Cooking with Robert: Mirasol’s Creative New Chef
March 10th, 2010
There have been big changes in Mirasol’s kitchen, thanks to our new chef, Robert Kuzyk. Kuzyk, who joined Mirasol’s kitchen staff after working in four-star restaurants at country clubs in Kansas and Arizona, believes in maintaining an “open kitchen” and encouraging clients to repair their relationships with food by becoming more involved in the process of creating it.
“What I like to do is help the clients overcome their fears of certain foods by actually cooking those foods with them,” says Kuzyk. “Learning how to cook those foods makes them more comfortable with them when they leave Mirasol and return to the
real world.”
Robert describes his work with Mirasol clients as a “building process”.
“The first step is getting them to trust me, and then walking them through the process of preparing the food, so that they realize that what they’re getting is nutritional, healthy food that also fits into their meal plans. I have prepared beef for women who haven’t eaten beef in six years. Even some women who are strict vegetarians have been persuaded to try fish, or shrimp or crabcakes.”
“Robert is very good at encouraging women to come into the kitchen little-by-little and maybe coaxing them to try something they haven’t tried before,” says Mirasol Clinical
Director Diane Ryan. “He’s also really great about teaching them to prepare foods they really like — maybe something they remember from childhood, like a special dessert or even just macaroni and cheese. And they can develop recipes and recreate those foods when they return home, and we find that’s really good for aftercare and for the recovery process in general.”
“A lot of the clients are hungry to learn how to cook,” according to Kuzyk. “They have never spent any time in the kitchen. As a chef — and a teacher — I try to teach them not only how to work their way around in the kitchen, but also to look at food as a palette.”
Kuzyk’s kitchen artistry has made him a big hit with both clients and staff. According to Ryan,
“Robert’s food is phenomenal! There isn’t a restaurant in the country that wouldn’t be proud to serve his food. But it isn’t just the food, it’s how he infuses the food with so much care and consideration and respect for the clients and what they’re going through. He is really able to see how what he cooks translates into an actual foundation for recovery. And that’s where the genius of the food really lies. It give the clients the feeling of being loved and supported and listened to, and it makes a huge difference.”
Kuzyk derives a great deal of personal satisfaction from helping Mirasol clients discover the joy of preparing and eating healthy meals.
“I used to think it was all about money and prestige,” says Kuzyk, reflecting on his years at the country clubs. “But I find more gratification being here at Mirasol and teaching these women what they need to know to be able to return home and live a normal life. I don’t think I could ever go back. My heart is in a different place, and I think that helping these women get where they need to be is more important than any executive chef’s job in the world.”
