Episode 5 Operation Hospital Food with James Martin

Every year, the NHS spends around £500 million on hospital food

but it's reckoned that almost half the patients refuse to eat it

because they find it inedible.

Mashed potato - what's wrong with the mash, then?

You could hang wallpaper up with it.

I believe that everybody deserves to eat good food.

To me, there's nowhere where food is more important than in a hospital.

It's estimated that the previous government spent more than £50 million

on failed initiatives to change the food on our wards.

Scarborough General Hospital is up for change.

For the next three months, I'm working alongside the kitchen staff to try and make a difference.

-Pat, I'm trying to help you.

-I know you are.

Everything's out of a tin or a packet.

Everything. All the veg are frozen.

But there's also a personal reason why I want to take this on.

I watched my grandmother pass away in hospital

and she was a huge influence on me in terms of food

and teaching me about food.

To watch her suffer

and to watch her eat the stuff that was served in the hospital...

it wasn't fantastic.

The only way to change it is to actually physically

get off your backside and do something about it.

Over the past few months, I've been given exclusive access

to Scarborough General Hospital in North Yorkshire.

My mission? To succeed where others have failed

and come up with a workable model that can lift the standard of food

served in hospitals throughout the UK.

I knew when I came here it was going to be a bit of a challenge.

I didn't quite realise how in deep...

and the depth of the challenge it was going to be.

Independent surveys as far back as 1963

have consistently concluded that the NHS hospital food

is neither appetising nor nutritious,

which is hardly surprising when you discover

that as little as a pound a meal is being spent.

I've been given the opportunity to make a difference

and based on what I've seen,

I've come up with a five-point plan which I hope will bring about

a sustainable change here in Scarborough.

To simplify and improve the menu.

Reduce wastage on the wards.

Win the hearts and the minds of those on the front line.

Cook with fresh ingredients from local suppliers.

And generate an income from the onsite restaurant.

Although reluctant at first,

the catering team are now fully on board.

These people are, you know, not just Joe Bloggs off the street.

They're highly trained professional chefs

that are in their retirement or at the end of their career.

They still want to create stuff out of fresh veg.

In charge is manager Pat Bell.

She's worked for the NHS throughout her career

and has been at Scarborough for over 20 years.

She's supported by a dedicated team who include

head chef Sharon Ellis, who's been working

and cooking at the hospital for a staggering 27 years.

Alan Rosbottom,

also known as Big Al.

He's been here almost as long, with 21 years under his belt,

and Darren Glover, known as Big Bird to his colleagues.

He's practically a newbie. He's only been here five years.

But it's not just the catering team.

I've also had to win over the Chief Executive, Mike Proctor.

But today is what it's all been leading up to.

Time to see if my ambitious plans

to improve the food at Scarborough General Hospital's worked.

It's the moment of truth. Can we really make a difference?

It's the eve of the big day...

the launch of the new patient menu.

I've taken their complicated and inefficient 21 day menu

with over 100 dishes on it,

and reduced it to a more manageable seven day rota.

I'm hoping this means the kitchen staff can now concentrate

on making fewer dishes, but tastier.

Months of hard work are about to be put to the test.

It's been a big build-up up till now

and Sharon's got all the chefs in tow in the kitchen

going through the production sheets and the recipes for tomorrow

for all the new dishes.

Dawn and I have been sending the new prices to the tills

so we're just all gearing up for tomorrow.

And I've been told that I'm not allowed

up into the dining room till lunchtime tomorrow.

So we've got a new menu going up.

I can't go up to see how things are getting on

and that's going to absolutely kill me. I don't know how I'm going

to cope with that at all.

Tomorrow it's the first day we start the new menus.

Um, bit nervous, but at the same time, mostly excited.

We've been doing the same menu for nine years.

To be honest, I mean, the job does get a bit mundane.

I feel more involved with the food,

which gives me a lift up.

A lot of it's more like proper cooking, the soups and stuff.

Rather than out of packets, now we're actually making it from scratch.

As long as the chefs are involved with the food,

it's got to be good news really.

Using fresh ingredients and cooking more dishes from scratch

is crucial to the success of my mission.

But to enable us to buy better quality ingredients,

I've had to find a way of supplementing

their limited £3.49 daily patient budget.

