“Our team of cooks find joy in doing their job well, and it shows.” Over 9,000 meals are served each day across all of NYU Langone’s hospitals.
Credit: NYU Langone
When hospital food doesn’t live up to the rest of the care a patient receives, poor nutrition and patient experience could result in worse overall outcomes. At NYU Langone Health, this was an unacceptable risk, prompting a rebuilding of its dining operation to ensure world-class care permeates every meal.
Today, NYU Langone’s Food and Nutrition Services aims to encourage patients and visitors to access healthy food and spread education about how delicious and nutritious food can support recovery and wellness.
Beneath Tisch Hospital on First Avenue, NYU Langone’s kitchen comes alive at 5:00AM to do its part to combat the nationwide reputation of hospital food as “bad” and take full advantage of the wide range of benefits a good meal can provide to patients and families.
Food services staff bustle along spotless floors, while vegetable unboxings resemble an influencer prepping for the week—if that influencer were making thousands of meals daily. By afternoon, steam rises from crispy roasting chicken, garlicky kale brightens dishes, and homemade chocolate chip cookies perfume the air. While patients undergo lifesaving procedures on the floors above, this is where the fuel for recovery is crafted for patients, families, and staff. This scene is made possible by the health system’s decision to abandon contracted food services and instead build an in-house culinary operation. And it doesn’t stop at Manhattan. All locations use the same recipes, products, and ingredients to ensure that all patients receive the same great experience, regardless of which hospital they visit.
“This vision of hospital food as an extension of caring for patients and families has been a decade in the making,” said Vicki Match Suna, AIA, executive vice president and vice dean for NYU Langone’s Real Estate Development and Facilities Department. “One year ago, we brought all of our operations in-house and we’re setting a new standard for how we can contribute to patients’ experience and recovery.”
The health system now serves over 9,000 meals daily across all its hospitals, including Brooklyn and Long Island. In 2024, the Manhattan hospital alone served more than 2 million meals.
This dining transformation had been in development for years—with Dan Dilworth, health system senior director of food and nutrition services, and his team of former restaurant chefs beginning concrete steps in 2014 when they prioritized scratch cooking and sourcing of the best quality ingredients. They continued the momentum by eliminating deep fryers across all facilities and started focusing on responsibly sourcing sustainable supplies and products. Exceptions are made, understanding that food can be a source of comfort in tough situations, so chicken nuggets are on hand for pediatric patients.
Patients are now reporting more positive experiences with meals that support their recovery. Jessica Schreck, RD, director of food and nutrition at NYU Langone Hospital—Suffolk and director of clinical nutrition, recalls a patient who had difficulty chewing and swallowing who received a meal but left it untouched. Hospital staff, drawing on the kitchen’s capabilities, offered a made-to-order smoothie, packed with protein and fresh fruit, that was calibrated to meet the patient’s nutritional requirements. The patient finished the entire smoothie, and the family shed tears of relief, demonstrating how personalized nutrition can make a meaningful difference in patient care.
Across the system, each menu is tailored to the orders of the patient’s physician. For example, patients with heart conditions receive meal options with precise sodium levels, and those managing diabetes receive carefully calculated carbohydrates. Fan-favorite foods include olive oil–citrus muffins and tender short ribs. Even the rice gets special attention, as the staff use extra saffron to infuse a new standard of flavor when they need to avoid other additives.
“Patients can’t control their medical condition or the fact that they are in the hospital,” Dilworth said. “But they can control the meals they choose to eat. Food is something that’s very personal, and it affects the recovery process.”
The food and nutrition team regularly review research to understand how dietary interventions support healing, and then they put science into practice. A major milestone was when patients not only began to eat hospital meals but also asked for the recipes to take home (some, including , are available on NYU Langone’s ).
Jeffrey Held, director of culinary operations, who previously served in some of New York’s top restaurants, has a vivid memory of his father recovering from brain surgery at another hospital and being served questionably nutritious food that was clearly prepared without thought or care.
The team at NYU Langone wants patients to understand that they can meet their doctor’s recommendations and still enjoy their food.
Held and Dilworth are also committed to NYU Langone’s sustainability focus.
“We started buying fresh herbs,” Held said. “We found antibiotic-free poultry from farms within 150 miles of the city and fresh fish from our restaurant connections. We also started tasting food every day in the kitchen.”
Recent innovations include a beverage program overhaul that reduced plastic packaging by 44 percent and sugar content by 22 percent while increasing overall consumption.
Patient satisfaction with food has increased, though the real measures of success are whether patients eat enough to support their recovery and whether they learn principles they can apply at home.
“We have barely scratched the surface of our plans, but it’s a glimpse of what’s possible,” Held said. “Our team of cooks find joy in doing their job well, and it shows.”
See NYU Langone’s menu for patients.
About NYU Langone Health
NYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone No. 1 out of 118 comprehensive academic medical centers across the nation for four years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently ranked four of its clinical specialties No. 1 in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and more than 320 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. The system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise.
Media Inquiries
Arielle Sklar
Phone: 646-960-2696
Arielle.Sklar@NYULangone.org
