Food Wonderful Food

Why can’t our Canadian hospitals meet this standard?

I have mentioned many times how good the food is at the various Kluaynamthai healthcare facilities. There are two main kitchens – one at the acute care campus and another at the rehabilitation/geriatric campus. Both serve up the most amazing fare. Both campuses also have commercial restaurants that are in separate buildings for the public and they are popular and always busy.

I have often wondered how it is that our healthcare organization can produce food that looks and tastes so good, when Canadian institutions generally serve ugly, bland and generally not very tasty food. Perhaps part of the reason is that there is a much closer collaboration here between the nurses, nutritionists and chefs. There is a mutual respect and they let each other do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Or maybe, the management actually wants the patients and residents to be happy with what they get to eat, rather than not caring.  Or maybe it’s because good food is such an important part of Thai culture. I sometimes think that patients pick our organization as much for the quality of its food as for the quality of its healthcare services.

This entry is mostly in the form of a photo essay, via the photos in the slide show above. Every photo was taken at one of the healthcare campuses.  All the food was cooked by hospital chefs and bakers. (Check out those cakes in slide 10. They were made to honour the King’s birthday by one of our bakers. Even the flowers can be eaten.) Almost all of the shots were of my lunches that were provided to me in the office I use. They were not specially made for me, but were just picks that the kitchen staff thought I should have for that day’s meal. (They don’t like to let me out too much, as my visits are short, so the thinking is that I’ll have less distractions if I stay in and eat. That’s motherly of them.)

Some of the photos were taken at parties. There was the big Christmas/New Years bash and then another party in our acute care commercial restaurant for a group of American guests. The table was at least 10 meters long and filled with, in that case, Vietnamese food. (Our chef’s are experts in all Southeast Asian cuisines and can even cook up a great omelette and french fries when needed. During one day, they thought I was missing my Canadian food, so for that day’s lunch they served steak and frites. The steak, of course, had an Asian twist in that it was heavily spiced with pepper and some chile. It was excellent.)

There are a couple of shots that I took in the kitchen at the geriatric site which was just accredited by the American Joint Commission.  I thought that this was interesting because the people who run hospital kitchens in Canada and the US have often told me that one of the reasons they cannot produce higher quality and better tasting food is because of the strict accreditation and certification rules that restrict the ability of the chefs to produce more interesting meals. Well that’s obviously not true. Our kitchen is totally accredited to American standards but still manages to produce amazing meals. By the way, because this kitchen is located in a long term care complex, it takes special orders from residents, at any time of the day, understanding that the elderly might have specific food they like. Try that in a Canadian facility.

So this is the food entry for this visit. Please enjoy the show and maybe have something to eat while you’re looking at the slides.