Food boxes await delivery to locals who cannot get to shops
Elderlies and the vulnerable will receive the meals in a box at their doorstep – hand delivered by the restaurant’s team – minimising human contact.
How to receive the food: The chef’s local parish church St Peters in Eaton Square is organising the deliveries in London SW1.
Hospital catering pretty much always gets a bad rep. Slimy soups, soggy bread, fishy everything; the prognosis is normally a swift death.
But can the huge industry catering for hospital patients and workers produce anything other than murder? And what are the issues that hospital chefs – burrowed deep underground (probably near the morgue) – are up against?
Unlike your average restaurant where the healthiness of the food is not generally taken into consideration, hospitals are supposed to be completely the opposite. However, last week frozen meat was found in a freezer at Uist and Barra Hospital in the Outer Hebridies with no indication of how long it had been there.
The hospital was handed an “improvement required” rating after an inspection. Among breaches found by the inspector were a broken meat fridge, a persistent sewage smell in the washing-up area and outdated allergen information.
A spokesman for the hospital said all items were now checked by a second member of staff for labelling before being frozen, the fridge had been fixed and allergen labelling updated.
Malnutrition costs the health service £1.4bn a year and obesity £1.1bn so it’s important to get food right.
This wasn’t always the case. Back when no one really gave a flying bedpan, hospitals would serve up classic British stodge, like bangers and mash or pie and chips.
Nowadays, most hospitals have a nutrition and hydration committee that looks at the nutritional needs of patients and devise a menu accordingly.
This is great news – OBVIOUSLY food is important to health and people overcoming illnesses- but it does place certain restrictions on the chefs in terms of flavour and taste.
Domini Kemp who wrote a book about which food is best for fighting and beating cancer said: “Although we view hospital food as pretty awful, I have sympathy for hospital caterers.
“The big fear is food poisoning – and so they tend to cook the bejaysus out of everything to ensure minimal risk. It’s a flawed system but kitchen staff are not where the blame lies.”
Uh huh. Finally some recognition that it’s not the chefs’ fault.
Also; thought we could talk about hospitals without mentioning the word budget – WRONG, the money going into the kitchen is pitiful and so therefore it must be entirely their own fault.
Dr Colin Sage, of University College Cork (UCC) who has carried out food research in hospitals said: “Hospital food is bad, we all know that, but I don’t think it’s a question of restaurant chefs — however well intentioned — showing hospital kitchens how to do it better. It’s a damn sight more complicated than that. I’m quite sympathetic to catering managers who have to work with very restrictive budgets.
“Hospital food is driven by tenders and the procurement process, which sources food based on the lowest price. Catering managers are challenged by poor-quality ingredients. If more procurement were done on a local level, it would help.”
To put it politely, you can’t polish a turd and with such little funding being put into food, and hospitals in general for that matter; its little surprise the food isn’t great.
And what about careers with the NHS as a chef or cooking assistant and how does this affect the food? Are people queuing up outside the hospital kitchen doors to eagerly bring their latest French inspired menus to the work space?
Of course not- the truth is career prospects for a chef or kitchen worker in the NHS is not great.
Under the Agenda for Change pay rates 2016 (whatever that means) an assistant/catering support worker would start at band 1 which is around £15,000.
Moving your way up band 2 as an actual chef is between £16-£18k and band 3 for a team leader position is between £16-20k.
Hmmmm. Leaves a sour taste doesn’t it?
To sum up there are a lot of things that hold back both the food and the chefs who work in the NHS, but equally it is important to remember who is causing these setbacks (clue: their house number is number 10) and not to point the finger at individuals themselves.
Whoever thought food, politics and chefs would go together?!?
Chef.co.uk did! Follow our hashtag #breakfastmeansbreakfast and express your Brexit opinion by posting YOUR favourite breakfast – either
A) a photo of a full English for leave or
B) a photo of any other breakfast for remain
and tag it to our account at Instagram.com/chefcouk. #chefcouk
Just like Chef Luc Daguzan in Yorkshire, who recently created a Brexit platter at his establishment Le Bistro Des Amis in Skipton.
The platter champions a mix of European and British flavours and is a single finger to our now inevitable escape from Europe.
Drum roll please….. Introducing the ‘Brexit Reunited’ which features:
Sounds more like a six nation’s rugby fixture to me! England, Ireland, Wales and France.
