West Suffolk Hospital patients develop taste for new dishes

February 4, 2003

Patients at West Suffolk Hospital are beginning to get a taste for some of the new dishes that now appear on the ward menus, following changes introduced at the end of January.

The new menus feature at least one ‘chef’s choice’ dish for lunch and dinner, taken from the special recipes developed for the NHS by a team of award-winning chefs brought together by Masterchef presenter Loyd Grossman.

Although these new dishes were only introduced little more than a week ago the hospital’s patients are eagerly sampling such delights as salmon and dill potato bake and fricassee of chicken with grain mustard and tarragon sauce.

"The new dishes taken from the NHS recipe book give our chefs the opportunity to use more fresh herbs and other fresh ingredients in a slightly different way to create appetising, nutritionally sound meals," explains West Suffolk Hospital’s Acting Catering Manager Veronica Hall.

"Some of the dishes are variations on the familiar favourites like cottage pie and macaroni cheese, but with an added twist by the use of different ingredients. For example, the cottage pie not only includes the addition of fresh thyme and parsley to the meat, but is also topped by a mixture of mashed potatoes, parsnips and grated cheese," she added.

"The big thing about the new NHS chef’s choice dishes, is that all have been carefully developed with a full nutritional analysis, making it easier for hospital catering staff to integrate them into existing menus, knowing that they meet the dietary needs of the patients," said Veronica Hall.

All the recipes are available to hospital chefs via the Department of Health’s website: www.betterhospitalfood.com, which has been designed to enable them to obtain all the information they need to devise their menus and ensure nutritional balance. All recipes indicate the number of portions to which they relate, and if a Trust needs to prepare different quantities this can be amended and will automatically generate a revised ingredient list.