You Deserve Good Care and Feeding

Dear Pros,

You've got Kat this week and hopefully by the time you read this, I won't be writing from a Downtown Manhattan hospital room. I'm not the patient, but my husband is, and because he's my favorite person in the universe, what happens to him affects both of us. That definitely includes what he's eating — and the care that goes into making it.

Since he had a major heart attack exactly one month ago today, I've gotten a crash course in cooking the DASH diet, which is low in salt, carbs, sugar, cholesterol, and various fats, and chock-a-block with vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, olive oil, and as much flavor as I can possibly muster so meals come from a place of joy and nourishing rather than deprivation and resignation. It's been a learning curve, and one that's been compounded by the painful digestive issues that recently landed him back in the hospital on a liquid diet. But I have hope — in part because of Brigaid.

Several months ago, Food & Wine named Brigaid as one of our 2024 Game Changers — a carefully selected group of people, organizations, and products changing the food landscape for the better. I had the opportunity to interview Brigaid founder Dan Giusti on the Tinfoil Swans podcast, where he explained the company's two-pronged mission of working with institutions like schools, prisons, eldercare facilities, and hospitals to improve the way they think about and serve food, and creating sustainable careers for chefs outside of the restaurant world.

In 2016, Giusti shocked the fine dining world by stepping away from his role as head chef at Noma to focus on institutional food, but as he told me, "If you’re on this earth and you’re a person, then you should have access to a good meal."

That includes people on very restricted diets, and Giusti expressed to me his frustration that as a society, Americans have come to expect inferior food as part of the experience of healthcare. As he sees it, food might not be the main focus of hospitals, but it's incredibly important for their main function — helping people get well.

"There's a huge group of people in a place where they absolutely need better food, whether it's because of their health or they're food insecure," Giusti says. "For whatever reason, we turned a blind eye to it. It's terrible because we've come to a place where we really accept it — bad school food or bad hospital food. People joke about if they're not dependent on it; if it hasn't affected their life in a big way."

It has affected mine in a big way, and my husband's, and probably the life of someone you care about. I have seen firsthand the vast difference between when a hospital is providing basic sustenance to the patients in their care, and when there is a bit more thought given to the presentation, flavors, and hospitality in the food that is served. It's the gap between a meal that someone forces down to stay alive, and one that reminds them that despite their current circumstances, there is still pleasure in the world — and even more to look forward to in the future. You can learn more about Brigaid's mission — and explore career opportunities as a chef — at their website, my interview with Giusti, or in the Game Changers profile.

And I hope that in the next few days, you can take a moment to stop and feed yourself something that brings you delight, not just fuel. Some manner of food that makes you grateful to have senses, and helps you look forward to the next bite, the next meal, the next day of being alive. You absolutely deserve it. We all do.

Be well,
Kat