This is a copy of the talk I gave during lunch at the Mayo Clinic Transformation Symposium 9-14-09
I hope you have enjoyed the lunch today. If you are interested in recreating any of the dishes at home you can find the recipes on my website.
The recipes I chose to prepare today are an example of what I perceive to be a healthy lunch. I also chose these recipes because they are a good example of what you could be eating for lunch everyday.
You should know that the food served today is not difficult to prepare nor is it expensive. Today's recipes are simple, fresh dishes made from whole foods, whole grains, vegetables, legumes and a reasonable amount of lean animal protein.
As food touches our lives in so many ways and comes to us from so many outlets, today I will focus on one specific area that has great potential to change our eating habits. I believe that one of the biggest opportunities to change peoples eating habits towards healthful and also educate them at the same time can be found in our cafeterias.
We spend so much of our time at school and at work. The people who operate these food outlets have the huge responsibility of providing us with sound nutritious foods every day. We count on these people to have our best interest in mind as they plan out the menus that they will be serving us. Over time we have come to accept our cafeterias for what they are; some are great and some are not so great.
My idea is to finally turn these food outlets into what they should be, the food and nutritional centers of our world.
We need to come to the understanding that the people who feed us must be the experts we can count on when it comes to our health and well being.
The people who run these operations, whether in-house or contracted, must have our best interests in mind as they become our new partners in health, wellness and nutrition.
We need to work closely with these people in deciding on the foods that we want to eat every day and what foods we want to be taken off of the menu.
We need to know each and every ingredient in the foods that they are feeding us. No more mystery meat or over-processed heat and serve frozen T.V. dinners.
We need to be informed of all preservatives, flavor enhancers, sodium, added sugar or fat.
We need to know which items are vegan or vegetarian. Items with wheat gluten, nuts, or other allergens need to be pointed out. Foods that are diabetic friendly need to be identified and explained to us. We want to know which foods we should eat for better nourishment. We need dieticians to teach us how to choose foods that are higher in antioxidants, fiber, nutrition and vitamins.
We need all of this information posted on an interactive website where we can see it and talk about it.
In short we want to know everything about what they are feeding us and why.
And finally, the food must be so great that we want to buy it to bring home at the end of the day to feed our friends and family. In a world strapped for time wouldn't this be a big help?
Is this too much to ask? Why would we settle for less?
This new idea may sound daunting to you at first, but as a chef I can assure you that it is not.
All of these cafeterias are already up and running. They serve hundreds of people each day. They are staffed and fully equipped.
The only thing that needs to change are the ingredients. This change does not even need to happen overnight. It could be as simple as adding one new healthy recipe each week.
In one year you will have 52 new healthy recipes to choose from.
As the year goes on we can also add fun and creative promotions to be held in the cafeteria.
These promotions could simply be set up on a table or two in the back of the room.
There is an endless list of local businesses that would love to get in our doors.
Here are some creative ideas that we would love to see:
Invite local farmers into the cafeteria to sell us fresh produce a few days a month.
Invite local health-focused restaurants and bakeries into the cafeteria to prepare and sell a signature healthy item.
Invite healthy cookbook authors into the cafeteria to sign and sell books while speaking about healthy cooking. They could also do a cooking demo.
Invite local trainers and yoga instructors in to talk about their classes.
Invite local bloggers and tweeters in to talk about the best way to find healthful information on the internet.
Bring in local gardeners to talk about growing co-ops.
Bring in livestock growers to speak about buying whole free range animals.
All of the promotions will cost no money and will help educate people on new ways to pursue a healthy lifestyle.