Medical Chef Educator

SHIFT:

Seeking Breakthrough Makers

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) offers countless ways to change lives. Our diverse community of more than 20,000 Breakthrough Makers will inspire you to pursue passions, develop expertise, and drive innovation.

At CHOP, your experience is valued; your voice is heard; and your contributions make a difference for patients and families. Join us as we build on our promise to advance pediatric care-and your career.

CHOP's Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

CHOP is committed to building an inclusive culture where employees feel a sense of belonging, connection, and community within their workplace. We are a team dedicated to fostering an environment that allows for all to be their authentic selves. We are focused on attracting, cultivating, and retaining talent who can help us deliver on our mission to be a world leader in the advancement of healthcare for children. We strongly encourage candidates of all races, colors, ethnicities, religions, perspectives, sexes, backgrounds, and lived experiences to apply.

A Brief Overview
The Medical Chef Educator collaborates with medically complex patients, their families and the healthcare team to create recipes and develop culinary education. Working closely with he healthcare team, the Medical Chef educator translates Medical Nutrition Therapy recommendations into hands-on instruction of cooking skills that can be implemented in the home and hospital setting. This is accomplished through creation of resources such as recipe and curriculum development, recorded and live video education, written resources (e.g., cookbooks, handouts, recipe development and testing), hands-on lessons and/or demonstrations to individuals and groups as well as to the community and in the professional setting. The Medical Chef Educator can independently manage multiple projects, be flexible in support of varying healthcare teams, patients and families while adhering to provided evidence-based guidelines and hospital mission.

What you will do

• Leads hands-on culinary instruction for caregivers in inpatient setting for diet initiation and outpatient setting for patients on established therapeutic diets. May also provide menu consultation in outpatient setting.
• Provides formal culinary lectures/teaching and consultation for hospital colleagues, students, caregivers, and professional organizations
• Collaborates as content expert and educator for Enterprise initiatives e.g., Culinary Medicine programming, CHOP Cooking Cart, teaching kitchen development, etc.
• Interacts professionally with other health care professionals and is perceived as the expert in recipe creation, development and culinary education
• Assesses educational needs. Counsels patients and/or family on culinary aspects of therapeutic diets. Evaluates achievement of learning objectives and provides appropriate follow-up.
• Develops culinary education resources and curricula (written, video, in person)
• Develops recipes and culinary education for specialized diets that can be reproduced by caregivers in home setting with regard for palatability, cost, and cultural appropriateness
• Partners with Food & Nutrition Services for procurement of ingredients for inpatient teaching setting
• Oversees assigned teaching kitchen space(s), e.g. Ketogenic kitchen or CHOP Mobile Cooking Cart, ensuring adherence to food service safety, sanitation, and regulatory standards
• Adheres to established budget for ingredients and supplies
• Completes appropriate continuing education to maintain professional certification
• Adheres to food safety guidelines

Education Qualifications

• Technical Diploma Culinary Arts related area Required
• Bachelor's Degree Preferred

Experience Qualifications

• Experience working in a culinary profession Preferred
• Experience developing and tasting recipes Preferred
• Experience with special diets Preferred
• Experience educating individuals and/or groups Preferred

Skills and Abilities

• Mathematical competency to calculate nutrient-specific diets such as ketogenic diet for epilepsy or other macro- or micronutrient limited diets. (Required proficiency)
• Ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing to patients and families, public, medical staff and physicians.
• Ability to function independently.
• Ability to counsel and educate others.
• Basic computer skills, including word processing, and spreadsheet software.

Licenses and Certifications

• Serv Safe Certification (SSC) - National Restaurant Association (NRA) or other - within 3 months - Required

To carry out its mission, CHOP is committed to supporting the health of our patients, families, workforce, and global community. As a condition of employment, professionals working onsite-at any CHOP location, for any portion of time-must be vaccinated for COVID-19. Learn more.

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