“They’re on the floor, Bill. They’re on the floor.” “They’ll be all right.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “A chicken soup and
a tomato in here — Get these in the water.” “I’ve always been
fascinated by hospital food. It has a really
bad reputation, But it’s also very essential. In a hospital,
food is medicine. Food is comfort. Food is a sense of humanity.” “Hello. Hello. Hi. How are you?” “We are at the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center Magee-Womens Hospital. We are here to meet Bill. Bill is a line cook
who prepares food To order for
patients and caters To countless different dietary
needs every single day. I’m really excited to meet
Bill and learn more about his Job. But first, we got to find him. And this hospital is a maze.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “All right. Wow. This is huge. All right. How’s it looking?” “Great.” “Am I covered?
Good? O.K. Let’s go find Bill.” “All right, all righty.” “Hello.” “Good morning.” “Hi, Bill. It’s so nice to meet you. I guess, handshake. What’s been up
since you got here? What’s your setup like?” “I will have
sausage coming over. I will have bacon coming over,
which the gentleman over there Is cooking. This will be my
French toast mix.” “Oh, this is your — Oh, you have a
French toast station. Whoa. I see the bacon
is being crisped.” “That’ll be Steve. Steve takes care of
that side over there.” “Steve is on bacon duty. Important. What else do you have to prep? Batter, good.” “Batter’s good.” “Eggs, ready.” “And then at 6:30,
we start rolling.” “O.K.” “Checks will just start
coming in from 6:30 on. Game on.” “So this is like the calm –” “This is the calm
before the storm.” “O.K.” “My name is William Freeman,
and I’m the hot cook here
At Magee-Womens Hospital.” “What was your perception
about cooking food In a hospital? Did you have any
expectations?” “I had no idea. I really thought it would be
like lunch meat sandwiches And just plain bland — I didn’t think it would be
like a restaurant where it Would be hands on and you’d go
out there and you just create. So once I cook the
food, it’s going over. And here’s my
tickets coming in.” “Oh, my gosh. Oh, my god.” “Ah, it’s just the start. So it’ll go from point A
here, to point B, to point C, And then to point
D up to the room. And we try and get that done
within 30 to 45 minutes.” “O.K. Cool. All right. Let’s fill some tickets.” “It’ll have their name. It’s going to the TCU unit. It’ll tell you what type of
diet they may or may not be On.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “How are you keeping
track of everything? It’s just all in your brain?” “It’s just there. Yeah. And what I do for
myself, anyway, Any check that I have facing
that way is a scrambled egg.” “Oh.” “Just for memory’s sake.” “Yeah.
So these are all
scrambled eggs. These are not scrambled eggs. It’s like a visual cue for
him, like scrambled eggs, Scrambled eggs, scrambled
eggs, not a scrambled egg. That’s really smart. Mo” “Sausage.” “I feel like we just went from
zero to 100 in one minute. My parents had no idea
what an English muffin was Before they immigrated here. And we ate so many English
muffins with butter and jam Growing up.” “As a kid, we made
pizzas with them. I grew up here in Pittsburgh. We moved around a lot. My mom was a single parent.” “What was your
first job ever?” “Paper boy.” “Have you been
working ever since?” “Ever since. Ever since.” “Only one order of pancakes?” “Only one.” “And so two pancakes
to an order?” “Two pancakes to an order.” “Gorgeous pancakes. Perfect circles. And so you aren’t
seasoning the eggs.” “No.” “And you can’t for
health reasons.” “Cannot. Correct. O.K. Should be a
French toast, bacon. And there’s my French toast.
I am going to be
coming this way.” “I think he fulfilled one,
two, three, four, five, six, Seven, eight, nine,
almost 10 orders. I think that was,
like, five minutes.” “Watch your back. As you can see, like
I said, at 6:30, They just keep coming. Like I said, around 9:00-ish,
I will start trying to switch Things over.” “But there’s not a formal
break that you get to switch Things over. As you see the time, you see
an opening, you take it.” “Wow.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “So you all are plating
everything up, basically?” “Yes. Basically, I’m the last person
to see that tray that could go Up before it goes up.” “So you want to make sure it
has everything they need?” “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.” “Yeah. Very, very, very
important job.” “Yes.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Good morning.” “Make them look nice.” “Oh, that looks real nice.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “So Bill has this system
that’s just spitting out Tickets. And I know that they come
from some kind of call center, But I’m just curious what
the life cycle is like. How does a patient
place an order?
