The Irving and Alice Brown Teaching Kitchen

Carole Brown provides a new way to get healthy in honor of her parents

At an age when most people look to the past to see their biggest achievements, 89-year-old Carole Brown is still making an enormous impact on her community — including all Yale New Haven Health patients and care providers.

Thanks to Carole’s extraordinary gift, we now boast one of just a few dozen state-of-the-art Teaching Kitchens in the country. Any YNHHS patient can attend free classes in nutrition and cooking designed to prevent or manage a host of diseases (see the cover story for more details).

Carole inherited her habit of generosity from her parents, Irving and Alice Brown.

“Supporting my community — especially hospitals — is a continuation of what my parents did,” Carole says. “It meant a lot to them to be able to do this. When it’s around you and part of you as you’re growing up, it’s a natural course to follow.”

Carole saw the kitchen in action at the recent cooking demonstration by Chef Jacques Pépin. He prepared a delicious, healthy meal of salmon, cucumber salad, and grapefruit supremes.

“I was thrilled with the experience,” says Carole. It was absolutely delightful. It gave me that feeling of ‘Hey, this culinary medicine approach really makes sense!’”

The Irving and Alice Brown Teaching Kitchen is fully outfitted with a state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen, and cooktops and food preparation space for 12 students. Since it opened in August 2023, the Teaching Kitchen has hosted nearly 330 patient par­ticipants and more than 230 medical professionals.

Carole, it couldn’t have happened without you — thank you for changing so many lives for the better!

The demo was filmed and can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/ynhh

Learn to make a complete meal that is healthy AND Jacques-level delicious!

Chef Jacques Pépin’s teaching video, filmed with Nate Wood, Chef & MD and Max Goldstein, Chef & Dietitian at the Teaching Kitchen, will be available on the hospital’s YouTube channel later this fall.