Mr Daguzan said: “Whatever your take on Brexit, it’s an imaginative dish with a difference. We did consider throwing in Brussels sprouts, but opted out, as there’s already more than enough to go at – and we don’t expect too many leavers!”
Think you can challenge Mr Daguzan’s overtly remain dish? The ball’s in your court…….
Trade those rolling pings for social media accounts
As you may already know if you are reading this online, the days of meeting a bloke in a pub who then gets you your dream job based on you saying you’re a great chef, may be drawing to a close.
Like it or not we’ve all got to start jumping through new media hoops to get anywhere.
Online presence and online profiles are extremely important – you should all have Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts and perhaps a web site – here’s how to make them work.
1) Take great photos
We are all too lazy to read these days, so photos are of the upmost importance. Post photos on all your sites and make sure they are good quality and interesting photos. To make it clear that you are a chef and not a robot; take photos of you, your work environment and your leisure time; as well as your food.
You want your followers to understand you as a personality – a character – as well as a chef. They want to live vicariously through you.
2) Have great hooks
Hooks are what I call things that draw the audience in, and make them want to read on. It’s like fishing.
Generally I split hooks up into 3 categories: a) humour b) visual beauty and c) poignancy.
3) Try and stick with a theme
Be a certain type of chef and appeal to a certain type of audience. What kind of chef are you? If you are just a chef- who is going to come to you for specific advice and information? People are incredibly varied. Some people like fish. Some people like vegetables. Some people like cooking exclusively with yak’s milk.
If you represent a niche, you can tap into a niche that believe-you-me most definitely exists somewhere within the vastness of the internet.
It doesn’t have to be super specific if you don’t have one, so don’t panic.
It just has to be something additional to chef. Say chef and pastry enthusiast or chef and seafood connoisseur: something that strictly defines your identity and your angle.
4) Link up with other chefs
Stealing other people’s followers is great. If you do a small project with a chef mate of yours and link it all up on social media channels you have just exposed yourself to all their followers. And so the ball rolls.
5) Link up with organisations
Hopefully at this point after having done all of the above the organisations and blood sucking advertisers will have come for you, wanting your fan base.
But if they haven’t, go to them and say “hey these people are all following me. Give me your product and I will help get it attention.”
This will turn your online efforts into tangible profit and can be a nice extra bonus to your wage that can help pay for your family and home – and yes even a little beer money!
Simple stuff really. Just got to do it.
Hurry with the salad!
What isn’t ordered from the palm of your hand these days?
Anyone living in metropolitan areas will be all too familiar with the Deliveroo bicycle. But what does this mean for chefs and the cheffing game?
The journey from kitchen to mouth is a problem: “Some foods, like soup or pizza survive well, but others less so,” according to Peter Backman, managing director of food consultancy firm Horizons. Typically it is 15 minutes on a bike, where the food gets shaken around and loses temperature.”
To adapt to this issue, many chefs will only serve takeaway dishes that can last the pilgrimage.
Ever wondered why it’s nigh on impossible to get a salad delivered to your door? The poor leaves will sweat under the pressure and just won’t make it.
But if we as chefs are going to have to accommodate this new trend (and Wagamama’s sales went up by nine percent after recently joining Deliveroo) then there should be better ways to transport food.
Supper London is thinking the same thing and provide temperature controlled delivery boxes that are tailored for the type of food being delivered.
This is a great idea.
For me, while the ways of ordering and eating food change, I hope that we as chefs can continue to maintain the same standards of food and freedom of menus.
Comment on this story or write to us at news@chef.co.uk
When pigs walk
Watch out! In the topsy turvy, “disruptive,” 21st century, a new app called Trybe is suggesting that all of us are chefs! Yes, all of us!
Finnish duo Leo Wuoristo and Ilkka Sako designed the app for home cooks. Trybe links them up with the paying public via the medium of the cellphone.
That’s right. You know your next door neighbour -yes the one who never takes the rubbish out and who watches T.V. really loud till 2am- he is in fact a Trybe chef.
Okay I’ll admit that it’s good for people to be able to earn a living from home, especially when many have been systemically excluded from the job market, but isn’t being a chef all about quality and technique and will Trybe provide this?
If everyone’s a chef then no one is a chef and what’s the difference between a restaurant and someone’s house?
Burnt pizza, over-salted everything, wet salad, raw meat and poor ingredients- that’s what.
