Quality Care and Delicious Food: How OHOW’s Top-Rated Hospital Food Sets Us Apart

Hospital food has a reputation for being, well, “less-than-gourmet.” Your first thoughts are likely unappetizing Jell-O and overcooked eggs served on a cheap plastic tray. While most people don’t choose a hospital for the food, at the Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin, we know delicious meals bring you comfort and enhance your stay. That’s why we go the extra mile to serve top-rated hospital food to our patients.  

The satisfaction shows in our patients’ comments after their visit. “When my doctor informed me that I needed another surgery, all I could do was think about the food. I spoke with your master chef, and he is amazing! He remembered what I ordered five months ago. They even made me a chocolate shake, which is not on the menu.”

At OHOW, when you stay with us for an orthopedic procedure, we want you to feel comfortable and satisfied so that you can focus on your recovery. We’ve worked hard to ensure our hospital meals are delightful, tasty, and another way to enhance your visit and experience. While surgery might not feel like a vacation, we want you to feel catered to and cared for with pleasant memories of your stay. Top-rated hospital food is part of our above-and-beyond approach. 

We Have the Best Chef-Led Culinary Team

Your satisfaction is key to your wellness. We want you to focus on getting better after your surgery, and nutritious, special meals are part of that recovery. We’ve put together a team of talented kitchen staff to create comfort food, so you and your family can focus on healing (not cooking).

Our kitchen team is led by Chef Michael Wolf and Sous Chef Geoffrey Jones. The culinary team loves to brainstorm new recipes and experiment with fresh, new flavors. Chef Mike’s 35 years of kitchen experience is evident in both the fantastic taste of our food and the unique presentation. There’s no cafeteria-style “mystery” mush here. Dinners please the eye and the palate.

Even small touches like ditching the plastic utensils and paper napkins elevate the experience. As a patient recently reported, “All of the meals were excellent. I enjoyed cloth napkins, real silverware, and silver pitchers! Above all, every person who delivered my food had a great smile!” 

So, how delicious are the meals that our culinary team develops and perfects? Not to brag, but we’re quite used to visitors requesting our recipes and secret ingredients. Two of our recipes were even featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s food section!

Making Your Hospital Experience Memorable

Our kitchen serves one primary purpose: to keep our patients satisfied during their stay. That means keeping stomachs full and providing extra touches to raise the bar from typical hospital dining.

On our gourmet menu, we offer a wide range of choices for each meal—from the familiar comfort food you crave when you’re away from home, to more adventurous options to take your taste buds on vacation. For breakfast, choose from items like our fresh fruit and creamy yogurt parfait or made-to-order omelets with a wide array of ingredients. Lunch and dinner entrees vary from beef short ribs to steamed Atlantic cod alongside seasonal vegetables cooked to perfection.

You and your family can enjoy room-service dinner, including delicious desserts like Granny’s caramel apple pie and New York-style cheesecake. With selections like these, it’s no wonder why we won the Hospital Food Fight Contest for having the Best Hospital Food in Wisconsin.

We deliver your order steaming hot, directly to your room. A smiling food service professional will ensure you have everything you need to enjoy your dining. We want your experience to feel like room service from a five-star hotel—a true departure from the typical hospital meal.

Staying with us over a holiday? Don’t worry—we’ll do our best to ensure you still feel festive and don’t miss out on the delicious tastes of the season. Our special Thanksgiving meal is a big hit, and we prepare it every year for our patients. Chef Mike’s famous cranberry sauce is the finishing touch, and we’ve had so many requests that we shared the recipe online.

Restaurant-Worthy Hospital Food

How does our culinary team create top-rated hospital food that defies expectations? Our classically trained chef has spent years perfecting his techniques and ensuring that the menu is varied, carefully planned, and cooked to perfection. Our culinary team brings you food plated and presented to create a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.

We use only the best ingredients and highest-quality cuts of meat. Most of the food is cooked sous-vide style. Chef Mike explains, “Sous-vide means ‘under vacuum’ in French, so in other words, it’s cooked at low temperature for a long time. This method cooks items evenly to ensure that the inside is perfectly cooked and the food item retains its flavor and moisture.” No dry chicken fingers or stale hamburgers here! Our staff truly prepares the food with attention and pride.

We present our meals on real china with high-quality silverware and linen napkins. We serve warm meals on heated plates and cold meals chilled. Instead of disposable paper packets, glass salt and pepper shakers accompany our dishes. These small touches add up to a big difference, especially when you’re away from home.

Patients enjoy the food so much that we frequently receive rave reviews. “The food was the best I’ve ever had in a hospital, and the fact that the chef came to my room to make sure all was well, spoke volumes.”

An Uncommon Focus on Your Satisfaction

When you dine in a restaurant, you interact with staff and can adjust the order to your taste and preferences. At OHOW, we know how important those choices are to our guests. When you order a meal, call directly to our kitchen and speak with a food service professional, who will give your order to the team. They promptly prepare your food fresh and customized just for you.

Meals are then delivered right to your room by a member of our culinary team. As one of our patients reported, “They were the BEST meals delivered quickly with outstanding variety, thanks to the kitchen staff. It was also cool that the chef came to visit, and my wife was also given a meal. NICE touch! Food and delivery A++++.” 

After you’ve enjoyed your meal, you’ll often receive a visit from the head chef himself to see how you liked everything. Like in a restaurant, it’s a chance to meet the person who prepared your food and share your experience.

Chef Mike says, “I make it a point to see and speak with as many patients on the third floor as possible; that number would be around 97%.” He listens to feedback and makes sure patients know that their satisfaction and enjoyment is essential. Like all our team members at OHOW, Chef Mike and the culinary staff take a great deal of pride in their work.

We know dining doesn’t make all the difference but offering top-rated hospital food is one simple way our service sets us apart. Sometimes, you may even receive a visit from our CEO, Brian Cramer, to make sure your stay is comfortable and enjoyable. We not only try to make sure you have something good to eat but that your entire experience with our hospital is as pleasant and as stress-free as possible. We call our approach to patient satisfaction “the OHOW difference,” and we’re sure you’ll notice when you walk through our doors.