Now I strongly believe that this dining room needs to be run as business.

Now I'm a great believer that also that's the reason why

most of the other projects have failed.

It's all very well implementing a new menu, but if it costs a lot more,

we need to look at different ways of how to fund that style of food.

And I think this is one of the only places in the hospital

that can generate that income.

So what I plan to do is give this place an entire makeover

because only a quarter of the 2,000 staff actually eat here.

And to be honest, it's a bit uninspiring.

We've used the £5,000 given to us to kick-start the project

by the Hospital Trust towards paying for this makeover.

Not only are we giving the restaurant a lick of paint, we're also changing the name,

as I didn't feel calling it after a hairy Viking

was really appropriate.

The new sign has arrived.

Now, I did want to keep the name a secret

but Dawn seems to have other ideas.

Oh, yeah. I think I've got what it is.

But it's not just the restaurant's new name

that I'm planning to surprise the team with.

On my first visit, I discovered that the steamer,

a vital piece of equipment, hadn't worked for years.

If we achieve what you want, what you want and what I want...

Yeah.

And we all leave here with a smile on our face,

I will buy you a brand new machine to replace that.

Oh, James. Oh, that's nice.

Out of my own... And that's coming from a Yorkshireman!

Well, it's 8pm...

the night before D-Day

and the guys are fitting a little present from me into the kitchen.

A blast steamer.

What it can do to the vegetables is incredible,

and it's my little present to the kitchen and it's being fitted now.

It's exciting.

And it may be small..

..but it packs a punch...

..cos this thing will cook enough veg for the entire hospital

on its own. It's brilliant.

It's getting late but we still need to get

another important piece of kit in place.

Well, this is where we spent most of the five grand

that the Trust gave us.

It's a...fridge.

Well, it will be when we take it out, but we've got nothing to take it out with.

Because this is a hospital, there's a guy who's got the hammer and nails and the crow bar

that's gone home at four o'clock, so we can't get hammer and nails.

So I suggested going down the operating theatre to get a saw...

to get this crate open.

We don't want to be doing all this in the morning.

But this is basically... was bought to do baguettes really

and to make the baguettes for the nurses and doctors who work here.

I feel like I've got a massive responsibility.

This is, erm, 3,000 quid's worth of taxpayers' money.

I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise...

I'll make it back.

But it's not just me who is feeling the pressure

ahead of tomorrow's big day.

It has been a very emotional time.

There's a lot been going on in the department,

as well as taking part in this project and as you can see,

I get worked up quite easily.

Um...I don't know how I'm going to live this down

when this goes out on air, but there you go.

What we're doing is for the benefit of the patients

and that's what I set my heart to do

when I started with this job 30 years ago.

So I hope we succeed.

SHE SOBS

Well, it's early morning. We've been working late into the evening.

Today is what the last three to four months has been all about...

Change. I've stuck my neck out on the line.

We've got the week menu. It starts today, so fingers crossed.

To be honest with you, I haven't had time to think about it, but now that D-Day is here,

I think we're beginning to panic a bit more now

than we did before really.

This is it. This is what it's been all about.

We've got fresh carrot and coriander soup on today.

Slow roast shoulder of Yorkshire pork.

It's literally home grown, right on our doorstep.

Lamb's liver with bacon. Obviously really good for us. Really rich.

I'll be honest, probably...

..90% of all the orders so far have all been the fresh soup,

bread roll and, funnily enough, butter.

I can't wait to see what the patients think.

But for this menu to remain in place long term,

Pat needs to be sure that it's doable

within her limited patient allowance.

I've tried hard to create dishes that are on budget,

but on my last visit Pat was refusing to accept

that I was on target.

Costed it yet?

Yeah.

And?

-This chicken and leek bake...

-Yeah?

88p a portion.

Yeah.

That's expensive.

It's not really, though, is it?

It is. Pork escalope.

-What's that?

-Can't even do that.

That's way over.

I'm not even putting it on.

Now that she's had time to look at the menu as a whole,

and everything is in place, I want to know who was right.

So, Pat, tell me about budgets.

How are we doing for budgets for the new menu cos we've got it all printed now?

Yeah.

You've costed it all out. On average, are we more or less on the money?

