Mockery of hospital food has long been a source of comic relief, but now food in some New Zealand hospitals is being labelled ‘inedible’.

Well, this is a first world issue if ever I heard one: typically patients turn to a hospital for convalescence, in order to heal when they are broken. When the limb breaks, the virus attacks, or the pregnancy runs its course, generally food is not a priority. Quite the contrary: we immediately seek hospital care. We don’t pay for this care, it’s just provided for us…

Sure we pay our taxes and some of that goes towards healthcare but whether a person actually ends up capitalising on that blessed free-hospital-care-liberty is something of a gamble, therefore any one inpatient cannot really claim to have ‘paid’ for their time in hospital.

…This healthcare is provided for us, essentially free of charge and we, the New Zealand public have the shameless audacity to complain about it.

Honestly, is there so little hardship in this great land that we are now bemoaning the standard of New Zealand hospital chefs? Are we really that pathetic?

It’s a hospital. It’s not a restaurant. It’s there to remedy illness, not to lavish upon its guests a high quality dining experience. Bear in mind also that hospital chefs must cook food en mass, rather than tailor each dish to the preferences of the individual palates awaiting them.

The meals ought to be satisfactory and no more, and from what I saw that’s exactly what they were…

The News showed pictures of this apparent ‘inedible’ food and yes, I was inclined to agree with our resident population of stinking bloody ingrates: the presentation of the dish was indeed lacking.

…They were satisfactory and no more, yet many people today appear to be so caught up with the boundless importance of, and the pleasure derived from, masterfully prepared food (one needs only view national obesity statistics for verification of this assertion), that irrespective of where we are we demand culinary excellence.

Personally, food is sustenance and no more. A food’s nutritional substance holds a great deal more significance than its flavour; providing it’s palatable I’ll always do my best to choke it down.

I’m certain that’s a viewpoint shared by hospitals too: they are there to bring patients back to full health thus anything more than basic nutrition in hospital food, is surely a waste of time.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Haspy Tiddle

Photography by Lah Dee Dah