A Day in the Life of a Hospital Chef
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 977 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Francesco Fiore is a chef and Catering Manager at Milton Keynes University Hospital, and over the last few years has made some remarkable changes to the food experience for patients and staff. Awarded the title of “Caterer of the Year” in 2025 by the Hospital Caterers Association, Frank as he's affectionately known by his team, has transformed the quality and variety of the food, reducing waste and inspired colleagues around the hospital to collaborate and come up with new ideas.
Sheila Dillon follows Frank for a day as he goes about his job as catering manager to see the changes in action, and find out more about his passion for food.
Produced by Sophie Anton for BBC Audio in Bristol.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
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| 0:07.2 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast. |
| 0:09.4 | Absolutely right. |
| 0:11.5 | So, you might like to know that the BBC makes loads of other podcasts. |
| 0:15.6 | Really? |
| 0:16.4 | Wow. |
| 0:17.2 | Many of them are very funny. |
| 0:19.1 | Which I think means... |
| 0:20.3 | A hatful of ha-hars. And energy. Even if we do very funny. Which I think means... A hatful of ha haas. |
| 0:21.7 | And energy. |
| 0:41.2 | Even if you do say so ourselves. I agree 100% to that. Find them all on BBC Sounds. Just tell us a joke. Come on, tell us a joke. Tell us a joke. Come on, tell us a joke. Just search comedy on BBC Sounds. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in. A few weeks ago, we explored what being a creative chef means, |
| 0:43.6 | especially when economic times are tough. |
| 0:46.8 | We went to the development kitchen of a fast food chain, |
| 0:50.3 | to restaurants serious about buying from local producers, |
| 0:53.3 | to others famous for their in-house chef training, |
| 0:55.8 | and we arranged a meeting via Zoom with an unlikely place, a hospital. I'd read that Milton Keynes University Hospital in Buckinghamshire |
| 1:02.6 | had a chef who'd come tops as the caterer of the year. What did that mean? My name is Francesco Fiore. |
| 1:09.6 | Everyone calls me Frank. I work at Milton |
| 1:11.7 | Keen's Hospital. I'm the Capron manager here and I've been here for just nearly six years now. |
| 1:17.3 | My passion is to cook good food. I love making people happy through what they eat every day. |
| 1:24.8 | I've now recently managed to introduce some scratch cooking for our patients, |
... |
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