Yeah. There's just some dishes that stick out like a sore thumb.

-So the old menu, roast breast of turkey was 80p.

-Yeah.

Lamb hotpot, the price of lamb's gone up quite a lot. That's 76p.

Yeah, well, the lamb dishes went up probably about 12p a portion.

Compare that with what we've got on the new one.

-So we've got pork, 54.

-54 pence.

-Bacon, 35.

-That lamb dish you had on the old menu...

-Yeah?

That was 89 pence, would have cost 50p three years ago.

-Yeah.

-But that's again...

That's market forces, isn't it? Lamb has just shot out the window.

-It is but that's the opportunity we can play around with, with a weekly menu.

-Yeah.

So it all comes down to having this weekly menu. We can change it per seasons.

-We get in the price of what we want it to be.

-Yeah.

And it's under £3.49.

So from that point of view, from the actual individual dish costs,

I don't have a problem at the moment. It's what...

Don't say but. Just leave it at that.

No. What my... Well, it's not a concern, but I won't be able

to tell you what it is until we've gone through the menu for a week and we find out...

When you do, I'm going to change my mobile number. I'm off back to the kitchen.

-..what the take ups are going to be.

-£3.49.

He's a little devil, isn't he?

So it looks like we've been able to stick within our budget.

Although it will take a few weeks before Pat can really take stock of how it's going.

Back in the kitchen, the team is in full swing.

If you weigh everything out, James is going to make it with us when we're ready.

So that's litres and kilos, not pounds and ounces.

Yeah.

This morning, got up quite early, you know, nerves and everything,

trying to get a head start really.

Get everything organised.

The pork's been put in cos it needs four hours' slow roasting,

but the nerves are in the air, so...we'll see. Fingers crossed.

Yeah, I think they're all raring to go this morning, but like I say,

they're a bit apprehensive but once we start, they'll soon get into it

and they do work quite well under pressure so...it's good.

I'm impressed.

-Now you know when I came in here?

-Yeah?

-Your equipment...

-Yeah.

What did I promise you?

SHE GASPS

Oh, James. Look at that.

It's a present from me to the kitchen.

Oh, it's amazing!

We never thought we'd get another one of them, did we?

You've got one.

Fully working.

Thank you very much.

-The best of luck, all right.

-Oh, I can't believe it.

It's all right.

Just don't wait 20 years for getting this one fixed.

Winning the hearts and the minds

of the team has been critical to my mission.

I've tried to reignite their passion for cooking.

With just a couple of hours to go before the food hits the wards,

it's time to rally the troops.

Any chefs, can you come through the main kitchen? Cheers.

Come along. Duncan... Everybody.

First off, I just want to thank you so much for allowing me into your domain

over the last sort of three months.

I know this is a massive, massive change for you all.

But I really do think it's for the better,

and I think by the smiles on your faces it's not going that bad already!

Because without you guys, none of us can do it.

And thanks to Pat for sticking by it, and erm...

No tears!

No tears? She's had a little one this morning.

Little one over a steamer, but...

-Yeah. Over to you, boss.

-Yeah.

No, I want to thank you all because you've all absolutely been brilliant

and, well, I know you're a good team anyway,

but we've got to prove this now to James, and of course to our customers,

the patients and the staff who's going to be doing it at lunchtime.

I know we've all worked really, really hard to get these menus in

in such a short space of time, and I couldn't have done it without all of you.

And I'm so proud of you all,

and today we're going to sock it to 'em and show 'em what we're really all about.

And I'd like to thank you as well, James.

I have cursed you a few times since you've been here, I can assure you!

As you all know, he makes me cry quite a lot because I've never been so stressed in my life.

But it has been an amazing experience and fingers crossed, everybody!

-Just remember...

-All back to your posts!

Just remember, this is the very, very start.

You know, we're literally 1% into it and it's a huge change doing what we're doing.

First menu change for nine years,

but already,

the smell in this kitchen smells like a kitchen.

And the smiles on your faces and the fresh produce -

-that and Pat's...

-Perfume!

Yeah, perfume! Yeah!

Which is quite strong, as well, over the coriander!

Congratulations, and let's nail it and make sure from now on,

we're on the ball. All right?

-Good stuff.

-Thanks, everybody.

