The recent specials have included beef bourguignon, salmon in butter sauce, Portuguese sausage and Brazilian pork.

But this isn’t a high-class restaurant – it’s the cafeteria at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Gone are the days when going to hospital cafeterias meant mac and cheese, Jell-O and some fried offerings. Hospitals – including the one at LMH – are stepping up the variety of foods they’re serving.

That’s good news for Tom Hilger, an LMH storeroom employee who eats at the cafeteria every day.

“Before, it was the same thing every day,” he says. “I’ve always been adventurous when it comes to eating.”

Since April, when LMH hired a new chef for its cafeteria, Hilger says the difference has been “a 180.”

“You look forward to coming down,” he says, “and wanting the things she’s prepared.”

That new chef is Andrea Vogt, who was trained as a chef in San Francisco but more recently worked at an Italian restaurant in Independence, Mo., and the Downtown Marriott in Kansas City, Mo.

She likes the variety – and challenge – of working at a hospital. About 70 percent of the 800 to 900 cash-register transactions at the cafeteria come from those who work in the hospital, at 325 Maine, since their half-hour lunch period isn’t enough time to go to a restaurant.

The cafeteria at Lawrence Memorial Hospital has undergone a transformation that many customers find delicious. The cafeteria now offers more international cuisine, as these patrons found on Wednesday.

“There’s a big staff here inside the hospital, so we need something that appeals to the Swiss steak and meatloaf crowd,” Vogt says. “For the doctors and nurses, it’s usually something more exciting.”

To fill that “more exciting” criteria, Vogt prepares a special meal each day that usually has an ethnic flair. She’s prepared food from Indian, American Indian, French, Cajun, Thai, Senegalese and Moroccan traditions, among others.

“It’s kind of fun,” Vogt says. “Last week, I made African food, and a lady from Tanzania said she recognized the dishes and they were good.”

Often, Vogt, who lives in Overland Park, shops at Kansas City markets to prepare her meals, most of which she finds recipes for on the Internet.

Chef Andrea Vogt has helped to breath new life into the offerings at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. She checked food temperatures on Wednesday.

There are still the old standbys – things like soup, grilled cheese and chicken fried steak – for those who don’t want to branch out at the international food station.

“They’ve been pretty adventurous,” Vogt says. “But it’s sort of funny. Sometimes, they’ll look and it’s Indian or Thai food, and they’ll go to the other side.”

‘Fit any taste’

Debbie Miers, director of food and nutrition services at LMH, says there is new excitement about food at the hospital.

“She has brought a whole new type of cooking to us,” Miers says of Vogt. “It’s an adventure when you come to eat at LMH now.”

Miers says hospitals across the country are realizing a good cafeteria can mean better customer service for those visiting patients.

So far, the new fare in the cafeteria hasn’t meant much of a change for the food served to patients, due in part to dietary restrictions.

But that may be changing soon. Some patients, such as those in rehabilitation units, might be able to try some of the adventurous cafeteria meals.

“Every day is different,” Miers says. “One of the hardest things we have to do is to be able to fit any taste – from home cooking to something fancy.”

But Vogt apparently is managing to do that. Some of the cafeteria’s customers even come from outside the hospital to eat there.

One of those is Sheryl Tirol Goodwin, communications coordinator for the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, which has its office across the street from the hospital.

“I’m pretty good when it comes to different cuisine,” Tirol Goodwin says. “They offer things that are not traditional things you’d expect at a hospital. I think it’s a step above cafeteria food. I’d be happy if that food was served in a restaurant.”