Good food comforts the soul. And when it comes to battling illness, food is an important part of a patient’s road to recovery.

Darryl Start, Executive Chef of Piedmont Atlanta, gives us a behind-the-scenes look at Piedmont’s kitchen and explains why food is such an important part of the healing process.

“We feed approximately 3000 people every day at Piedmont Atlanta,” Start says. “That number includes guests, patients and staff. We marinate our chicken and produce roasts from scratch. And we really try to emulate basic home cooking.”

To prepare food at this scale, Start leads a team of 25 chefs.

“I was trained at Le Cordon Bleu,” says Carey Lewis, one of the chefs on Start’s team. “I detoured from restaurants and got into wellness food because I love helping people, and the hospital is the best place to do that.”

Start and his team enjoy whipping up tasty recipes, but they also strive to make sure all of their meals are healthy.

“Chef will give me the recipe as he would like to prepare it, and then I do the nutrition analysis on it,” says Susan Chapman, Piedmont Atlanta’s Nutrition Services Manager.  “Then we go back and start negotiating on how low he can bring the sodium and still have a good product.”

Food can heal

“Many chefs came to me when I came here ten years ago, and said, ‘Why are you going to a hospital from a resort hotel,’” Start says. “My primary purpose and what drove me to healthcare was the promising fact that I could help somebody heal. We are helping to heal them upstairs on the hospital floor, and in the kitchen we are using food as part of the healing process.”

Learn more about services and treatments offered at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital.

Need to make an appointment with a Piedmont physician? Save time, book online.