'Before I started this project, the vegetables were cooked within an inch of their lives.'

'But not any more.'

35 seconds. Carrots, cooked.

It's nice to have the fresh produce.

Got a steamer working again, pressure steamer, which we haven't had for years,

which is handy when we need to cook stuff fast.

Done.

'As well as using fresh rather than frozen veg,

'I wanted to banish all packet soups.'

You cannot, cannot tell me...

..that freshly-made soup is not better for you than that.

It's not possible!

-So, two blocks of butter...

-Yep.

All the onions in.

'With home-made ones now on the menu, today it's Darren who gets to make

'a carrot and coriander soup for the patients for the first time.'

Smells good already, doesn't it?

-So what's been your favourite part of the last three months, then?

-All of it, to be honest.

-I think the peak of it was the restaurant, actually being in...

-You seemed to enjoy that.

I did, yeah. It's inspired me a lot. It really has.

Doing the prep now, and it's more hands-on,

I feel more like a chef - not just a cook, you know, so...

-That's why you come into work every day, isn't it?

-Yeah.

'And Big Al is responsible for one of the main courses -

'lamb's liver and bacon.'

The flavour's fine, yeah. It's really nice.

Just a little bit more thickening and then that's it. Spot on.

Good. Well done, Alan.

-Don't sound so surprised!

-I'm not surprised!

-Do you know, you can't pay him a compliment, can you?

-No, you can't!

Not used to 'em.

I see they're all hard at work, bless them.

It's going to be a hard day for them today, getting used to the new menus,

the new recipes and everything. But we'll see how the day progresses.

-Do you want the whole of the carrots in?

-All the carrots in, yeah.

'It's so great to see the staff cooking with more fresh ingredients.

'Before today, soups came from packets.

'They were high in additives and salt, but low in nutrients and protein.

'In contrast, my new soups are bursting with vitamins and minerals,

'which can only be great news for the patients on the wards.'

-So we've got the guys from the Soil Association coming today, who'll be very impressed with this.

-Yeah?

Coriander.

So I've just timed it. It's taken...

15 minutes to make 200 portions of soup.

And with a packet soup it had took us about...half an hour.

-So double the amount of time.

-It's taken 15 minutes.

-Yeah.

'Half the time - but twice as tasty.'

Oh, yeah. That does it for me, that.

-Ten out of ten!

-Well done. Well done, mate.

-Thank you very much.

-Keep blending it for about two minutes.

-Right.

'According to a 2010 report from the Soil Association,

'an environmental group that campaigns for planet-friendly food,

'the NHS is wasting millions of pounds by failing to source fresh produce from local suppliers.

'So to encourage Pat to buy locally, and therefore potentially make savings,

'we invited Mike Bond along to take a look at her store cupboards.'

Where does that fish come from?

-Umm...

-Don't say the sea!

-I believe the trip goes, that they buy in Grimsby...

-Right.

..they take it back to their warehouse in Wincanton...

-Somerset.

-Yeah.

-Right.

-And then deliver it back to me.

So it must be a good 12-hour round trip.

It's pretty shocking, to be honest.

-Nice to see you again. How are you doing?

-Very well, thank you.

-This is Stuart.

-Hello, Pat.

-Hello there, Stuart. How are you?

-Soil Association inspector.

-Oh gosh, right, OK.

-So this is it. This is the big day!

-Right, OK.

I want to see you've been working really hard to meet our criteria,

for the Food For Life award.

'The Soil Association have a gold, silver and bronze award scheme,

'that recognises caterers that deliver good quality food.

'I'm hoping Pat will become the third UK hospital

'to currently hold their bronze award.

'Criteria they need to meet include...

'..meals contain no undesirable food additives...

'75% of dishes are freshly prepared...

'..meat satisfies UK welfare standards...

'menus are seasonal...

'and eggs come from cage-free hens.

We just kind of work away now in the background,

and look at the purchasing that supports your new menu.

-And obviously measure that against our criteria.

-OK.

-That's what we've got on today for patients.

-OK.

Home-made carrot and coriander soup, bread rolls and whatever.

-Slow roast shoulder of pork with apple sauce.

-Yeah. And so we're trying to hit the 75%.

It looks like you've probably...

