Mayo Clinic’s Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center

In 1995, the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center opened as an amenity for Mayo Clinic staff. As programs increased, the center moved to its own building in 2007. In 2014, a five-story expansion was added to the building, with lower floors dedicated to fitness and the upper floors featuring nutrition education programs. The center provides various experiences including lectures, cooking demonstrations, virtual food shopping, and cooking classes.

The teaching kitchen was designed with broadcast and recording abilities for the teaching chef. The demo station includes a six-burner range, charbroiler, two wall-mounted double-stacked convection ovens, with a sink on the front and back counter. The five participant workstations are designed to accommodate four people at each one and are equipped with prep and cooking equipment that would be found in home kitchens, but heavy-duty enough to handle the volume of students going through the program. The room was also designed with a glass wall along the corridor to bring in the light from the exterior windows with views of the city and allow passersby to view kitchen activities.

Though many ideas and layouts were considered for the production and serving area, the team decided the goal of efficient and unobtrusive foodservice support was a top priority on the list of requirements. The number of people eating at the facility fluctuates each day. The serving area has two serving lines featuring hot and cold wells. The foodservice team is able to adjust menu items to best accommodate the large group coming from the lecture hall or the small group attending a cooking demonstration.

The support kitchen includes cold prep with refrigeration close-by, an efficient hot food area, and a conveniently located warewashing area for the kitchen and dining area. An alcove between the dining and warewashing area is a bussing section which also blocks noise transferring into the dining area, making it a quieter environment and able to be a multipurpose space.