Hospital Cook

Sick patients often don’t feel like eating. However, good nutrition is part of treatment plans, as food can work with medications to help patients heal up and go back home. A Hospital Cook’s job is to provide healthful food that looks and smells good enough to entice a sick patient to eat. This food must also be appealing to Doctors and staff, who need fuel so they can get through their long workdays.

As a Hospital Cook, you create menus for patients in the hospital, as well as employees and guests in the hospital cafeteria. You prepare foods, ensuring that strict safety standards are followed so the meals you serve won’t make sick people even sicker.

You also order supplies so you can continue to prepare food the following day. You may have other Cooks working beneath you, and you must train them and ensure that they’re following safety procedures. You arrange the food on trays for patients, and make sure that the food they’re getting meets the orders of their Doctors.

Hospital Cooks often work within strict food budgets. You likely won’t be able to use innovative, expensive ingredients in your dishes. In most cases, the food you make will be quite bland. But while your dishes won’t garner you a James Beard Foundation Award, you’ll know that you’re supporting healing through your work, and this can be quite a reward in and of itself.