Geisinger Foodservice employees win silver in culinary competition

Hospitals aren’t known for their tasty food. That’s because patients need meals that are high in nutrition, low in salt and soft.

But did you know Geisinger serves up plenty of mouth-watering fare, from wood-fired pizza to sushi, for staff and visitors?

In fact, 2 foodservice employees — Brian Dixson, regional operations director, and Brianne George, supervisor of foodservice at Geisinger Medical Center Muncy — recently took home a silver medal at the national 2024 Association for Healthcare Foodservice Culinary Competition.

It’s basically Iron Chef for healthcare chefs, which means it’s even tougher than the show.

Not only did their pan-seared venison with blackberry-infused Bordelaise sauce have to taste great, but a serving had to come in at 700 calories max, with less than 23 grams of fat and less than 750 mg of sodium. And all at a cost of no more than $8 a portion.

The path to Geisinger

So how does a love of cooking lead to a career in healthcare?

For Mr. Dixson, it started when his grandfather encouraged him to make the most of his cooking talent by attending culinary school. “I didn't know what that was,” Mr. Dixson admits. 

But off to Penn College’s culinary school he went. In his last semester, Mr. Dixson learned about a full-time cook position at Geisinger. “And here I am,” he says. “July of next year will be 20 years with Geisinger.” 

During those 2 decades, Mr. Dixson used Geisinger’s tuition reimbursement program to earn his MBA at Bloomsburg University. He worked his way up from cook to regional director, and now he oversees foodservice for Geisinger’s hospitals in Bloomsburg, Muncy, Jersey Shore and Lewistown.

Ms. George’s path to Geisinger wasn’t quite as direct. “While working in a modular housing company, I spackled and painted and all those things,” she says. “And I would cook meals for our team to enjoy when we had breaks.”

Her lasagna, meatballs and other dishes, which her Italian grandmother taught her to make, earned high praise from her coworkers. “They said, ‘You're good at this, but you should go to culinary school,’” she recalls. “And I was like, ‘Huh?’”

After her initial uncertainty passed, Ms. George attended Le Cordon Bleu, a culinary school in Atlanta, where she studied under French chefs. Upon graduating, she held a number of roles — catering, cooking, bartending and running pizza places. Something didn’t feel right, though.

“I was missing home. And missing my parents,” she says. “So I applied for Geisinger when I was still living in Atlanta.”

When Ms. George moved back to central Pennsylvania, Mr. Dixson hired her as the foodservice supervisor at the brand-new Geisinger Medical Center Muncy, where she’s been for 3 years.

But cooking for a hospital took some adjustment. No more late nights — and far less salt and butter than fine French cuisine calls for.

“It was like shell shock for me,” says Ms. George, laughing.

Food that’s good for your wallet, too

Cost is nearly as big a consideration as nutrition in preparing meals for patients, visitors and Geisinger employees.

“We kind of have a captive audience with the employees here every day,” Mr. Dixson says. “We try to be mindful and keep our price points as low as possible while outside food sources are becoming more expensive.”

They source local, fresh, in-season ingredients whenever possible, and everything is homemade. “We put love into it,” says Ms. George. “We want our patients to be happy and we want our staff members not to go somewhere else to eat.”

And why would they? Ms. George’s hospital, Geisinger Medical Center Muncy, is at the platinum level in the Good Food, Healthy Hospitals program. That means it meets all 5 of the program’s standards for food served throughout the hospital: patient meals, cafeteria service, catering, vending and purchasing plans.

Putting their cooking to the test

This marked their third year entering the AHF’s competition. As soon as this year’s “market basket” was revealed, Ms. George and Mr. Dixson started coming up with ideas for a dish they could make using the required ingredients. Once their recipe was picked as a finalist, they spent the next 3 or 4 months practicing and fine-tuning it.

By the time the competition began, they could make the whole recipe in 75 minutes using nothing but 2 induction burners and 2 chafing dishes. “The only thing you can start with is boiling water,” says Ms. George.

But they finished with a silver medal.