Award-winning gourmet food is not something most people would expect to enjoy at a hospital. However, Keck Medical Center of USC’s Executive Chef Luis Santos is working to change that. His plant-based deconstructed Honduran tamale was named this year’s winner of the nationwide Health Care Culinary Contest.

Santos was recognized at the CleanMed 2025 conference in Atlanta on May 6-8, where his award-winning dish was served to attendees. He will also be celebrated at the Culinary Institute of America’s Menus of Change Leadership Summit in June in Hyde Park, New York.

To read more, get the recipe and watch Santos demonstrate how to make this dish, click here.