Confessions of Tony Almeida

Tony Almeida, director of food and nutrition at 608-bed Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., hasn’t joined the organic and sustainable bandwagon but loves chocolate-covered raspberries.

Q. What is the best part of your job?

Dealing with employees and customers.

Q. What is the worst part of your job?

Staying within budget.

Q. What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

Winning the Silver Plate award in healthcare in 2010.

Q. If you weren't in foodservice what would you be doing?

Probably selling insurance.

Q. Which talent would you most like to have?

Singing. It would be so cool to go to work every day making people happy.

Q. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Lose 30 pounds.

Q. What is your greatest fear?

Getting complacent and losing the drive.
 

Q. Which living person do you most admire?

Betty Perez, senior director of food and nutrition services at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, because of her achievements.

Q. What is your favorite meal?

Braised lamb shanks.

Q. What is your guilty pleasure?

Chocolate-covered raspberries.

Q. What will people always find in your refrigerator?

Lots of champagne.

Q. What food fad do you wish had never started?

Organic. All people need to do is wash their produce and it would all be organic.

Q. What is the weirdest food you have ever eaten?

Bone marrow.
 

Q. What do you consider to be the most overrated foodservice trend?

Sustainable foods. People just throw these words around and they have no clue what they mean.

Q. What are your words to live by?

“I have the simplest of tastes; I only want the best.”