St. Mary's Executive Chef Ken Barnett Gives Thanks

It's a big job – and a vital one in a hospital kitchen!

Recently, we asked members of our nutritional team about their positions and how they work to serve our patients and staff. Many people don’t know what an executive chef is, other than their role in creating meals. Here is what Executive Chef Ken Barnett said about his role at St. Mary's:

Someone asked me to write a small blog about what we do and who we are here in the Food and Nutrition Services Department at St. Mary's in partnership with Metz Culinary Management. Well, I wasn’t sure what to say or even how to start. So, after thinking hard about it for a couple days, I just decided to speak from the heart and to let you inside the minds and feeling of the kitchen staff. Next time you're walking down the hall or grabbing a bite to eat in our café, remember we are here for you, as you are for our guests, our families, our patients and our communities.

Most people think they know what the word chef means but most people are wrong! Yes, chef means the person that cooks your food, but it means so much more than just that. An executive chef is responsible for all the food coming in and out of the kitchen. We are responsible not only for the food coming out of the kitchen in a timely manner, we also must make sure it looks good, tastes good and appeals to the people we are serving. A few of the main duties of an executive chef are:

• Monitoring the quality of the food
• Following all food safety regulations
• Creating new food entrees
• Monitoring food cost
• Managing waste
• Managing budgets, and
• Coordinating the entire kitchen – like a conductor of an orchestra

The conductor (or chef) is there to ensure all the pieces (or employees) move together as one, to create a beautiful, seamless flow from one station to another like the sound of one of Joseph Haydn's 68 string quartets, or a symphony by Brahms or Beethoven.

All I can say is thank you to my team for the tremendous role they play in helping manage and monitor all the things we do here in food services. For example, the food waste program we run to help monitor our food is all done by our staff. The staff weighs all leftovers from each station and tracks it for a week on a spreadsheet. Once I receive the spreadsheet at the end of each week, I take a national average of the cost of waste per pound. By doing this I can show the staff the results in how much money we are throwing away and what we can do to help save money for our department.

In the long run, the staff being knowledgeable about waste and the cost that is associated with it will help cut waste and save dollars. Not to mention, the food waste program highly aligns with two of our core values at St. Mary’s: Reverence and Stewardship. Part of the reason the food waste program came to be was to embody the core values by both meaningfully serving and respecting everyone who enters this hospital.

I can't speak for everyone, but for the chefs, the cooks, our co-workers, our friends in the workplace, I know that their Number One goal when they are here at St. Mary's is to take care of the sick, the not well, the people who need us, and to provide good wholesome food for their St. Mary's family in the café. We strive to provide a relaxing, stress-free environment for the heroes at the bedside. We want to create a place where they can slip away and have a moment of peace, somewhere to regroup their thoughts for just a short while until they are called back to the front lines. They put others' needs ahead of their own all the time while they are providing care. It's important that we give them a place where they can relax for a few moments.

For patients and our staff alike, one of our main goals is to provide a quality meal. While we serve thousands of meals a day, we still make it a priority to create meals for every type of person. Oftentimes patients have dietary restrictions; for example, maybe they are gluten intolerant or on a low-salt diet. Once our kitchen team learns of such needs, we take action to ensure the patient receives a meal which accommodates their need while remaining delicious. With that being said, in our café we have something for everyone.

Since eating is essential to living, our team providing quality meals is essential to exceptional care for life.