Ron McKenzie

The inaugural winner of Public Sector Caterer of the Year 2005 is Ron McKenzie, head of catering at County Durham & Darlington Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. All seven judges agreed that McKenzie fulfilled the criteria which were to combine innovation with sound financial performance, as well as demonstrate clear achievements during the past 12 months.

Since February 2004 Darlington has been a successful pilot for the Government’s drive to make the public sector buy more local produce. Not only does its milk come from a local dairy, but the hospital recently switched to organic milk at neutral cost. Even with meat, arguably one of the most expensive basic ingredients, McKenzie insists on buying British and has an eye on quality as well as price. “I have a reputation for good food and there’s no way I want to lose it by buying cheap ingredients,” McKenzie said in a December 2004 Caterer and Hotelkeeper article.

A reputation for innovation and quality led to McKenzie picking up Radio 4’s Food & Farming Award last year, the first hospital caterer to win the award. Sheila Dillon, presenter of Radio 4’s Food Programme praised McKenzie’s “first-class food, all cooked on the premises and all beautifully presented”. Perhaps the most telling tribute to the quality of Darlington’s food is that it has successfully tendered to supply freshly cooked meals to nearby Bishop Auckland General Hospital.

McKenzie’s philosophy is to treat patients as guests – “don’t serve anything you wouldn’t eat yourself” – and working within the same NHS budget as other hospital caterers, he manages to put on occasional specials such as strawberries and cream during Wimbledon fortnight or a candlelit dinner for new mothers and fathers.

In November 2004, the catering department achieved another first – the first hospital in the country to get the EFSIS standard for Catering Establishments. EFSIS is the food industry’s leading third party inspection service, checking all sectors of the food and arming industry against a wide range of standards, covering every aspect of food production, processing, and distribution.

Judge Richard Wilson, director of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College Hospital, London, commented: “Ron pushes himself forward for judgement from outside. EFSIS is a quality standard that you put yourself forward for. But the reason he does it is not to get acclaim for himself, but because he wants to motivate his staff to keep achieving.”

There are other examples of innovations that McKenzie has introduced that make him one of the most proactive catering managers in the NHS. Darlington Memorial was one of three pathfinder sites to develop the Protected Mealtime initiative, which is now being
rolled out across the NHS.

His attention to detail stretches to the use of menus in Braille/large print for the visually impaired, and pictorial menus for those who don’t speak English well.

Summing up, another judge, John Benson-Smith, chef director of Hazlewood Castle, and a former Better Hospital Food chef, said: “To me Ron is a knight in shining armour. He’s a dynamic guy, and one of the few who actually believed in the Better Hospital Food programme from the beginning.” Wilson added: “He’s gone well beyond what Better Hospital Food would have required. Even without BHF I get the impression Ron would have taken all of these initiatives himself.”

The judges

• John Benson-Smith, chef director, Hazlewood Castle
• Lois Levy, head of nutrition, policy and advice, Food Standards Agency
• Matthew Merritt-Harrison, managing partner, Merritt-Harrison Catering Consultancy
• Katherine Murphy, director of communications, Patients Association
• Neil Porter, national chairman, Local Authority Caterers Association
• Sarah Waddington, community dietician, Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care
• Richard Wilson, director of nutrition and dietetics, King’s College Hospital

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