BERLIN — With the effortless skill of a chef of a Michelin-starred restaurant, Patrick Wodni quickly assembled the ingredients he would need for the day’s lunch special, an onion tart. But this time, instead of putting them into his favorite stainless steel mixing bowl, he poured the sour cream, eggs, cumin, fenugreek, red pepper and turmeric into an industrial-size vat and mixed it with both hands.

“Usually, you would eat this with a nice glass of Riesling,” said the 29-year-old Mr. Wodni, as the sharp smell of the spices rose to join the mellower scent of sautéed onions wafting from the grill. “Sadly, you are in the hospital.”

Even without the ideal wine pairing, most of the patients and staff at Havelhöhe hospital in Berlin agree that Mr. Wodni’s cooking is a lot tastier than the typical German hospital fare. Part of an unusual experiment — one that Mr. Wodni left his job as a chef at one of Berlin’s hottest restaurants to lead — the hospital has replaced its standard-issue schnitzels with locally grown organic vegetables, grass-fed beef and catfish raised at an environmentally conscious aquafarm.