For me quality is the major issue.
If Trybe can overcome this – by assuring that the quality is good and that the word chef is still synonymous with a higher level of cooking – then perhaps pigs fly and perhaps my next door neighbour makes the best boeuf bourguignon in town.
Perhaps.
www.trybe.com for more information
Hope things have moved on a bit, eh?
It’s odd how women have historically been confined to the house and the kitchen, and yet the professional kitchen is a male dominated industry.
Think about celebrity chefs for example. The majority are male and those who aren’t are considered more as house-wives filling some spare time, rather than serious industry leaders (sorry, Nigella).
Delia Smith and Nigella are filmed in what is supposed to look like their houses, while the likes of Gordon Ramsey and Marco Pierre White are filmed inside a bustling working kitchen.
When a woman cooks it is a hobby and when a man cooks it is a career – this seems unfair.
These stereotypes overlap into our profession as chefs, meaning that only 19% of chefs working in the hotel & restaurant sector are female.
According to surveys women in the kitchen earn 28% less than men on average, making the sector much worse than the national average pay gap of 18%
Life is harder as a female chef, and although we’ve come a long way over the past 100 years, there’s still a way to go.
So what should we do about it?
While some of the movements require a high level of activism, there are everyday things that we as chefs can do to show our support.
And don’t forget to have hope! Female chefs are starting to be recognised as real industry leaders and pioneers.
Ana Ros was recently awarded the world’s best female chef 2017 for her work at the Hisa Franko restaurant in Kobarid, Slovenia.
More locally in London we spoke to chef proprietor Sam Clark who co-runs the restaurants Morito and Moro with her husband.
Sam Clark showing us how it’s done
Sam’s story is one of hard work but also how she was lucky enough to bypass gender issues by working in the right place.
Before the Mor’s Sam worked in Hammersmith at the River Café, which was run by the brilliant due Ruth Rogers and the late Rose Gray.
Run by two women, the River Café was always a fair place to work.
“I then opened my own place with my husband and as the owner I had respect and authority in the restaurant,” she continued.
“Moving forward to when Moro opened we employ a good balance of males and females.”
“Sometimes I feel we need to employ more blokes!”
“In reality, it varies from restaurant to restaurant, some are old school and it still goes on.”
Sam tells a story of when her and her head chef Marianna Leivaditaki went abroad to an industry conference, and were met with rudeness and immaturity from the other all-male teams.
Still, she wasn’t phased.
“It has been improving and thankfully more and more female chefs are at the helm.”
Another cause to celebrate is the Woman Chefs and Restaurateurs organisation (WCR) in America.
Kind of like a female chef union, you can go to the WCR to receive support and services.
In their own words: “WCR advances the careers of women across the culinary industry through education, promotion, connection and inspiration”.
As of yet, there is no such association in the U.K. and perhaps there should be!
One thing’s for sure; the kitchen is not a woman’s world, but neither should it be a man’s.
And then finally with extreme care place the fish on the bread. The fish finger sandwich!
Appearing recently on Celebrity MasterChef Ireland, singer and actress Samantha Mumba (appearing most recently on ITV’s Dancing on Ice) revealed how she always wanted to be a chef, but couldn’t afford it and had to enter showbiz instead
Sound familiar?
Like any job, you can make it in the business by starting at your local- and pot-washing your way up – but it’s undeniable that formal chef education helps. With more jobs in the UK than there are chefs, you can easily get a job in a kitchen, but if you are after a good job, the industry is moving towards formal education as a prerequisite.
Gordon Ramsay may have started out as a football player until he cursedly fell into catering, describing it as an “a complete accident”, but most of us have to work hard to get into the industry.
The Chef Academy of London offers a 325 hour professional chef course for five grand while the University of West London charges £9,250 for their BA (Hons) Food & Professional Cookery.
Most aspiring chefs simply don’t have that kind of money.
At it’s most ridiculous, Le Cordon Bleu charges a whopping £33, 995 for a nine month diploma course.
That works out at about £190 a day!
We can only hope that prices go down and we don’t all have to end up singing and dancing like Samantha Mumba!
One, Two, Three, Four, Five. Every day.
Health is top of the menu these days. Do you feel responsible for the health impacts of the food you serve? Comment below.
We have come a long way from the post-war era of spam and dried eggs. The boom in ready-meals… fast-food… produce pumped full of chemicals… and now, a push for all things organic and fresh – food consumption and production has changed with the times. And we need to understand our customers demands – as well as the call of our own conscience.
