Foodservice for Thought Podcast featuring Chelsea Capelo with Luby's Culinary Services

We cover a lot of ground on this interview on the Foodservice for Thought Podcast. It’s another peek into healthcare and some of the challenges dietitians tackle when feeding people who become patients in a hospital. Chelsea Capelo, RD, LD is our guest this week and is the Director of Clinical and Patient Operations for Luby’s Culinary Services, the hospital division of Luby’s Fuddruckers Restaurants. Chelsea has been a Registered Dietitian for 10 years with many experiences in a short time. She joined Luby’s 8 years ago as a Clinical Dietitian and has transitioned to the Corporate division with skills in clinical and food services. She enjoys building client relations and supporting business development. Some of her main areas of expertise for the company are in creating and implementing training related to improving patient services programs that overall impact patient satisfaction scores at all levels. In addition to this, Chelsea’s expertise also includes menu development using multiple software programs. Chelsea has worked in a variety of health care settings such as acute, rehab, behavioral and long-term care which has helped her grow and understand the dynamics of all patient and resident care with firsthand knowledge. Chelsea enjoys working with clinical dietitians, food and nutrition services staff, and corporate chefs to help make patients’ meal experience enjoyable during their hospital stay. Chelsea is a foodie at heart herself! She loves local foods and researching new health initiatives for patient menus to bring variety and flavor to all menus. Chelsea obtained her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Houston in Human Nutrition and Foods. She also attended Lamar University for her license in dietetics. Chelsea talks with us about some of the challenges of being a dietitian in the healthcare sector in different markets, different healthcare needs, size of kitchens, and translating cultural menus into healthier options. You won’t be surprised to hear that once again we learned a lot by talking to one of our guests. Chelsea was fun to visit with for so many reasons. First, she was open to sharing and teaching that we would have liked to talk for a lot longer. Second, Chelsea so clearly loves what she does and cares deeply about patients and their food experiences when they are in a hospital with Luby’s Culinary Services. We loved learning about different objectives and ways to engage including some of their client’s facilities where they host Farmer’s Markets. How cool is that? Imagine visiting a friend or loved one and getting a moment to experience a Farmer’s Market right there in the hospital. During our Fire the Board round Chelsea shared her dining experience at a restaurant in Austin called Second and a solid book recommendation on Brene Brown’s book; Dare to Lead. Check out Chelsea’s interview on Foodservice for Thought podcast on Buzzsprout or iTunes.