How do the tickets come? We’re going to go to the
call center and find out how The tickets get here
in the first place. O.K. We’ll be right back.” “Yes, ma’am. This is the Call Center. This is Shay speaking. May I have your room
number, please?” “Oh. Hello.” “How are you?” “Good. How are you? So this is where the
magic happens, huh?” “This is where the patients
place their orders.” “Wow.” “Sure. What would you like?” “Anything else?” “Hospitality Call Center. My name is Charlotte.” “I’ll have this
up in an hour.” “And all of the ordering
happens over the phone?” “That is correct. A lot of our patients like
the interaction with the call Center.” “Do you want me to double
up the French toast? O.K. I got you.” “It’s nice to talk
to a real person.” “Yes, exactly.” “O.K. be here. No problem.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hospitality Call Center.
My name is Charlotte. May I have your room
number, please?” “Yes, 5703. 3703.” “O.K. For Rebecca?” “Yes.” “O.K. And what
would she like?” “She would like
the bacon, egg, And cheese sandwich on a
bagel with a side banana. And that will be it.” “Nothing to drink?” “No thank you.” “O.K. Give us about an hour.” “O.K. Thank you.” “Thank you. Bye bye.” “Yeah. No more. Let’s get rid of that. Aaron, I don’t owe you any
oatmeals with that, right? Just this Cream of Wheat
that I’m coming with? All righty. Sorry about that. Busy for a Thursday. What’s up, young lady?” “Are you O.K.? Do you need anything?” “No, I’m good. Just trying to get caught up. You know me. We’re going to make it work.” “Oh. A little garnish.” “Come in.”
“Hi.” “Hi.” “Hello. Are you Rebecca?” “I am/ this is Charlotte.” “Hi, Charlotte.” “She was born, what,
less than 36 hours ago.” “Wow.” “We were past the due date. She was being a little
stubborn about joining us.” “Do you all have a sense
of who she looks like, Either one of you? Do you see either
of yourselves?” “I think she looks
like her dad. She has dark hair.” “Oh, wow. A big head of hair. Oh, my god. And have you been eating at
the hospital since you all got Here?” “Yes.” “How has it been?” “It’s been really easy. And they’re good about telling
you what you can and can’t Eat. There are certain times of
the day where I was only Allowed to do liquids and
then other times of the day That I could have
whatever I wanted. So they guided me on that.” “I think I remember you
had a bacon egg sandwich.” “Yes. Yes, a breakfast sandwich.” “On a bagel?” “Yes.”
“I saw Bill, who’s the
cook that we’re following, Prepare it for you. He really lovingly
prepared your food. I watched.” “Aw. That’s great to know.” “Before being here, had you
thought a lot about eating While at the hospital?” “I think it’s something you
forget that plays a big role Into how you’re feeling. Being able to order something
as it sounds good to you Can definitely
make a difference. We’re worrying about
her for the most part. And you forget some
of those baseline –” “Baseline needs?” “Needs. Yeah.” “Yeah. I’m going ti leave you to it. Congrats again. This is — I’m very excited for you all,
even though we just met.” “Aw. That’s kind of you.” “All right. See you later. Oh. Sorry.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hi, Bill.” “Hello.” “How you doing?” “Oh, hanging in.” “Yeah?
