The new Lakewood Hospital Diabetes Center has brought Chef Chris Smith to Lakewood to serve as a dietary consultant for the Center. Chef Smith, himself a diabetic with type-one diabetes, was kind enough to also make an appearance at Lakewood High School on Thursday, September 13th, to speak to members of the culinary sciences and sports nutrition classes about the impact of diet and proper nutrition upon diseases such as diabetes.

Chef Smith, who is the Director of the Food Services for Wake Forest Medical Center, displays all of the necessary pedigrees of a fine Chef, but as a result of his own unique issues has turned his expertise in a totally non-traditional direction. Chris, who was a student at the Culinary Institute of America while working on an internship at the famous New York Restaurant Le Cirque, was diagnosed with his diabetes in 1993. At the time, doctors had told him if he continued working in the rigors of a commercial restaurant kitchen it would kill him, but after years of floating from one job to another, in and out of college, Chris had found that more than anything he loved to cook, to be able to “go to the kitchen and be able to make something from nothing”. He was unwilling to forgo that dream which had been so long in coming. Instead, recognizing that his medical condition would require certain dietary changes, he decided to use his training, skill and knowledge to create recipes of foods that were delicious and that applied to everyone. He said “this is not about diabetic food”. Instead it is a question of “always being aware of the foods you are consuming, as 'we are what we eat'”.

Chef Smith eschews the current restaurant trends towards gluttony, where one can order an eighty-ounce steak and have it served “on the house” if he is able to consume it all. Many consumers think in terms of quantity as the gauge of the value of their restaurant experiences. Chef Smith properly understands that because of this mind set, his chances of sustaining a successful restaurant were probably limited, as he practices “moderation, variety and portion control”. As he spoke to the students, he was unquestionably surprised that the responses to an inquiry about favorite foods yielded not only the expected pizza and pasta, but also spinach and broccoli. The fact some of these teens were already eating a healthy diet seemed to please him. His message seemed clear: we can certainly eat smarter and healthier while still enjoying wonderful tastes, textures and smells. Lakewood Hospital's efforts towards both bringing in Chef Smith to assist as a menu consultant, as well as its making him available to speak to high school students interested in a culinary career, again demonstrate that institution's comittment to Lakewood.