Ottawa Hospital pairs up with local restauranteur to make gourmet hospital meals [Ottawa, ON]

The Ottawa Hospital is pairing up with Stephen Beckta to redesign the menu items at the hospital. The hospital hired local restauranteur to redesign the hospital menu to make the meals more palatable. They would like to focus on making sure patients are served meals that are healthy, nutritious and delicious. Sample menus include Spanish omelet with roast potatoes and tomato salsa for breakfast, chicken kale caesar for lunch or butter chicken and potatoes for dinner.

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That’s so wonderful!

It is and Stephen Beckta is a wonderful man. It almost makes me want to go to the hospital :rofl:

Just a side note if I can put in a plug for the man. Stephen Beckta owns two restaurants in Ottawa: Beckta and Gezellig. I’ve only gotten take out at Beckta once and haven’t been to Gezellig yet but I’ve been to his recently closed Play a few times and the meals were fantastic (as was the take out meal I ordered from Beckta). If you’re a drinker, the wine and beer menus have some excellent menu choices and the staff are really nice and knowledgeable. He also scans the reviews on social media and reaches out to unhappy customers to make amends. He is truly a class act. If anyone reading this comes to Ottawa I would recommend both restaurants.

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Is his background Dutch?

I’m not sure. He was born and raised in Ottawa but he may be of Dutch ancestry. Every article I’ve ever read about him focuses on his restaurant experience in Ottawa. The most comprehensive biography I could find about him is here.

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Good for him. Nice man.

I was lucky to dine at Beckta once.

Yes it is. On the menu at Gezellig it tells you what the word means in Dutch (I can’t remember).

I’ve eaten there twice. The first time I had some amazing, pillowy-soft gnocchi, which were very tasty. The second time they were less so, but still beat, hands down, some leaden ones I had at a restaurant in Manotick.

I tried the original restaurant on Nepean St. soon after they opened. Teething trouble; swore I’d never return.

I haven’t tried Beckta yet. For many years I worked right across the street, when it was Friday’s Roast Beef House.

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NO!!! You never want that!

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It’s the equivalent of the German term gemütlich, which means cozy. The name of the restaurant was what prompted my question about his background.

I figured it had to be Dutch. Of course, with the brief hyper-popularity of both the concept of and the word hygge, no doubt anyone might be compelled to ride that wave.

It’s about time. The schlock at the local hospital would put you in it, let alone help you heal to get out of it. Prepackaged, sugary, salty, oily schlock.

Whoops. I thought Beckta had closed , but it has not.

I was thinking of Play, which I also dined at once.

I guess you are speaking from experience? :grin:

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That I am! I worked 3 years at the Ottawa General Hospital at their old location, and one year at their current one, so I ate a lot of lunches there. The food was mediocre at best. However, at the old location they used to make wonderful chelsea buns every Friday morning.

Unfortunately they discontinued the buns when they moved, but had $1 sandwiches made to order at lunchtime, and those were okay.

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I work in a hospital, and we joking say we don’t want the food to be too good or the beds to be too comfortable- we need the space!

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This is a very old article, but an interesting one.

A more recent version:

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