Haley Harzynski and Christina LiPuma, dietetic interns, and Kathy McManus, MS, RD, director, Department of Nutrition

To celebrate the opening of the Garden Cafe, the Department of Nutrition and the Department of Food Services host a Celebrity Chef event, from left: Chef Suvir Saran, Kathy McManus, Manar Alsebai.

After a year and a half of planning and renovations, Brigham and Women’s Hospital presented a sparkling new Garden Cafe in October, equipped with a 30-ft salad bar, made-to-order brick oven pizza, and a Red Mango bar, among many other incredible and healthy additions.

This new cafe was designed with the vision of providing healthy, affordable and delicious food, and to give hospital food service a new meaning. An important part of the new cafe is teaching BWH patients, visitors and staff the benefits of healthy food choices. To help facilitate this, the Garden Cafe is stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats. The new cafe will also allow us to bring healthy cooking straight to patients’ rooms.

To celebrate the opening, we invited Chef Suvir Saran for a plant-based, heart-healthy cooking demonstration held on Tuesday, Nov. 15.

Born in New Delhi, Chef Saran was drawn to the kitchen at an early age and has parlayed his passion into a multi-pronged career as an educator, organic farmer, healthy foods advocate and the author of three critically acclaimed cookbooks: “Indian Home Cooking,” “American Masala” and “Masala Farm.” Saran is widely known for his appearances as a featured judge on Food Network’s “Iron Chef,” “Next Iron Chef” and a competitor on Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters.”

Chef Saran is passionate about where our food comes from and how food affects our community and sense of identity, in addition to our health and happiness. The recipes that were sampled and enjoyed by all in attendance were: Stir fried Cabbage with Red Peppers, Peanuts and Peas, Cardamom Roasted Cauliflower and Middle Eastern Red Lentil Soup.