Nurse Michael Beck in the Intensive Care Unit at Community Memorial Hospital.
Michael Beck can stand the heat, whether it’s in his kitchen or at the Community Memorial Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
A State Fair grand prize winning cook and ICU nurse, Beck is used to treating dinner guests and patients; his recipes are creative and layered with flavor while his care is personal and technically advanced.
During the first weekend in September, Beck, who lives in Eaton Heights, prepared six entries for the New York State Fair’s culinary competition. His pulled pork won a blue ribbon, his spicy oatmeal cookies were awarded second place and he came in third with his favorite low carb entry. Most successful of all, however, was Beck’s Six Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Lasagna that was named grand champion among all blue ribbon winners.
“Honey, this is awful,” said Beck’s wife Samantha upon first tasting his creation. It was code the long-time low carb dieter instantly understood and he realized he might just have a winner on his plate “I only had a small taste but it was awesome.”
Beck started by making a marinara sauce then, while the onions, garlic, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, parsley, basil and balsamic vinegar were simmering, he began the dough for his handmade egg noodles. When it had been kneaded just so, the dough was set aside and Beck turned his attention to meat, ground beef and sweet Italian sausage.
Soon he was layering the assembled ingredients in a large bread pan. The six cheeses Ricotta, cottage, Asiago, Parmesan, Romano and mozzarella.
“The secret to good cooking is timing,” says Beck and while everything obviously worked out perfectly with the lasagna, the intensity of preparing six entries doubled when Samantha went into labor six weeks early, right after the fair. Son Braeden Izaak who was born September 5, and is doing fine and the family suspects his first words will be, “Where’s the Asiago cheese?”
It would seem becoming a father and winning a grand prize is plenty of excitement but Beck managed, in the midst of everything else, to hit a cow with his truck thereby accounting for any possible random dull moments. “It’s been interesting,” he reports.
Michael’s parents, Al and Linda, ran Beck’s Townhouse in Morrisville for years and he would help out around the kitchen but his interest in cooking predates even that experience.
“Michael loves food, always has,” says Linda, who is the Nurse Manager of the Medical/Surgical unit at Community Memorial.
“Even when he was a little boy, when we would go out to dinner he would look up and down the menu to find something he’d never had before. Liver and onions, duck, escargot. The waitress would look at us and we’d say, ‘Whatever he wants.’”
His adventuresome palette and early duties at the Townhouse were both expanded by Lou Ciccone, who’s Fireside was an esteemed Rt. 20 eatery.
“Lou taught me how to make pasta, sauce and the finer things so I didn’t feel like a line cook anymore,” says Beck, who continued working in restaurants and tending bar while pursuing his education in healthcare.
He initially studied physical therapy, later became an Emergency Medical Technician and then enrolled in paramedic school. He eventually turned to a nursing program with hopes of securing a spot on a helicopter.
The job in the ICU at Community Memorial Hospital materialized first and it has been a good fit.
“I like it back here,” Beck says. “It makes me think a little faster.” While staying on his toes, he keeps an eye on a monitor that provides information on patients’ vital signs. In addition to the high tech aspect, the ICU requires basic nursing skills.
“We keep the patients comfortable and clean, administer medications and call the physicians when necessary.”
Says his mother, “Michael doesn’t work for me but I’ve been told that, despite his size [Beck is 6-foot-2], he is very gentle, very kind and that patients love him.”
There are aspects of the hospitality business in healthcare and Beck sees similarities between nursing and bartending, especially since both require good listening skills and the ability to deal with issues.
“I love it when we have a patient who has had a hip replaced and is just so happy that the old pain is gone, the immediate pain doesn’t matter.”
What are the dreams a nurse who is also a grand prize winning cook think about?
“I’d love to open a restaurant someday but my father would probably disown me.”
Maybe, but lasagna lovers would be thrilled.
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A Day In The Life
JERRY LUCAS is a nurse in the emergency room at Floyd County Trauma Centre, New Albany, Indiana, USA. On September 11 last year he drove for 12 hours across several state lines because he felt compelled to lend a helping hand at Ground Zero in New York. Click here for the complete story.
