Contract caterers will never match a well-resourced in-house NHS kitchen, according to a former adviser to the Government's Better Hospital Food programme.
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Hill: food is "far down"
the NHSlist of priorities
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Michelin-starred chef Shaun Hill told delegates attending BUPA's Chef's Best Programme, held last week at Ashorne Hill Conference Centre in Warwickshire: "Contract caterers are better than a bad hospital kitchen, but not as good as a well-run one.
"The problem is that because of the NHS's size it tends to get centralised and moved further from the control of local cooks," said Hill, who runs the Merchant House restaurant in Ludlow, Shropshire.
"Outsourcing to contract caterers is a symptom of this approach and a result of the obsession with standardising, which has resulted in food being placed far down a long list of priorities."
With the catering budget already tight, Hill argued that a change in the current system would achieve better value for money.
Hill, who left the Better Hospital Food programme in 2002 after questioning how committed the Government was to changing NHS meals, favours devolving catering to individual trusts and empowering hospital cooks.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 14 October 2004