Cooking Up Behavior Change: OMA's Pre-conference Culinary Medicine Workshop

More than 150 healthcare professionals convened in Denver, Colorado, gathering in a conference room pop-up teaching kitchen to learn about culinary medicine. This workshop marked the second culinary medicine event offered at the annual Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) conference, reinforcing the importance of healthy diet and lifestyle as key pillars of obesity medicine. The 2-day, 12+-hour workshop offered a combination of didactic lectures and hands-on cooking and written exercises, equipping participants with the knowledge and skills to integrate culinary medicine into their practice. Example topics included best practices of culinary medicine; strategies for building teaching kitchens, fundraising, and billing models; writing lesson plans; and providing patient-centered care.  

The workshop was hosted by an interprofessional team of culinary medicine experts including dietitians, doctors, chefs, and social workers. The team was joined by OMA’s president-elect, Dr. Lydia Alexander, who contributed her enthusiasm and experience around both obesity and culinary medicine and the importance of integrating the fields. As Christina Badaracco (workshop co-director and culinary medicine expert) stated in her interview with Healio, “our goal has been to teach all of the different types of attendees [and] healthcare providers about culinary medicine and how it’s a really important and powerful component of obesity medicine to help make sure that whatever form of treatment or intervention that our patients are receiving can be as effective and sustainable as possible.”

This workshop was made possible through the partnerships between the Hyatt Regency, OMA, and Rewire Health’s culinary medicine experts. After months of diligent planning and preparation, implementation of this massive event proved to be a real-life lesson in adaptability (one of the key best practices for nutrition in obesity medicine that were presented). During the hands-on cooking session on day 1, a fuse blew, taking out two-thirds of the induction burners in our pop-up kitchen. Groups banded together to find strategic solutions to finish their cooking activity, creating an unexpected real-world case study of the power of culinary medicine through concepts such as:    

Collaboration and group support: Teams collaborated to share the limited number of functional burners, creating an atmosphere brimming with laughter and camaraderie in the face of adversity. Groups worked together to solve problems and looked to the culinary medicine experts to answer questions about safe cooking practices (such as heating oils or cutting an onion). This experience reminded us of the importance of group problem-solving, connections over lived experiences, and peer support, all critical ingredients for delivering a successful culinary medicine class.

Flexibility and adaptability: The workshop required us to make lemonade out of the lemons presented to us. Teams worked together to find creative solutions to use their ingredients and the working equipment to reimagine dishes. Eggs that were meant for shakshuka were turned into veggie-filled scrambled eggs. Vegetables chopped for sautéing were repurposed as crudites for dips. These adaptations reinforced the lesson that flexible recipes are necessary to accommodate and meet people where they are by optimizing the foods and equipment that they have on hand.  

Persistence: There are days when stoves malfunction, meetings run late, and parental duties demand immediate attention that take precedence over preparing a meal from scratch. How we take initiative to put a healthy meal on the table for ourselves and our families on the nights when we are tired, have no time, or other factors are not working out matters the most to instilling and signaling sustainable behavior change. Such change doesn’t take a one-time endeavor; rather, it requires a commitment renewed daily. Participants demonstrated these values and persisted during the workshop, and they will become better practitioners of culinary medicine because of them.

On day two, participants tested their newly found skills with a cooking challenge. Each table was provided with a patient case study and an assortment of ingredients with the task of creating a meal that was appropriate to those unique needs as well as appealing and delicious. After two hours of cooking, each group thoughtfully plated its recipe and presented it to judges who critically evaluated each dish. Team 7 was victorious and brought home the “golden spatula” award based on its delicious and patient-centered meal that included stuffed zucchini boats and a barley salad.

All and all, we observed and heard from participants that this year’s workshop was a success! Some of their feedback included that:

“I found the information very interesting and feel motivated to do some version of this for our patients.”

“The information provided was palatable and easy to digest. Also, a lot of good networking.”

“[The workshop] expanded my horizons and gave me a lot of great ideas for practice and implementation.”

We hope to see everyone again and new faces in 2025! In the meantime, contact us if you're interested in learning more about culinary medicine and how it can enhance your practice.

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