FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick

This special Halloween episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick features OU Culinary Services Executive Pastry Chef Vicki Van Pelt and Southeast Ohio History Center Tour Guide George Eberts. In a “trick, then treat” style interview, we weave together local ghost stories with tempting treats from the bake shop. Athens, Ohio, has been acknowledged by ghost hunters as one of the most haunted places in the world. The folklore leads down some very spooky paths. Eberts is a skeptic, but he manages to still give us chills! And Van Pelt, a native of West Virginia, is sharing not only the sweet and savory treats from the dining team, but also her knowledge of a West Virginia legend, the Mothman! We also get into why and how local lore gets started and sticks, the way mental health and the fear of the unknown plays into it all as well. So get cozy with some hot cider and a donut and let’s tell some spooky stories!

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, the guest, Chef Maira Nogueira shares with us her unique journey to the kitchen and what she’s most excited about on campus this year. She has a few goals she’s working toward, including a more humanized kitchen from a psychological standpoint to doing more with sustainability and community. We also get into ayurvedic eating, an interesting way of life with seemingly lots of culinary secrets to unlock for increasing our wellness and wellbeing.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we take a deep dive into the University of Nevada, Reno’s fresh new updates to the Chartwells dining program, including later night hours, grab-and-go trends and concept makeovers. Executive Chef Jon Buchholtz takes us behind the scenes into how the planning process went for all the changes and how it’s been going so far. With labor concerns ever-present, the dining team has found ways to offer more while working with less, essentially. We also get into the growing catering program and find out a little more about Buchholtz’s culinary viewpoint.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we sit down with the man behind some of Cleveland’s absolute best restaurants, Chef Douglas Katz. Way back in 2014, we featured Katz in FM; at that time, at the art museum, where he showed us some ceviche secrets. Later, we ran into him all the way in California at a sustainable foods institute at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and now our paths cross again in the onsite foodservice world, as Katz has signed on with the Cleveland Clinic and Morrison Healthcare for a partnership that’s sure to be all about great food, great health and the hands-on spirit that has made Katz last so long as a hyper-competent, yet super humble Cleveland chef to be reckoned with.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we are zooming in on the Cura Comfort Cart at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa. The Comfort Cart is proving to be a great way for the dining crew to help the nursing staff provide comfort to hospital visitors who have just received bad news. The reality of a hospital setting is: Death is part of life. And bad news can also come in the form of a move to hospice, a diagnosis or any jarring medical event, really. The professional caregivers have to walk a fine line between compassion and professionalism. Staying sane and filling their own cups means they can care for others more effectively. We talk with creator of the cart, Cura Hospitality’s Jessica Kotuba, patient services manager, and Windy Flynn, dining services director. The two are experienced in the healthcare space, and have some interesting info to share about the carts and also how their skill sets help them practice compassion.

Morrison Healthcare’s Senior Director of Culinary Innovation gives us a behind-the-scenes look into the way healthcare dining evolves, ultimately achieving the very real power to heal patients, staff, community.

Chef Abbie Gellman, MS, RD, CDN, is looking to bridge the gap between healthy food and delicious food. As a dietitian, she’s got the knowledge about nutrients and plant-based foods, but since she was first a chef, she sees through a lens of flavor. Earlier this year at the UMass Chef’s Conference, an annual learning mecca for college chefs, Gellman developed a workshop, sponsored by Kellogg’s, called Kitchen & Culinary Nutrition Essentials for C&U Registered Dietitians. During the hands-on workshop, Gellman showed participants new ideas in plant-based and plant-forward meals, allergen-friendly meals and late-night ideas, always a hot topic for those who serve college students. On this episode, we go in-depth with Gellman, finding out more about her life and mission, and also her role as a consultant, cookbook author and mom to a picky eater. She shares some plant-based perspective and talks about the many different roles today’s college dietitian can play.

As a former director at one of the nation’s largest school districts, Kern Halls remembers what it’s like to serve school lunch. As a former kid who grew up on school lunch, he also remembers what it’s like to eat it. When Kern and the Ingenious Culinary Concepts team arrives at a school district, the consulting includes observing, listening and then collaborating for cafeteria solutions that turn a blah cafeteria into the coolest hangout spot in the school. Fresh paint is huge, but even bigger is the infectious enthusiasm that Halls brings to each job. Over the years, FM has featured Halls’ work and also his personal experiences in life recently we caught up with him at the SNA show in Denver, and next thing you know he was recording a podcast, calling in from the airport on his way to a school in Idaho. He’s full of energy, and hopefully listening to this fresh new podcast will help energize you for back to school.

On this episode of On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we meet Executive Chef Jim Kellenberger, a recent winner of FM’s Healthcare Recipe Contest in the Best Sustainable category with a seasonal stunner of a salad: Romaine lettuce, green beans and cherry tomatoes are topped with a blood orange vinaigrette and candied pumpkin seeds from last year’s pumpkin carve. Kellenberger, a military veteran, has worked in many different settings, including New York/New Jersey fine dining, Vegas buffets and hot spots, and Knott’s Berry Farm in California (known for its creative berry-themed food items). When he came to healthcare dining, he didn’t realize what a positive impact it would have on his life or the fulfilling nature of the job. Lately, he's been working making sustainable meals that heal for thousands every day at the hospital. The education piece of healthcare dining is important to him too, and we get into that as well.

