Our executive chefs Angel Ramirez and DeWayne Pace had some fun last week at their annual Food and Nutrition Sciences Culinary Foundation course at the Plant City Gordon Food Service center.

Our Food and Nutrition department is always striving for greatness to cook better and healthier meals for the residents at all of our health centers. Last week, members of our culinary staff gathered together for the opportunity to learn various cooking techniques to improve their skills.

The interactive class taught by our very own Chef Ramirez and Chef Pace featured demos on searing, blanching, pureeing, bread making and proofing, and following a handful of recipes from start to finish. The day concluded with our own version of a “Chopped” competition.

“This year we noticed our team was especially in tune with the lectures and lessons they had just been taught, and applied much of it in preparing their food during the competition,” Chef Angel Ramirez said.

The winners of the competition are as follows:

• Best Overall: Daniel Gonzales, Village Place Health and Rehabilitation Center
• First Place: Sara Hilliard, Riverwood Health and Rehabilitation Center
• Second Place: Courtney Williams, Greenbriar Health and Rehabilitation Center
• Third Place: Mario McTier, The Lodge Health and Rehabilitation Center

Congratulations to all of our outstanding winners, to the staff at large for a success day of learning, and to our dedicated Executive Chefs for another successful year!

We’d also like to extend our thanks to our two participants from Healthcare Services Group for spending the day with us.

We look forward to our next Culinary Foundation event for our Ohio health centers very soon!