Iron Chef - the hospital version

Chefs of 15 hospitals from around Israel met at Rambam to cross knives in a contest to see who could prepare the best meals for patients.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Usually when knives come out in a hospital it is in the operating room - but last week much of the cutting at Haifa's Rambam hospital was going on in the kitchen, reports www.local.co.il. In what might be termed "Iron Chef - Medical Version," the chefs of 15 hospitals from around Israel met at Rambam to cross knives in a contest to see who could prepare the best meals for patients. And the winners, judged by a professional panel from the Association of Israeli Chefs, turned out to be host hospital Rambam, while Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem came in second and Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital in third place. According to the report, the competition was first held last year at Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital, at the initiative of that hospital and the chefs' association, and this year moved to Haifa's Rambam hospital. The report said the chefs were hoping to change the public's image of hospital food, to bring hospital kitchen employees' awareness up to a level similar to that of kitchen staff in quality hotels, and to improve cooperation between hospitals on the subject of food preparation and service to patients. In the competition, the hospital chefs were required to prepare three full meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner - from a number of set ingredients within one hour. Entries were judged on presentation, taste and creativity, with the winners receiving sets of professional chefs' knives.