No doubt they're going to go through everything with a fine-tooth comb...

so fingers crossed that we're still OK.

'Leaving Pat with the inspectors, it's time for me to make an inspection of my own.

'Everything hinges on us making the restaurant a successful money-making machine,

'so I want to check that all the finishing touches are in place.

'We're working hard to generate extra income to plough back into the kitchen.

'But there's still one area where we're literally chucking money into the bin.

'On my first visit, I was shocked to see how much food was left on the trolleys after the service,

'which all ended up being thrown out.'

Once you've done this, what happens to all this lot?

Thrown away. Whatever's left gets disposed of.

-There's still 35% of it.

-There is a lot left...

'I think this could be reduced by better communication

'between the catering team and the ward staff.

'So I'm taking Pat and head chef Sharon to meet up Nicky McNannie, the Head of Nursing,

'to see if they can at least make a start on trying to address this.'

When I first came here, I couldn't believe,

and I don't think these guys realised, the amount of waste.

Now, it seems to me, the way that you run a restaurant

is that you've got the kitchen and the front of house.

-Everybody sorts together as a team.

-Yeah.

I think for too long it's been "There's you, there's the kitchen -

"never the two shall meet.

It's about effective ordering of patient meals,

so the patients can get their choice of meal.

But then if we have to move a patient for a clinical reason from one area to another,

that we can actually get that request transferred

so that we don't duplicate the requests that we've currently got,

which I think is part of the problem.

But what our biggest problem is, is getting the numbers down on time

and actually catering for what's on the ward, not what they THINK is going to be on the ward.

I think we need to raise awareness with staff,

and we can actually work with that

to get more effective ordering in place.

It won't be easy, but communication is the first start of anything.

I think it is communication, but it's also having a process.

-Yeah, yeah.

-And we can design that.

-It's a way forward anyway. Good.

-If we all do our little bit.

Talking of soup, we've got to go back and finish it off. Come on.

Thanks, Nicky. Cheers.

'With less than one hour to service, there's just time for me to do some finishing touches.'

So this is an idea we got for the salad bar,

but also for the vegetarians, for their meal.

That's good.

'As some of the 2,200 staff who work at the hospital only have half an hour for lunch,

'I think providing them with a tempting takeaway could be a potential goldmine.'

-Nice Moroccan flavours in there.

-Yeah.

-Bit of pasta...

'Another delicious addition to the menu

'is a slow roast shoulder of pork,

'which has been roasting in the oven for over four hours

'and is now ready to be carved.'

-It sounds like a proper kitchen at least.

-Yeah.

And it smells like one too which is great. It's a real hive of activity.

Bit of nervous excitement. Obviously a big day for you. It's great.

-Testament to all the hard work which has gone in.

-Yeah, a massive day.

We took apart what you said.

We've changed an awful lot of things.

-Yeah, it sounds like you've done a huge amount, and bronze is a fantastic achievement.

-Yeah.

Yeah, really looking to see how...

How many hospitals have got... particularly a bronze award?

-Two.

-Two. That's it?

-Yeah.

There are only two hospitals at the moment with the Food for Life catering mark,

so it would be a massive achievement for Scarborough to attain that.

There's some great things happening out there but, by and large, hospital food is a scandal.

-So for Scarborough to reach bronze would be absolutely magnificent.

-In three months, pretty good.

This morning's been really, really, really hectic.

There's actually not a lot of difference between what happens in my kitchen and now.

-Can we have pork, please?

-Right, chef!

Eight pork for Hawthorn, please.

Just look at them all.

They're all looking a bit shell shocked, aren't they, bless them?

But that's cos they're concentrating hard on everything that's going on.

Next.

-Six.

-Next.

Six and 11.

This pork's a bit of a nightmare really, if the truth be known.

This is one of the concerns I had at the beginning

with this slow roasted pork.

How many more shoulders have you got?

Because what we would normally do is cook our joints the day before.

Somebody tell me how many more we need.

18 portions for Oak.

And then when they're cold they're easier to carve,

so you get better portion control out of them.

And because the pork is so fresh,

it's falling apart now as they're trying to cut it.

We've already had one ward ring down to say they haven't got enough

for the number of patients that we've sent up for,

but it's only the first day.

We'll keep positive and I'm sure we'll get round it.

