Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., has initiated a new staff training program, White Toque Culinarians, that emphasizes flavors and prioritizes organizing mise en place, knife skills, equipment usage, recipe math and food safety, according to an article on the Food Service Equipment & Supplies website.
"In order to implement a new patient menu and improve the retail menu, our staff had to have more professional culinary skills," Timothy Gee, executive chef, said in the article.
The program consists of three levels and employees must complete one before moving on to the next. Nearly 80 percent of the foodservice staff has completed training.
In addition to training staff to produce the new patient menu rolled out last fall, the chefs also train staff to produce food at an action station.
The station does approximately 275 transactions a day with an average guest check of $5.50, the article said. The projected yearly profit will be $202,046 — a 309 percent increase.