Česky
Would you like tomato soup, or rather a vegetable cream with asparagus? And do you fancy baked potatoes with veal ragout, or would you prefer cumin-roasted zander? This is just a random selection from the menu available to patients at the Beroun Rehabilitation Hospital, where a team of chefs is breaking down the common perception of tasteless and unimaginative hospital food.
Ondřej Slanina's role in the new concept of catering at the Hořovice and Beroun Hospital is to invent recipes in collaboration with nutritionists. He is also responsible for training local teams of chefs.
"Working with top chefs is always rewarding and beneficial. Modern gastronomy, like other areas, is constantly evolving, and we have gained a lot of new knowledge and experience," says Lukáš Vydra, the head chef of the Beroun hospital, who provides delicacies to local patients.
"I wanted to do a similar project to change the hospital's catering a long time ago when I saw how bad it was elsewhere," says the famous chef. When creating the menu, he also had to take into account the specific habits of Czech eaters, including the popularity of fried food. These are not missing from the menu either, but in a special preparation that does not put so much strain on digestion and cannot be compared with the products of fast food chains. Patients can thus indulge in their favourite meat in a slightly different coat, in the form of chicken strips in panko breadcrumbs.
"We only ever use high quality, fresh ingredients full of nutrients and flavour."
The aim of the new menu, which has been in place at the Beroun Rehabilitation Hospital since 5 April, is to see heavy dishes such as dumplings and sauces disappear from the menu. "We always use only high quality, fresh ingredients, the dishes contain enough nutrients and the food becomes not only a wholesome but also tasty experience and contributes to faster recovery," says nutrition therapist Kristýna Vodenková, DiS.
Ondřej Slanina agrees with her when he emphasises that the dishes on the new menu are above all varied and made from quality ingredients. The change should result not only in a balanced diet, but also in making every day in the hospital more pleasant. In addition, the menu will change every three to four months, depending on the season.