Next, please...

'We're already late. Pat is shouting at me.'

This is the problem with a new menu -

normally when you implement a new menu in a restaurant you've got soft openings.

This, our soft opening, is 500 people for lunch.

We've got some pork left over for the restaurant, which is great.

Are you still doing it, Darren?

Eight pork for CCU?

I'm about ten minutes late for the patients, so apologies for that

if you were in hospital in the end of June, 2011.

I do apologise.

CCU, here we go...

All right, darling?

And to make matters worse, we've got the Soil Association here

wandering around with clipboards and prodding stuff, so erm...

just when you think you're under the cosh,

you're going to get even more stress.

OK...

So the actual ingredients are OK

-but we need to look at the meat percentage on that one.

-Yeah, OK.

I'm looking for a minimum meat content - in items like sausages

we need 60% meat -

and I'm also checking the ingredient listings of all the foods here

to make sure they haven't got any banned additives.

'It's all going crazy. My new dishes are all set to go.

'They've been loaded onto the trolleys

'and are heading up to the wards to face their sternest test yet.

'The revamped restaurant is also only a few minutes away from being reopened to the public.

'The baguette bar is where I think the money will be made,

'so it's a rush to get it ready.'

Familiarise yourself with the menu.

-Happy with that?

-Yeah, yeah.

You're going to be really busy.

Probably busier than anybody else.

Familiarise yourself with your equipment,

get everything wherever it is.

I'm going downstairs.

There's your menu.

-Good luck.

-Thank you very much.

-You'll need it.

When I took on this project,

my sole aim was to improve the food that the patients get to eat.

It's now the moment of truth.

Hello there, ladies, how are you today?

-Hello there.

-I brought you a surprise today.

Look, I've got Mr Martin himself.

The chef.

The chef, yeah.

He's been helping us change the menus here at the hospital.

-He makes some lovely soup.

-Oh, there you go!

-Did you enjoy the soup, did you?

-Yes.

Oh, that's what we like to hear.

-And today was the first day that we've done them.

-Oh, the soup's lovely.

-Ah, that's good.

Hello there, gentlemen. How are you today?

-Not too bad.

-Are you all right?

-Yes, not too bad.

-Hi, I'm Pat Bell. I'm the Catering Manager.

-Right.

-This is Sharon, who's my head chef.

-Hello.

And today we've implemented new menus into the hospital

so we've come to ask you, what did you think of your lunch today?

Well, lunch was... I've only been in 24 hours so I only had last night's meal.

-Oh, right.

-But the comparison is, er, much better today.

-Did you enjoy your soup?

-Yeah, the soup was very nice.

-Did you have the pork as well?

-I had the pork.

-That's James's special recipe, the slow roast pork.

-Oh, right. Well, James found it was a little cold.

-Did you really?

There's no reason why your food should be cold, and if that's a problem and it doesn't improve,

then please contact me. My name's at the bottom there,

so if you still have a problem, you ask one of the ward staff if they'll ring me

and we'll come and sort it out for you.

Tell me what you thought.

Very good.

-Yeah?

-Very good indeed. Very tasty.

-Now, you were a pig farmer?

-I still am.

So what do you reckon to our slow roast shoulder of pork that Sharon did today?

-Very nice indeed.

-Glad you enjoyed it.

-It was nice.

-I see you had the soup, what did you think of the soup today?

-That was nice. It was very tasty.

Yeah, it's a home-made one now, rather than a packet one. Did you enjoy that?

-I could, er...

-Could you tell the difference?

-Yeah.

-And is your food hot enough when it comes to you?

-Yes, it was.

-Was it OK?

-Yeah.

-That's what I like to hear.

Well, we got a thumbs-up from the patients which is a brilliant thing,

and I've got to think about the restaurant and everything else cos I know that's busy, so I better go.

Being able to continue to provide good quality ingredients

and also buy much-needed new equipment for the kitchen

relies on us making a success out of the restaurant.

By my calculations, it could potentially make up to £1,500 every single day.

Now, there's already a buzz in here. This has been a huge success.

The minute you walk up the stairs, the thoroughfare where everybody comes in this restaurant.

Before there used to be bits of paper and just stuff everywhere.

We've simplified it. Got rid of all that.

