HFM Seeks Chef Competitors

The National Society for Healthcare Foodservice Management (HFM) is seeking top healthcare chefs to participate in the 5th Annual Culinary Competition at the HFM Annual Leadership Conference, which will be held Aug. 25 at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa in California. Culinary professionals (chefs, cooks and production personnel) employed at an HFM member facility are eligible.

For the competition, each team is being challenged to create an original entrée recipe with side dishes and sauces to balance the plate using the featured product, IBP Flat Iron Everyday Steaks from Tyson Food Service, the competition's exclusive sponsor. Five teams of finalists will be selected to compete live at the Leadership Conference. A panel of industry experts will judge the final plate presentations and award gold, silver and bronze medals. HFM will provide free registration to the conference, two nights at the hotel and a $500 scholarship to the five chef finalists.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for healthcare chefs to showcase their incredible talent and for operators to demonstrate the creativity and passion that exists in the on-staff healthcare foodservice industry,” says Paul Luttmann, executive chef at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, SD, and a past competition winner and current Culinary Competition team chair. “As a past participant, I can attest to how much fun it is to compete in the collegial—yet intense—atmosphere of HFM’s Culinary Competition.”