Staff at Hampshire Hospitals are taking part in cooker classes in a bid to encourage a move away from ready meals and take aways.
Hosted after 5pm at the Trust’s Basingstoke hospital site, six staff members are being taught a different dish each week with the intention of giving them the skills and confidence to cook quickly and easily with fresh ingredients.
The classes are the brainchild of Rob Strachan, the Trust’s Head of Catering Services. He recognised that hospital staff often work late and opt for convenience over nutrition.
Say’s Rob: “I want to inspire people and give them confidence. In the time it takes someone to buy a ready meal or put a pizza in the oven, they can cook something nice.”
“People finish work, they’re tired and they end up eating bad food; my intention is to teach people to cook simple recipes that can be made within 30-minutes. If just one person takes up fresh cooking - or has one less ready meal or takeaway – it is a result.”
During the first class, “students” were taught how to make a goats cheese orzo risotto – a recipe chosen for its adaptability.
Having qualified as a chef, Rob went to work in kitchens in France as well as London, specialising in French Cuisine. After a decade cooking for the Merchant Navy, Rob began teaching professional cookery and later GCSE Food and Nutrition at a secondary school, before joining Hampshire Hospitals full time in 2023 – making him ideally qualified to lead these classes.
Speaking about his move to Hampshire Hospitals, Rob says: “I enjoy trying to make patient food better; good food is so important for recovery and for patient morale.
“It is also nice to put a smile on the faces of people who work so hard. Our staff can have tough days, I want to try and make them happy.”
Around 20 full time chefs that work seven days a week across the Trust’s hospital sites, Most recently, two Hampshire Hospitals’ chefs, Daniel Hampton and Goparkumar Kanakkaparambil Bhaskaranwere, reached the national final of the NHS Chef of the Year competition.
