What I watched last night- Heston's Mission Impossible

Heston spoke for us all in saying hospital food is bland, uninteresting and lacks nutritional value. Before you even taste a hospital meal you’re put off by the smell.

In the first episode of Heston’s Misson Impossible (CH4 at 9pm) last night, the chef aimed to put the fun back into food for the patients of Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool. Not an easy task with a strict budget of £4 per person, per day, and wards of nutritionally starved, fussy eaters undergoing medical treatment. ‘It’s not like a restaurant where they choose to come here’, acknowledged Heston.

Up against catering manager Geoff, Heston went about swapping ‘homemade’ meals of potato waffles, baked beans and pizza for a ‘Bet You Can’t Eat That’ menu, with worm topped pizzas, eyeballs- stuffed tomatoes, snot shakes- apple and kiwi smoothies, and vomit soup-chicken and vegetable broth. If given the green light by Geoff he would present the new dishes to the hospital board in the hope to roll them out across the wards.

The first hurdle he faced was the hospital’s chefs, a team of six, just two of which cook meals for the children, the rest make dishes for staff and Alder Hey’s canteen- the money maker.

Heston with Michael and the new dishes (CH4)

He won the stone faced chefs over by his use of themed foods and the children’s reaction to them, before letting them loose to create their own lunchtime concoctions. Sceptic Elaine made flying saucer sarnies, which to her surprise went down a treat with the kids. But it took a little more convincing to persuade them to give the gruesome dinner menu a go. Although in the end even Geoff came round to Heston’s way of thinking despite the meals being over budget and against health and safety regulations with the use of dry ice, old dog new tricks?

Next was the hospital board, who agreed to trial the dinners with the children, after the lunch-time menu proved such a hit and many plates came back empty. And as all good stories go, the children loved the new dishes, after initial doubt, with the hospital’s full time resident 17- year-old Michael, who has been in and out of the ward since he was three days old with spina bifida, giving the Michelin starred chef the thumbs up.