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VIDEO: Fresh, fresh, fresh, not to mention tasty and healthy too.
Those are the key ingredients that make up Bedford Hospital’s catering department.
Over 2,000 meals are prepared in the hospital kitchens daily, providing meals for over 300 patients, as well as their families, visitors and staff.
The emphasis is on sustainability. Where possible the catering team get their meat and veg locally, while eggs are sourced from farmers with chicken-friendly farming methods.
The man behind it all is catering manager Peter Gillard, who oversees the creation of bedside meals as well as the two restaurants Le Bistro and The Swannery. He places the emphasis on good value, locally-sourced ingredients, and creating dishes from scratch on site each day.
“What we do is absolutely essential for patients,” he said.
“It’s part of their care, part of their recovery. We all need fresh food inside us and it’s even more important if you are trying to recover from illness or surgery.”
And it’s not just the patients. Staff need a healthy nutritious meal to be able to provide the high level of care expected at the hospital.
In The Swannery, clinical support worker Sharon Copperwheat can only sing the praises of the kitchen staff.
‘’Some of us start to flag around dinner time, we’ve been on our feet from early in the morning, so it’s important for us to get something decent inside us,” she said.
With all this good work going on it comes as no surprise that the catering team have won a five-star rating in Bedford Borough Council’s Food Hygiene Rating Scheme, and are part of Bedford Borough’s Gold Heartbeat Awards.
The department is also part of the government’s Sustainable Futures Practice, as well as the Hospital Food Leaders Network, and has been chosen by the Department of Health as a best practice case study for improving hospital food.
All of this has given us a bit of an appetite to find out more so watch our video from inside the award winning kitchen.
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Weather for Bedford
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 14 C to 24 C
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