Rick Tinsley: Driving sales with global flavors

At a Glance

3,500—meals served daily

71—full-time dining employees

41—years Tinsley has worked in foodservice

Accomplishments

To say that Rick Tinsley has moved around a lot is an understatement. Though the director of food and nutrition at Morrison Healthcare’s Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., considers himself “mostly from the Southeast,” he has been all over, from North Carolina to Missouri for college, and coast to coast with many places in between during his decades in foodservice. Tinsley’s 2005 relocation to Cathedral City, Calif., was his 42nd move.

While some would get exhausted at the mere thought of moving so many times, Tinsley has benefited both personally and professionally: Having to adapt to so many different places has made him more open and accepting not only of different foods and cuisines, but also of different people and cultures.

“I understand why people look at things differently,” he says. “Something clicked in me that this is important—my way isn’t the only way of doing things.”

Tapping into diversity

Tinsley’s passion for diversity is part of the reason he still gets excited about his job after 41 years in the foodservice industry. In 1999, when he was recruited by Morrison Healthcare, part of the Compass Group, to work as associate director of food and nutrition at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Compton, Calif., he found himself serving a customer base that was almost entirely African-American and Hispanic. Tinsley grew up eating soul food but didn’t feel as well-versed in Mexican cuisine, so he started asking staff members for menu suggestions.

“Menudo and posole became standards,” he says. “My staff showed me how to recycle stir-fried rice and other leftovers from the night before. It was practical, made folks very happy and was a cost saver.”

By the time Tinsley took on his current role as director of food and nutrition at Eisenhower Medical Center in November 2014, he had experience with enough international cuisines to start a regular schedule of diversity events at Café 34, the hospital’s primary restaurant. Tinsley observed that the cafe wasn’t offering enough variety for its captive audience of hospital staff, which account for approximately 80 percent of its customers. He immediately increased the frequency of menu updates, including a three-week menu cycle for various stations, surveying customers on their preferred items from Morrison’s corporate menu and training cooks on new recipes. At least two special events—which have celebrated everything from the Hindu holiday of Diwali to the traditional Iranian New Year festival of Nowruz to Norwegian Constitution Day—are held each month, and typically include advance marketing and a variety of special foods, decorations, music and even outside guests to educate customers on the foods and traditions.

In addition to being a big draw for the hospital’s racially and ethnically diverse staff, Tinsley says the events have created a sense of ownership among his foodservice staffers, who represent 10 different countries and many more ethnicities and backgrounds. Because Tinsley involves them in idea generation, menu development and cooking, they get excited about sharing recipes and cultures, he says.

The special events often feature entrees with high profit margins, and Tinsley works to keep costs in line and up the “wow” factor of the cafe’s fruit and vegetable stand by scouring local markets for good deals on fresh produce. As a result, Café 34’s revenues have jumped 17 percent year over year.

“He’s out there talking to customers to see what they want and what they’re willing to pay, while still being passionate about what he’s doing,” says Colleen McGrath, regional director of operations for Morrison and Tinsley’s former peer. “Some menu items are actually at higher price points than what we’ve done in the past, but because of the quality of the meal and the ingredients, customers recognize the value.”

Bridging the gap through food

All of that success doesn’t mean Tinsley didn’t make some bloopers along the way, he says. Although he has pursued a diversity theme with good intentions, he didn’t anticipate some of the sensitivities that have resulted.

“When you’ve got cultures next to each other that have been at odds, it’s tough observing one [holiday] but not the other,” he says. “I try to be as inclusive as I can so nobody’s left out. It takes some studying, sensitivity and talking to people to get their input.”

Lisa Trombley, regional vice president for Morrison, says that Tinsley’s passion for what he does makes all the difference.

“He does a lot of research,” she says. “He looks for specialty food products and goes to markets for ingredients to make sure the dishes are really authentic—not just an American way of celebrating.”

Watching the news, it becomes clear that many people believe their view is the only view, Tinsley says. He’s convinced that the easiest, most nonthreatening way to understand where others are coming from is through food.

“All cultures and religions have their own foods, and maybe that’s a good way to start being open-minded about looking at different views or different people,” he says.