DALLAS—Throughout the day, oven alarms ring in the Parkland Hospital kitchen to announce that another batch of food is ready to feed not only patients but also nurses, doctors, employees and other visitors.
Each day, as many as 4,500 meals come out of the Parkland Hospital kitchen, up to 2,400 of which are for patients. Heading that task is Adam Schloemer, the executive chef of Parkland since August.
“In my opinion, the food that we serve our patients here isn’t just food,” Schloemer told The Dallas Morning News. “It’s part of their therapy. It’s part of their healing.”
With more than 16 years of diverse culinary experience, ranging from country clubs to child care nutrition, Schloemer leads a team of two sous chefs, four lead chefs, 28 cooks and 180 other workers.
Parkland Hospital offers food to its patients and has a food-court-style cafeteria where workers and family members of patients or guests can eat.
In addition, the kitchen has an in-house catering service that provides food for events within the hospital.
“The most important part is always the patients’ food because there are specific nutritional parameters based on medically prescribed diets, and this is a matter of health,” Schloemer said. “Accidentally altering the sodium content of a recipe could be dangerous to a patient with heart issues, potentially prolonging their stay in the hospital.”
Every morning, Schloemer receives a census of the number of patients in the hospital and the characteristics of the food they need. That way, he knows how many regular meals should be prepared and how many should have less salt, less fat or other ingredients.
Only one dish is regularly prepared for each meal time, since the hospital does not have a menu service. Except for allergy issues or dietary restrictions—if someone is vegan, for example—all patients eat the same dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“For our patient services, we have a cycle menu that runs seven days a week, so that’s our determining factor,” Schloemer explained.
Preparing the regular and holiday menus is not the exclusive task of the chef, but of a team that includes nutritionists and medical experts who define and balance the menus according to patients’ needs.
Special menus are prepared for occasions such as Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Day, such as turkey or some other dish.
One of the most essential parts of the preparation of these foods is the spices, and at Parkland, there is a team in charge of weighing every milligram of ingredients that the dishes must contain.
“I use my culinary skill set to create flavor without adding stuff like fat or salt,” Schloemer said. “To create a dish that tastes good, looks good, is of great quality and is still within those nutritional parameters.”
For the chef, getting patients to eat that food is essential not only because they will eat it with pleasure, but because it is a way for those patients to start eating healthier and realize that nutritious food can also be savory.
“Nutritious food can taste good, can look good, can be good, and maybe that’s an idea they can take home with them and start researching on their own to find healthy recipes that would offer significant or substantial nutrition, that will help them with the recovery at home and help them manage those chronic illnesses,” the chef said.
The love of food was born in Schloemer as a child. In fourth or fifth grade, he used to spend a few weeks of the summer on his grandmother’s farm in Kansas. At age 13, he became the caretaker of his younger siblings while his mother worked the night shift.
“It kind of started off with easy stuff like macaroni and cheese or Hamburger Helper, but we didn’t always have that in the house. So when we didn’t have those meals, it was like, ‘OK, well, I gotta cook something. What do we have?’ And then from there, it kind of grew where I was just going into our fridge or into our pantry and the freezer saying, ‘What do I have? How can I make these work?’” Schloemer said. “They weren’t all winners, but some of them were really good.”
Later, Schloemer decided to apply to college and embark on a culinary career. He earned a bachelor’s degree in culinology, the blending of culinary arts and the science of food, and food service management from Texas Woman’s University.
For the chef, the healing power of food goes beyond nutrition. If a dish creates a connection on a deeper level with a patient and makes them remember their family or a happy moment, that can help them feel better and heal faster, Schloemer said. And that’s what he makes it his mission to do every day.
