"The Chef Doesn't Use Herbs"

Why do some people think it acceptable to feed hospital patients, the elderly and those in care homes a boring, poor diet?

I work from time to time as a chef in the care sector. Most places try their best, but occasionally you come across a place that is so bad it takes your breath away.

On receiving a booking I make my way to the home or hospital, usually to be greeted by a manager and shown to the kitchen. This is exactly what happened last week.

My brief was to cook lunch for 30 in about three hours. Chicken Curry with rice and Chicken Pie with mashed  potatoes. Pudding was Fruit Mouse.

I familiarised myself with the oven, the extractors and all the other gizmos.

Now to find the ingredients, found the chicken, but only two onions no garlic and no herbs not even dried ones. Luckily there was some curry powder.

I sent out for some onions and made a passable curry, the chicken pie was ok – just a bit bland. 


No vegetables however, because “well they don’t like vegetables”. Not entirely surprising as the only ones on offer were the cheapest of frozen peas, frozen sweet corn (passable) and frozen broccoli (don’t get me started).


When it came to the pudding I couldn’t work out how to make a fruit mouse, with no recipe and only tinned apples or tinned fruit cocktail to work with and very little time. So I rebelled and made an apple crumble with custard, not the same with tinned apples, but it was ok.

I was due to work in this place all week, so I looked ahead to see what delights were in store on the menu. Bear in mind, that we were in the midst of a heat-wave. The following days menu was Lancashire Hot Pot. Chicken stew was the on offer a few days hence  with rice pudding with sultanas as desert. 

The entire menu reminded me of the school dinner choices I had back in the late 1960s, no effort was made to make the menu either seasonal or interesting.


The entire weeks fruit and vegetable order consisted of 2 kg of onions and a similar quantity of carrots and courgette. No salad and no fruit.

The following day I arrived to cook the Lancashire Hot Pot. I had purchased a pot of dried mixed herbs and some lamb stock cubes. I went to ask for the £1.40. To be told by the unit manager “Our chef doesn’t use things like that”.  
“What does he use? “ I enquired

I was then led back to the kitchen in the manner of a naughty schoolboy and proudly shown a pot of Tesco’s gravy granules. “Well” the manger said “some chefs use different methods”. I was dumb struck and I didn’t get my £1.40. But I did use my stock cubes and herbs.

The pudding that day was banana custard, ok, not special, but ok.  “Where are the bananas “  I asked. “Oh we don’t use real bananas, we use this” and was handed a packet of banana flavoured Angel Delight.

I never gave my children Angel Delight and the thought of giving Angel Delight to 30 fully grown adults no matter what their mental state just appalled me.

I didn’t go back the following day – I just couldn’t face it.

I have also worked in a hospital where I was told not to use fresh leeks and potatoes to make soup but used powdered soup instead. The same establishment criticised me for not knowing how to make sago. “What sort of chef are you if you can’t make sago?”.

Both the care home I recently worked in and the hospital I just mentioned are parts of groups. Other units within the groups offer a much better level of catering and food. Poor managers and lazy chefs have  a great deal to answer for. 


Good food well cooked will at least provide a better quality of life and with some luck provide a better and healthier outcome.