Local hospital chefs take part in a two day Food Forward Culinary Conference at Palomar Medical Center aimed at creating healthier hospital meals.

It was a bit surreal at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido on Thursday and Friday.

A group of hospital chefs gathered to learn the secrets of vegan cooking from a Texan with a supple Southern drawl.

As part of a program sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States, University of North Texas chef Wanda White guided peers from many of San Diego Countys health systems through a range of recipes that included coconut brown rice with baked tofu, kale and potato enchiladas and garbanzo bean sliders with caramelized onions.

White recently gained notice for adopting an all-vegan menu at one of her universitys dining halls. The conversion eventually won over students and locals in Denton, Texas, a city in the heart of cattle country that is home to the Red Angus Association of America.

A meatless meatloaf sits prepared to be cooked, part of workshops held at Palomar Medical Center by chef Wanda White. / photo by K.C. Alfred * U-T San Diego

The key to success was tweaking traditional recipes in ways that made them taste good and fresh, White said.

When we started out, it wasnt popular. But now we have outside people coming in. I took a beating, but I showed em all, she said.

The chefs who gathered at Palomar this week were not necessarily novices in the ways of vegetarian cooking. Many work at facilities that have adopted the Humane Societys Meatless Mondays campaign, which calls for institutions such as schools and hospitals to serve vegetarian fare on the first day of each week.

This week, many of the chefs said the recipes they prepared with White looking over their shoulders tasted good enough, and could be prepared on a large enough scale, to find a place on their menus soon.

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No meat, more choices on hospital menus