ospital food is often regarded as boring and uninspiring. Edwin Tsui, former Chef de Partie of a five-star hotel and former private chef of Lydia Selina Dunn, made it his goal to change this. An experienced chef and member of the team who created the Hong Kong Handover Ceremony Banquet, he joined the Hospital Authority in 1995. His passion and dedication to provide patients with healthy, nutritious and creative hospital meals sparked an epicurean revolution.

Designing hospital menus was a challenge for Tsui when he joined HA in the 1990s. In an attempt to brighten patients' lives, Tsui devoted his time to improving hospital meals. He says: "Patients are often bored but a sizzling hot meal can make their day. In addition to using colourful ingredients, I give them amusing names such as 'Fairies in the Bamboo Forest' and 'The Rising Sun'."

Even run-of-the-mill breakfast items, like plain rice porridge, are spiced up with the addition of dim-sum for added variety. During Chinese festivals, Tsui treats patients to healthy versions of festive delicacies such as rice dumplings and moon cakes. He also cooks up healthful recipes for cancer patients such as the Chinese soups made with pork, apples and dates to cure sore throat.

In the 1990s, along with the Catering Team, Tsui took part in the standardized recipe development for the "Centralized Production Centre" using cook chill technology at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (PYNEH). Each just cooked food product is packed at pasteurization temperature, then chilled to below 4°C within two hours using special cook-chill equipment. Food can then be stored for up to two weeks at < 3°C in the cold room.

Every day, Tsui and his team prepare up to 18,000 meals for PYNEH and other hospitals. "Due to the large production scale, the quantity of seasoning and ingredients need to be quantified to ensure quality control. Both food ingredients and cooking procedures all need to be standardized," he explains. Chilled meals are delivered and stored in hospitals to be reheated and served as needed.

By shifting his career focus from the private to public sector, Tsui hopes to further develop his nutritional knowledge by combining Chinese medicine and cuisine as a new approach to health and wellness.

Passionate about discovering the health benefits of traditional Chinese medicine and ingredients, the chef says: "My focus on Chinese medicinal cuisine is to enhance the therapeutic value of the ingredients."

Tsui believes a good chef should be self-disciplined and equipped with solid work experience. While studying in the UK, he worked part-time in a restaurant and was exposed to every aspect of the profession, including dish washing.

Continually immersed in his work, Tsui enjoys exploring markets to source for new ingredients and cooking utensils, and browsing cookbooks in his spare time. Dedicated to promoting healthy eating, Tsui participates in community events. He says: "I always wanted to be on a panel of judges for established cooking competitions. My wish recently came true as I was chosen as one of the judges of the Best of the Best Culinary Award, hosted by Hong Kong Tourism Board. My next goal is researching and promoting Chinese medicinal cuisine for patient wellbeing within the HA network ."

Edwin Tsui is Hospital Chef I at the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (PYNEH). He was responsible for planning patient meals at Tseung Kwan O Hospital, now he is stationed at St. John Hospital, responsible for patient meal service there. Tsui has a special interest in creating healthy dishes and participated, as a team member of the Catering Department of PYNEH, in the development of the revolutionary Centralized Production Centre in PYNEH and implemented the first cook-chill system in HA.

Frequently host for TV programmes and a consultant for healthy eating campaigns, Tsui shares his culinary experiences in seminars and has also judged healthy cooking competitions. He has written a number of books promoting Chinese medicinal cuisine and low carbon footprint dishes.