Yep. Yep. Yep.” “I’m sorry. I’m running away.” “No, no, no, no, no. You run away as often
as you need to, Bill.” “I am chasing you right now.” “I just want to point out this
is what it means to make food On demand for people. Someone wants pancakes? You have to make
them a pancake. Someone wants a burger, you
got to make them a burger. Someone wants a
piece of chicken With a slice of provolone
on it, you got to do that. It’s like, this is
the nature of the job. Oh. Sorry. Sorry.” “At this point, lunch
time, you’re all over.” “Right.” “Now, whereas breakfast,
I’m just right there.” “Yeah, it’s breakfast food. Right.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “He’s working, like,
seven stations right now. And I think that’s just
incredibly stressful. He doesn’t do the
easiest thing first. He does what came through
the ticket machine first. So that could be a very
complicated burger. It could be an omelet
with seven things. He has to take
that ticket first. And all between doing
this, he’s warming plates. He’s cleaning up his station.
He’s making sure that everyone
else has what they need. He’s making sure that he has
all of his ingredients set up For whatever the next
course is going to be.” “You’re cooking with gas.” “Had you ever worked in an
environment like this before Taking this job?” “I used to be a
housekeeper in a hotel.” “I’m sure you got
stories from that job.” “Yeah. People are amazing. People do people things.” “People do people things. Very diplomatic.” “I was making minimum
wage to clean rooms. And you’d get yelled at
because you didn’t have enough Pillows or you didn’t put
a toilet paper roll on. And people just
treated you like crap. A friend of mine had stopped
over and was like, hey, UPMC’s always hiring. I thought prayers were
answered because I was just At a limit.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Put that up top there.” [WHISTLING] “Hey, girlie. Food service. May I come in? Hello. Hello. Hi? How are you doing? Hello. Hello. All righty.
And yourself?” [MUSIC PLAYING] “How are you doing today? Food service. May I come in?” “You guys have a
good day, O.K.? All righty. Bye bye. I just like to help
as much as I can. You never know their situation
at home or what they’re Dealing with. If something that I could do
to help them ease their pain Or stress to help
them deal with it, Then that’s what I’ll do. I trys to do. Put it that way. Bye bye. Sometimes when you’re having
a bad day, you go in there, And they make your day.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Hospitality Call Center. My name is Charlotte. May I have your room number.” “Sure. It is 5847.” “Ms. Wise.” “Yes.” “Hi. How are you?” “I’m good. How are you?” “I’m good.” “Good morning.” “Good morning.
What can I get for
you this morning?” “Well, I would like two pieces
of French toast with two Butters and two syrups.” “O.K., as always.” “And then the breakfast
potatoes in a separate Container –” “Absolutely.” “– with the salt,
pepper, and ketchup.” “O.K.” “A chamomile tea with
three Splenda, please. And can I get have two
raspberry sherbets?” “Absolutely.” “Awesome.” “No problem. All right. Is there anything else
I can do for you?” “No. I think that’s it. You’re just the best.” “Oh. Well, thank you. All right. Well, we’ll get this up to
you within an hour, O.K.?” “O.K. Thank you.” “All right.” “Bye.” “Do you feel like you get
to know the patients through The call center?” “Absolutely.” “The mother and babies are in
and out because they’re only Here for a couple of days. But the patients that’s
in here for quite a while, We really get to know them.” “There’s plenty of people
who you’ve met them
At their highest highs and
then their lowest lows. And you just try to be
that light for them. Even though I’m just taking
a patient order, to me, It’s not just a patient order. It’s like, I’m helping
you through something.” “We tell patients
it’ll be about an hour, But it’s normally
around 45 minutes. Sometimes it’s even less. Sometimes it’s
only half an hour.” “I mean, Bill is
cranking on those orders. I feel like if Bill’s
doing his job right, You can get them reasonably
quickly to patients.” “That is correct.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “Food service. May we come in? Good morning. Good morning. How are you today?” “O.K. How are you?” “All righty. You feeling all right?” “Well, you know.” “Oh, why?” “Ella brought me
some flowers.” “Oh, wow. That’s great. I see you got your little
lights on your bed. That makes them look nice.” “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” “Yeah.” “All righty. Is there anything
