Saint Heston

[Emmanana]

I am the only one becoming irritated by Hestons attempt to use the poorly kids as a lever in order to ingratiate himself as a some kind of saviour, and in particular the way he is attacking the kitchen staff who work hard for probably a very low wage?
I wouldn't imagine the staff doing the cooking are given a lot of free reign/sufficient budget when it comes to devising the menu, and to actually take the staff to the kids beds so they can validate his insults is pretty poor.

I'm not debating the issue of the quality of hospital food, that's a whole new thread, but I'm fairly cynical at how his sniping will help solve the problem...

I totally agree.

And this is so unoriginal, having to win over the staff, convincing the management...

A huge Jamie-shaped sense of déjà-vu!

The food just seems ridiculous as well! What's wrong with just ordinary well cooked food? It all seems like a pointless exercise to me. To devise that menu for the amount of children they have, every day with four not very well paid cooks would be unworkable, I would have thought

Yep, agreed.

I think it comes across as quite Americanised, too - something about his manner when he's talking to the camera. Very patronising.

Still, it'll be a good thing if the kids get better food, I suppose. And the older female chef is just making it for me - she's so chuffed. It's nice to see her getting so much enjoyment from her job.

I love Hestons programmes as a rule, but would children who were feeling ill really want to eat a snot shake or a vomit soup?

mealworms?

uh, no thanks

I haven't watched it because I am bored to death of Channel 4's crusades. Just make some decent bloody comedy and stop making this tired old shite.

I would have hated vomit soup (or whatever) as a child. I would have only wanted my mum/dad's cooking if I wasn't feeling well TBH.

Next week's looks dire. What's wrong with a bucket of popcorn at the cinema?

Ds1 is very adventurous with food. I put some edible insects in his stocking this year - fried mealworms and chocolate covered ants - and even he struggled, though he did try them. if he 'd been feeling poorly I don't think he'd have wanted them at all.

No wonder the kids are hyped up - having a television crew around the hospital is probably very exciting and a welcome distraction from sickness.
Snot? Vomit soup? Does he not credit kids with any intelligence? Yes, kids do find disgusting things funny, but naming dishes snot and vomit wouldn;t inspire kids to try them IMO. Anymore than calling chocolate mousse 'poo'...
He's got a point that it needs to be more interesting, and the chocolate and orange snake pud would work - but since when have the majority of kids needed to be encouraged to eat pudding?
I think he is quite talented, and in general I quite enjoy his programmes, but seeing him in a slightly different light. Does he really need to promote his restaurants so much that he has to stoop to this kibd of level to keep himself in the public eye?
It would have spoken volumes had he 'donated' the services of one of his chefs one day a week, to meal-plan and instruct the kitchen staff.

Yes, absolutely Emmanana

All I've seen (I don't watch TV much) is one of Heston's Waitrose ads & it comes across as a pure copy of Jamie/Sainsburys.

Granted that differentiating will be tough, once you've got a sleb chef advertising a big supermarket, but putting Heston on a rock with some fish doesn't do it for me

Well Jamie has obviously discovered that he can't revolutionise school meals, so he's now going to question teaching methods (new series in March?)

What are they going to use next to scrape the bottom of the Barrel, Nigella's recipes to prevent serious illness? Gordon Ramsey goes to the Andes to find food to boost fertility?

What is about chefs, that once they have a taste of being on TV, they feel the need to be pompous and lecture other professionals on something they clearly have a limited knowledge of...

I agree,I felt he totally underestimated how savvy and intelligent children are today.
My ds is 7 and loves different foods,which country it comes from etc,how its made.Why call it vomit soup??

I undersatnd he wants to capture their imagination but dont think this was the right way to do it.

Does he have children?

I was shouting at the telly. (mind you I do that quite a lot) Mainly what noeyedear said.

And all that guff about convincing the top nobs. How the hell did he get access in the first place unless they had already agreed.

Why was it up to the underpaid cooks to champion it? Why did no top brass go round and see what kids thought? Why did no-one address the staff vs kids menu issue properly?

Grrr!

I meant:

see what the kids thought in the first place ie as a matter of good management, Heston or no Heston

Maybe you are being a bit harsh? I'm not a Heston fan but I did think he made the kitchen staff feel as though they were part of the bigger picture. He gave them the power to invent things for the new menu.

Agreed that the names were not appealing but the food the kitchen staff came up with was and I would imagine they should listen to them.

They could have made it very easy and simply made more of the food they served to staff and restaurant customers. I cannot understand why that didn't occur to them. Also the kitchen manager and his "we can't do that" attitude was very annoying, and he went off sick and disappeared for a while - typical of his sort!

I have a great idea for improving hospital food.
The catering managers should have to eat from the patients menu every day, but ordered in a such a way that the kitchen staff don't know it is for him/her. (i.e bogus patient order sent from a different ward each day. H
e should also have to sit in the ward and eat it.

Guess the standard of the food would soon improve; and I bet less patients would be left to feed unaided (esp the elderly) if management were eating in the same room.

Rereading my post I do sound a bit OTT.

As you say, there are so many sensible things that could be done. But they wouldn't make good telly

(Actually I think they would make good telly. Just as I think Wife Swap would be better without conflict, and Come Dine With Me was better in the old days)

I think the show was good, the fact they give the staff decent fresh food and the kids eat cheap crap was disgusting and it's good that was highlighted.

As for his menu being as it was well thats what he does and I think what he wanted to do was cheer up the kids and give them a bit of fun while they are in that awful place, rather then use a diet chart to work out a perfect meal for them on the budget that is something that should be done anyway.

You mean back in the days when the contestants were more in to showing off their cooking skills than being 5 minutes famous midnightservant? Yes it was good. Now half (or more) of the people can't cook at all. I always liked watching how people put things together, even the ones that used packets!

Yes, and the human interaction was more - well, human. Not the result of some producer sitting down and saying 'who would clash the most'.