Blackboard - literally, it's cost us 40 quid of the five grand budget that we've had.

Timings as well. We didn't know what time it opened and closed. We've got all that.

And then two other things that I thought was really vital with this place - a salad bar.

This is identical to what we're serving the patients upstairs.

This baguette bar - now I did my costings the other night,

and I reckon that's going to be a bit of a goldmine.

I'm running short on baguettes!

It's like Britain's Most Wanted, isn't it?

I changed the hot offer. It's identical to what the patients are having,

so you've got slow roast pork, and the great thing about slow roast pork in any form,

particularly on a buffet like this, and with the patients, that it lasts so good,

and already it's been a bit of a hit, that one.

This is something I probably need to find another home for, this cart.

I had an idea in the back of my mind that there was nowhere for people who were visiting,

and there's nothing to buy your relatives, so we sourced loads of great local produce.

We've got some parkin here, little shortbread biscuits,

all this sort of stuff. I just think a little bit different, rather than just a bunch of flowers.

'But not everything is running smoothly.'

They're frozen, the peas are frozen!

That's one of the great things about this. When they're under the cosh

and need to get stuff done really quickly, like the carrots, the peas,

that blast steamer, 30 seconds in there, it's gonna be cooked.

How are they doing?

They're al dente.

How long? Two and a half. They're fine. Perfect, yeah.

Peas, put the peas in now.

Hello. Have you got those veggies yet? Can I have them ASAP?

Just got a queue. Cheers, hon.

Perfect.

'Crisis averted.'

It's great to see the restaurant thriving,

but my main aim has always been to make sure that the patients end up eating tasty and nutritious food.

I don't want all my hard work to come to nothing,

and I need to ensure that what I've started carries on.

I've arranged to have a final chat with the hospital's Chief Executive, Mike Proctor.

Thanks for allowing this meeting again.

Now, it's been a few weeks, have you seen anything change over the last few weeks,

-you personally, or not?

-Oh, God, yeah. It's been hectic, I think.

And I've kept in touch with the staff, and they've gone through a bit of a roller coaster, I guess.

I don't think anybody realised, including probably yourself,

how big a change this would be, and also, how hard work it's gonna be.

Absolutely. I'm going to make sure that in the future we keep it going,

so I'm gonna take a personal interest in it when you depart.

I'm hoping, and I want more than anything else, because the guys in the kitchen are really up for it,

is for it to continue, and at the end of the day, you lead from the front, and it all comes from you.

-You personally.

-I'm well aware

that when you disappear into the sunset, or wherever you go,

that there's a real danger that it can go flat.

I won't be going anywhere, because Pat's got my mobile number, unfortunately!

-She ain't going to let me go very far, is she?

-She isn't!

Other than emigrate and change my mobile number...

but that's my danger, is that I'm there. I'll be at the end of the phone.

I'll be up here with them to help them out,

but I don't want to see it as a gimmick,

cos this is really - let's face it, it's really very important.

-It is.

-And it's important, fundamentally, to the patient.

It's far more important to me now than it was when I said I agreed that we'd do the project.

It's far more important.

'Now that the busy lunchtime period is over, it's finally time for Pat and the rest of the team

'to come and see what we've done.'

Now it's been really difficult to keep the boss out of the way,

which is this one here.

Pat. She hasn't got a clue what we've been doing upstairs, and she's wanted to know,

but I think now's the time I should bring her, and show her.

Tissues!

We might need them.

-Oh, look at that menu!

-Yeah.

Oh, does look good, doesn't it?

OK, guys, this is the accumulation of an awful lot of work. As you know, we got, what did we have?

-Five grand? Five grand?

-Yeah.

Not a lot of it was spent in the kitchen,

if any, cos I wanted this to work for you.

If we can make this work, the profit that we make from here

will come down to you guys, so it will be spent on equipment.

We've got a blackboard on here for any of your specials as well that can change.

-Oh, wow! Look.

-Little mug shot.

-Ah...

-But before we go in,

I've changed one thing, which did my head in, was the name of this place.

As you remember, it was named after what? A hare-lipped Viking?

LAUGHTER

No comment!

But ladies and gentlemen - the name of your new restaurant.

APPLAUSE

Well done.

Thank you!

It's all right.

