A group of fourth-year medical students from the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell took part in the Culinary Medicine elective that integrates nutrition education with hands-on experience in a hospital kitchen.
The program is designed to help future physicians better understand how food and dietary choices intersect with patient care.
On Jan. 15, the students commuted to Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital for a pediatric nutrition session. They cooked in an active hospital kitchen while observing how meals are prepared for patients.
Eva Sheridan, an assistant professor in the Department of Science and Science Education at the Zucker School, collaborated with Alice Fornari, a registered dietician and a professor of science education and family medicine at the school, to create the elective in 2020.
“My sister is a [veterinarian], and she went to vet school back at the time, and as part of vet school, she had a whole semester where she was learning about the feeding schedule of the animals,” Sheridan recalled, speaking at the start of the program. “And I was kind of thinking, huh, when I went to school, and still, there was no learning about the feeding of human beings, and that is essential.”
Sheridan joined the Zucker School faculty in 2018 after working in psychiatry research, where she focused on mitigating weight gain often caused by antipsychotic medications. Her current role involves facilitating small-group learning throughout the medical school curriculum.
The course uses Health Meets Food courseware, which integrates nutrition science, clinical cases and culinary instruction. When the elective first launched during the coronavirus pandemic, it was conducted remotely, with students taking part in case discussions and viewing live cooking demonstrations on Zoom. Once in-person learning resumed, the program moved into hospital kitchens.
It is structured around selected nutrition modules, which have included protein intake, food allergies, weight management and pediatric nutrition.
Executive Chef Russell Ficke, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, leads the hands-on cooking at LIJ Valley Stream. Ficke has worked for Northwell Health since 2004, and came to Valley Stream in 2021, after 17 years at Syosset Hospital. He has been involved with the Culinary Medicine elective for five years.
“I think it’s great that … they know that we can help them help patients,” Ficke said of the medical students. “That's what I really like about it, that I’m making a difference in my own little way through the back end.”
During the session two weeks ago, students prepared dishes aligned with the pediatric nutrition module, including butternut squash and white bean quesadillas, cauliflower mac and cheese, sweet potato fries, spaghetti squash pasta, hidden vegetable hamburgers, peanut butter and banana roll-ups and sautéed Swiss chard.
Cooking in a functioning hospital kitchen allows students to observe large-scale food preparation, offering them insight into how hospital food service operates while they work independently or in small groups on their own dishes. LIJ Valley Stream prepares meals from scratch and sources vegetables locally when available. Students shared the dishes they prepare as part of the course experience.
Student Eusha Hasan took part in Culinary Medicine while applying to internal medicine residency programs, having completed his undergraduate education at the University of Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Zucker School. The course, he said, allowed him to apply nutrition concepts discussed in patient cases directly to cooking and future patient education.
As a self-described novice cook, Hasan found the session at LIJ Valley Stream accommodating to students with varying culinary skills.
“[Ficke] was more than willing to teach us at all levels,” Hasan said. “Me being on the very more basic, rudimentary level, and that, while some of my other classmates were more advanced, and he was able to modulate his teaching based on that.”
Student Maia Pavlovic took the course to learn more about holistic medicine, her interest shaped by her personal experience living with Type 1 diabetes. After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Florida, she has conducted research in infectious diseases, autoimmunity, diabetes and endocrinology at various research centers in different parts of the country. Culinary Medicine, Pavlovic said, increased her confidence in addressing food and nutrition as part of patient treatment plans, and reinforced the value of multidisciplinary care involving dietitians.
Sheridan said that the long-term goal is to expand nutrition education beyond an elective format and integrate the culinary coursework more broadly into the medical school curriculum. Northwell Health plans to open a dedicated teaching kitchen in the future.