I can get for you? You need anything
opened or –”
“No, I’m good. Thank you so much.” “All righty. You have a good day, O.K.?” “Thank you. You too.” “All righty. Bye bye.” “How long have you been
in and out of here?” “Too long. I have dysautonomia. And I’ve dealt
with endometriosis, So I’m kind of in and out. This year has been
more than usual.” “Before you started
coming here, What was your expectation
of hospital food?” “Well, I think it’s portrayed
everywhere as yucky. You know what I mean? I’ve been to other hospitals
where it is horrible.” “And how would you describe
your experience with food Here?” “I mean, there’s a
three-page menu.” “Can I see it?” “Absolutely. And then they just started
doing this thing where they Have specials of the
day, special dessert.” “Wow. This is really comprehensive. Whoa.” “Yeah. And so they have
different diets, Like GI-Easy for people
who are feeling well, Heart healthy. It means the world to me that
there are so many choices
And that it’s good because
then that gets me eating more. And you need to eat
to feel better.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “I’m amazed at your ability to
stay calm because the stakes Of this job feel so high.” “There are some days where
the pressure is a lot. Like today, I think I was
25, maybe 30 minutes behind On quite a few checks. I can walk away for a
minute to get myself A little start over moment. But I’m not walking
away for 15, 20 because the checks
and things don’t stop. Everything else doesn’t
stop because I did. I put a lot of
pressure on myself.” “Did you look at the sheet
from yesterday that showed how Many meals you did and the
accuracy and all of that, The report?” “No, I never look at that.” “Well, you should, because
yesterday’s report, Your accuracy rate was, like,
99 percent at breakfast. That was just you.” “I strive just to try and
do it properly, do it right, Do it to where I would
want it for myself. Three, four.” “You thought hospital food was
gross when you came into this Job.” “When I first came in. Yeah.” “I mean, do you feel like you
are every day trying to change Patients’ minds
about hospital food?” “Oh, without a doubt.” [MUSIC PLAYING] “How goes it?” “Good.
I am done.” “You’re done? It was busy. It was busy.” “Today was busy, a
little bit of running. Sometimes a couple points,
it was a little frustrating. But we make the best of it.” “We went around talking to
patients who eat the food you Prepared for them. And a bunch of them
wanted to say thank you And to pass along the message. And they said it was a bummer
they don’t get to meet you. But they appreciate that
the food is so good here.” “Oh, good. Good. I’m glad to hear it. All right. That’s two. I don’t want to ride the two
o’clock shuttle with you guys Today.” “Now what do you do for
fun outside of work?” “Sounds like a TV sitcom, but
I’m just happy with a little Bit of things I do. I work. I go home to the
wife and kids.” “I think a lot of people’s
favorite pastime is hanging Out with their kids.” “I’m watching them grow. And hopefully, they’ll
remember me once they can say, Hey, dad was pretty cool.” “Do you think
your job is hard?” “Oh, yes. I cannot make believe,
oh, it’s a piece of cake. It’s a job.
How you doing, Francine? It’s cold out. Home fries earlier. I do it for my wife and kids. I know that the benefits —
my daughter and my son can go To the doctors and
things like that. Those are my sometimes
my motivation.” “You’ve got me thinking, Bill. Pancake coated potatoes.” “But I don’t do it because I
know I’m going to get rich. I like what I do. I like cooking. No matter how badly I get
beat up in the morning or I’m Running around and I need new
shoes by the end of the week Because I wore the soles out,
I’d do it again because I like Cooking. I like what I do. I can’t be the surgeon. I can’t be the nurse. But I can do my
part with the food. You folks have a good night. Stay out of trouble,
all that stuff. Goodnight, ladies.” “Goodnight.” [MUSIC PLAYING]
Have you ever wondered why most of the Vinaigrettes in the grocery store are made with 10, 20, sometimes even almost 30 ingredients? I remember growing up in Provence watching my mother whipping vinaigrettes before every single dinner. She would mix in a giant bowl, delicious extra virgin olive oil, a robust aged vinegar (the flavor would depend on the main dish), sea salt and pepper and voila! I decided to do the same thing for my family and friends more than 20 years ago here in this beautiful country. And Provence Kitchen® was born. Stay tune for more articles and wonderful family recipes..
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