FM On Demand: UNC Health goes around the world and shares tips for cooking with plantains

FM On Demand are video interviews with onsite dining professionals who talk about creative and interesting initiatives they have developed or undertaken. Check back each week for new episodes.

Chef Carlos Castillo-Blanco of Chapel Hill’s UNC Health is helping guests, staff and patients travel—and taste—the world through teamwork and food’s transportive power. By planning and executing a 20-day “tour” around the world through global street food, the food team at UNC is taking some of the doldrums out of the long-haul aspects of the coronavirus pandemic.

UNC’s director, Jim McGrody, is a source of inspiration to the culinary team, always throwing out challenges to do more and make it more creative, more interesting, according to Castillo-Blanco. “This is a tribute to the fact that we can’t travel, so we will bring the world, food and culture to our customers,” McGrody says.

Each customer gets a “passport” to be stamped with the different locations of the dishes. This has included a focus on Latin America and its diverse set of ingredients and influences. Castillo-Blanco shares with us the different uses for plantain, where it’s found and other ingredients you may not use every day.

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