Local flavor makes for restaurant-like meals — at a hospital

Feb. 18, 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by Avera.

We savor the dining experience with much more than our taste buds.

When we see the steak sizzling on the grill, hear its crackle as the fire jumps and inhale the rich scent as it cooks – it makes the formality of finally tasting it all that much more.

To optimize that sensory superstorm, chefs know they cannot slap any old ingredient on the grill or toss subpar salad greens into a bin and call things good. They have to seek out the best, be willing to explain why it’s so good and find ways to make it all happen without busting a budget.

“We work every day in all we do to put the spotlight on the amazing variety and quality that comes from locally produced food on the menu at Our Daily Bread,” said Nicholas Skajewski, executive chef of Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center. “We’re ready – as a team – to explain the ‘why’ behind our choices. The ingredients themselves answer a lot of questions. They’re just so good.”

Skajewski, along with his teammate, Avera McKennan director of food service Amanda Viau, oversees the culinary efforts at Our Daily Bread, the exhibition-style bistro at the Avera on Louise Health Campus. But that’s just one site among many in Sioux Falls where he strives to work local proteins, vegetables, fruits and dairy into the mix for patients, guests, staff and families.

It requires balance, brains and a bit of bravery to make it all work.

“Success and cost go hand-in-hand, and we strive to present meals that will appeal to someone that makes $12 an hour as well as someone who earns $250,000 a year, and everyone in between,” he said.

“We offer education along with quality products. On days when we have locally grown lamb from Dakota Fresh on the menu, it’s a bit more expensive. But we’ll also have a more affordable offering, so no one is left out.”

Locally grown lamb, beef and chicken are just a few examples. Skajewski said the products from Parlour Ice Cream House, a Sioux Falls-based ice-cream maker, are another curiosity for guests. Another is coffee roasted just up Louise Avenue by Coffea Roasterie and offered at a great price.

“The team that owns Coffea partnered with us, and it’s exciting because we can present an amazing cup of coffee that can trace its sourcing all the way back to a mountainside in Ethiopia,” he said. “Those beans were tasted off the tree there, purchased and shipped to Sioux Falls where they were roasted. And now we’re serving it.”

Microgreens and mushrooms grown in specialized settings – at Dakota Mushrooms & Microgreens in Sioux Falls – are also mainstays on the bistro’s menu. So too are Farm Life Creamery cheeses. The infrastructure needed to make locally grown food work in the region is improving too. In the past, a rudimentary email to chefs around town went out, and it was a culinary race to get the goods.

“Now, we have real-time ordering for producers in the city, and we can see exactly how many pounds of different produce are available, so we can order with accuracy, and we’ll know what we can get and when,” Skajewski said. “We can also get foods at peak freshness and make use of them in that state.”

While spelling this out, the chef recounted a recent shipment of carrots, grown in a nearby hoop house, carrots so fresh and sweet they amazed Skajewski, his team and more importantly – everyone who tried them.

“They were so good we could put them on the menu as honey-glazed carrots, and we added no sugar, no sweetener at all,” he said. “We see those sorts of ingredients as tools to help us change the perception people might have about hospital food. It’s not dull or ‘meh.’ It can be really great – and it’ll only get better.”

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Local flavor makes for restaurant-like meals — at a hospital

From local meats to produce, Coffea coffee to Parlour ice cream, this team sees local ingredients “as tools to help us change the perception people might have about hospital food.”

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