As health awareness has risen steadily over the years, the latest phase is about all things green and nourishing.
Now you would assume that most chefs endorse this movement as many of the more complex, sophisticated recipes involve fresh ingredients and delicate balances.
If cooking is like art, serving up chicken and chips is not going to be a chefs Mona Lisa.
However many chefs will have to go where the money is, and may end up making dishes that aren’t particularly healthy.
What we at chef.couk want to know is a) do you like what you serve and b) do you feel responsible for the health of your clients?
Regardless of ingredients or menu, portion size is the first port of call when it comes to health.
Burger and chips, a classic if not eaten every day
Boston Magazine ran a feature on this very subject. They asked three chefs (Tim Cushman, Marcos Sanchez and Jeremy Sewall) this question: do you feel there’s any obligation on the part of restaurants at all, in terms of health?
In general the answer was no.
Tim Cushman: “If somebody wants to eat what they want to eat, that’s their decision. That’s an individual choice. I do pay attention to nutrition; I’m fascinated by it. I also think when somebody eats, it’s not an endgame once they get it in their mouth – it’s going to go all through your system, and I don’t want people to get indigestion because that’s still a continuance of the experience of the restaurant.”
Marcos Sanchez: “If we were feeding them on a consistent basis, then maybe yes. I just like cooking great food and I love to see people enjoy it. That makes me happy.”
Jeremy Sewall: “No, absolutely not. There is no obligation. If your goal is to be a health-food restaurant then that’s your obligation, but that’s not my responsibility. My responsibility is to offer a well-rounded dining experience – interesting, creative food that I feel is an expression of the restaurant itself, but counting calories is not my job.”
It seems opinions are mixed and whether or not the health of your customers is a priority depends to a large degree on what kind of establishment you a running, how you personally think about your role as a chef, and what pressures are being placed on you from management.
In my opinion, if our main responsibility as chefs is to provide good meals, and inspire people with these meals, then health should always be a top consideration.
But that’s just me.
What do you think your role is in terms of healthy eating?
A survey found that while 76% of chefs thought that they served “regular portions”, the actual portion sizes were 2 to 4 times larger than serving sizes recommended by the U.S Government.
Interestingly, the chefs admitted that large portions are bad for health but opinions were mixed regarding whether it is the customer’s responsibility to eat an appropriate amount when served a large portion of food.
Just can’t beat it
Stephen Harris hated custard. With a passion. The owner-chef of the Sportsman gastropub in Kent which recently won the National Restaurant Award 2016, has now undergone a transformation.
In his own words: “When I was a boy, it seemed that everybody loved custard and I was the only one who couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t get past the gloopy texture and luminous yellow colour. I preferred the vague, gentle sweetness of cream as well as the temperature contrast that cold cream gave to, say, steamed sponges. As the jug was passed around the dining table I would hear it whispered: “Stephen doesn’t like custard.” I felt out of step with the world.”
Determined to put the world to rights, Stephen decided to find out why exactly why he didn’t like custard- there had to be an explanation.
In fact, custard as most of us know it – the stuff that goes on spotted dick – is not actually custard at all. It’s actually a powdered sugar and cornflour that was made in the 1840’s by Alfred Bird who wanted to provide an egg-free custard for his wife.
To make matters worse Alfred Bird was a chemist who then added food colouring to the mix in order to make it vaguely resemble egg yolk and custard.
It seems Stephen had a point. Science and food rarely mix well.
He continues: “Proper custard, which I love, is very different: it is made with a base of eggs and sugar, mixed thoroughly before warm cream (and sometimes milk) is poured over. The mix is then heated at the same time as being stirred – this is the key. The stirring means that as the egg proteins heat up they do not clump together to make scrambled egg. The egg proteins start to coagulate at 65C and you take the temperature as high as you want the mix to be thick: a custard taken to 75C will be pourable, whereas one taken to 85C will set like a crème brûlée when it cools down.
“Learning how to make custard is an important skill for a cook as it is the basis of so many recipes: custard, crème brûlée, ice cream, crème patisserie, crème caramel, trifle, quiche and even soufflés.”
Although traditional chemist custard as I think it should be coined holds a special place in our hearts, maybe it’s time we all changed to the ‘proper’ stuff.
Good job Stephen.
