tools we use: • 1) Table tents highlighting healthy options and choices. • 2) Classes or lectures explaining why changes have been made. • 3) Email or other promotional blitzes letting the residents have time to adjust before the roll out of new changes. • 4) Take criticism seriously and make adjustments if needed.

36. The #1 Ingredient • LOVE