Tissues!

-Tissues. Yeah, they're coming!

-Oh, look.

-I anticipated it!

All right?

-Oh, I'm going to get some stick for that!

-Now ladies and gents, come in.

And it's actually rubbable off, so no matter what anybody writes on it, it comes off.

You've got your new salad bar. OK? All new ingredients.

That's a mix and match, which you guys can change.

This has been a goldmine.

That will make enough money to get you two pieces of equipment per year, every year.

And also, he's going to be sweating a lot.

LAUGHTER

So you've got that. We've given the whole lot a lick of paint for you, all right?

Recognise anybody?

SHE LAUGHS

You've got your new baguette bar, we've got the soup, I've replaced all that for you.

Again, we've got

all Yorkshire ingredients that people can come and taste,

and I'm going to leave you guys - go on, have a look around.

Is that when you were at t'farm?

Yeah. Trying to escape, then!

Looks as if we've got a bit of a pace on!

SHE LAUGHS

-That's brilliant, isn't it?

-It's like rogues' gallery.

This has really gone down really well.

Well, we knew it would, but we didn't know how well.

The queue was out the door here, and then for your secondary service the soup, and it's up to you.

-Up here making everything.

-One or two have actually asked for the soup.

-You've saved it for them.

-Home-made.

-You made it!

-Did you say, "I made it"?

-I didn't tell them that!

-You should have been selling it!

I'm blown away, really.

I'm amazed at the name, cos I never thought it would have been anything like that.

Today now, it's been worth all the stress, all the overtime,

but at the end of the day, I know with my team,

I know that they'd pull it out of the bag on the day,

so without them, I couldn't have done it.

I can't really believe what we have achieved in such a short length of time cos it seems ages ago

since it was put forward to us, and all these changes,

and we didn't even have a menu until a few weeks ago, so it's been full-on.

But, now we've done it, I'm glad of what was done. Proud of it.

Now, how was it?

'It's all going so well. The icing on the cake would be a bronze award from the Soil Association.

'So how have they done?'

-Where are we?

-Well, it's great, you know. There's a real transformation in the purchasing

and the stuff which is in the freezers.

There are a few bits and pieces which do need to be tidied up.

There's still additives sneaking in, and there's still evidence coming from suppliers

in terms of farm assurance, which is really important from the animal welfare perspective.

So if we looked at things with the additives, are you aware of what those are?

Yeah, we've been having a chat about those.

-There's things like we've got a soy sauce with MSG in.

-Right.

Which we hadn't thought about. I had a dairy cream sponge that we use for the patients' birthday cakes,

it's got a colouring in.

-So...

-So not, not too big an issue, so...

-No. So we do have to look for alternatives.

It's just those tiny little details. Once they're sorted, then you're there. It's great.

An amazing amount of work has been done over the eight weeks.

Can't you tell? Look at this. You've done that!

Just imagine what you've done to me!

SHE LAUGHS

You're going to put me in one of these places, before long.

'It's not a failure though, as Pat and the rest of the team just need to sort out a few small issues,

'and then they'll become the third UK hospital to currently hold a bronze catering mark award.'

So here we are. It's hardly the end, is it?

-I hope not.

-It's the beginning, I suppose, really?

I never thought we'd get here. Did you?

Well, two or three weeks ago, I didn't. I thought we were going to struggle to actually reach today,

but I'm just amazed that we've done it, and I am so proud of the team,

because they've just been absolutely fantastic, and supported me 100%.

-Well, don't forget, I'm on the end of the phone.

-I haven't forgotten!

I haven't changed my mobile number yet, but I'm working on it!

And, er, thanks very much for having me.

Thanks for coming to us.

I've never been so stressed in my life, but now it's all worked today,

-so I'll forgive you.

-It was worth it, then?

-Yeah, it was worth it. Absolutely.

-Good.

-Thank you ever so much.

-Thank you.

-Good. Take care. Best of luck.

Look after it. Take care of it and enjoy it.

We will do. Thanks, James. You're a star.

Food needs to be looked at as a medicine, and really, a second medicine.

I feel that what Scarborough has done, and what the guys in the kitchen have done

in just 12 weeks, is definitely the way forward for all NHS hospitals

and everybody should take note of what these guys are doing here.

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