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we are catching up with SDSU’s Executive Chef Tiago Battastini, a longtime friend of FM who we happily ran into at this year’s UMass Chefs Conference. This conversation features a recap of how the UMass Chefs’ Conference played out this year for Battastini and his team, and the full-circle moment of attending this conference in a leadership role. We find out what’s been going on with that dining team at SDSU, including hyper-local campus farming, world flavors, new projects and how Battastini gets inspired by his crew every day. Also, we talked off-air about a very cool new concept at SDSU that draws on some very fascinating historical cuisine that’s not often explored, but college foodservice is actually an ideal place to execute it. Intrigued? We are too! Stay tuned for FM’s next issue of our new digizine for more on that hint!

On this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, we get to know HHS Director Trula Hepner, a real-deal healthcare foodservice professional with an unstoppable drive to nourish patients, staff and the community. Hepner is a winner of this year’s FM Healthcare Recipe Contest, and her Fresh Fennel-stuffed Porchetta, which won the Best Roast category, blew us away with all the succulent flavor and of course, that crispy, crackly skin (she gives us her tips in the interview!) Hepner talks about fennel as an ingredient, both raw and cooked, and why she always looks for ingredients with lots of healing nutrients and weaves them into homey comfort food that heals the soul, too. Her many educational events and classes have made a difference to patients facing all kinds of health challenges, so they can create those nourishing meals at home, a whole new experience for lots of people.

FLIK Hospitality’s Chef Will Pfeiffer learns from local beekeeper, spearheads amazing custom-built hive mind and honey-powered new menu items to IBM’s Louis V. Gerstner Center for Learning.

In this episode of FM On Demand with Tara Fitzpatrick, it’s Alaska or bust! An old friend of FM, we first met Chef Amy Foote of the ANTHC (Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium) back in 2016, when she shared with us the healing potential of traditional Alaskan foods and even shared some recipes for fiddlehead fern pizza, hatcher pass salad, wild nettle smoked salmon pesto linguine and herring egg salad. Now, we’re catching up with Chef Amy on what she’s been up to on the healthcare foodservice frontier, including her work with different Alaska Native groups and her efforts to extend the chilly climate’s short growing season with growing technology for microgreens and more. Just living in Alaska sounds like an adventure, so we also get into everyday occurrences that sound wild to mainlanders, like seeing bears and even an angry mama moose (you really, really don’t want to mess with Ms. Mama Moose, according to Chef Amy!)

Aramark Healthcare+ Senior Culinary and Wellness Director Josh Ingraham is back in the healthcare dining game after a few innings of ballpark experience and starting his own healthy food to-go business during the pandemic. He’s now ready to delve into food as medicine from a scientific (and flavor-forward) standpoint.

Mike White has been at UConn since his undergrad days in the early ‘90s, when he started in the dishroom, learning all aspects of the dining program. Now, he’s putting his own stamp on it.

The collaborative, hyper-local meat program at MSU includes the dining team, agriculture college, area ranchers and local 4-H groups. We talk to the program’s coordinator and the chef to learn about the process from ranch to dining hall.

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Camilo Garavito studied business and hospitality in Costa Rica, got an MBA in Barcelona, and along the way worked in restaurants, making each experience a learning one. Now, he’s helping Wisconsin school food professionals at Elior North America accounts, leading K-12 by Elior’s new Chef on the Road Program. The name of the program says it all; Garavito is always on the go, and he’s making the most of it. His inspiration comes from visiting the schools and meeting the foodservice teams and students. We talk about how a new perspective and fresh eyes can really add some zip to a school food program. He’s bringing in cool new recipes, ingredients and a can-do attitude along with him. We also get into his extensive world travels and how each learning experience he had is serving him now as he applies his knowledge to the many unique challenges of school food.

Teton Waters Ranch has focused on K-12 and developed products for kids—including blended beef hot dogs with veggies—working with Loveland’s Thompson School District to fine tune the recipes and get real-time, honest kid feedback.

Back in January, we had BGSU Dining by Chartwells’ marketing guy on the podcast. Now, it’s the chef’s turn to share his side of the dining story on the BGSU Dining by Chartwells foodservice team at Bowling Green State University, which sits on the flat plains of eastern Ohio, perfect grounds for robots to roam. Executive Chef Eric Yung tells us all about the progression of the robot food delivery program, which has been in place since 2020, when robots became a bigger reality in lots of places, college campuses in the forefront. We also talk about Yung’s culinary inspirations from a passion for zero-waste to the vast diversity found in Ohio foodways (Cuban cuisine in Toledo, goetta in Cincinnati) and his plans for the year ahead. Also, we found out that the chef’s son has decided to attend culinary school at his dad’s alma mater, The Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, NY. As a dad, he’s sure to be proud, and as a chef, he’s got a unique set of advice to offer. We wish his son the best!

Chef Danny Concepcion has been featured in FM many times. He’s always ready with cool new culinary ideas and projects. As Executive Chef at Table 29 at Sam’s Club Home Office in Arkansas, Concepcion makes every meal out of the ordinary. Recently, an old school steak pop-up got everyone at Sam’s talking (and eating). A family man, Concepcion takes leadership very seriously, and shares his own weight-lifting journey on social media and gets his family involved with exercise, too. Teamwork is a part of so many aspects of his life! He’s very inspiring to talk to, and we get into several culinary topics, along with the dry-aged steak. Concepcion’s life has taken him from Puerto Rico to NYC to Vegas and now Arkansas, and along the way he’s absorbed many different cultural flavors. We talk about his connection to Puerto Rico, and how a themed day ended up having healing powers.