In an Australian-first, restaurant-style, celebrity-chef inspired meals will be served up this week as Mater rolls out a new first-of-its-kind specialised menu for patients in hospital. 

Partnering with leading Australian restaurateur and chef, Luke Mangan, Mater is introducing a range of specially-tailored, restaurant inspired meals to bring an extra touch of comfort to patients across Mater Private Hospitals in South Brisbane and Springfield. 

As the country’s largest not-for-profit Catholic healthcare provider, Mater has built an unrivalled reputation for innovating ways of providing the highest standards of care for more than a century—with the launch of this Australian-first menu another exciting step forward for improving patient experience.

The Australian-first partnership brings together Luke’s experience in providing fresh, healthy and quality food on a largescale in airlines, cruise liners and trains, along with Mater’s expertise in meeting nutritional intake for patients to support their recovery and rehabilitation.

The collaborative menu has been carefully curated as part of Mater’s existing award-winning room service model which was introduced at Mater in 2013 enabling patients to order their meals from an a-la-carte style menu at any time that suits them.

Mater’s Director of Dietetics and Food Services, Sally McCray said the new menu options will be the perfect addition to their room service model.

“Our nationally-regarded room service model has seen incredible benefits since introduced with clinicians reporting an increase in patients’ nutritional intake as they are able not only to order the food they feel like when they feel like eating, but also, tailor food to suit various dietary requirements.”

“Our food wastage has also been cut down by more than 22 per cent which has resulted in a significant reduction in patient food costs,” Sally explained. 

“Now, this Chef’s Special menu created in partnership with Luke will provide the perfect enhancement for our room service model, allowing patients access to a delicious restaurant-style, dine-in experience from their hospital bed.”

Working alongside Mater’s multi-award-winning Dietetics and Foodservices team and executive chef, Aman Marwah, Mr Mangan said the partnership has been an exciting opportunity to share his knowledge.

“Stepping outside the restaurant environment to create a specialised menu to suit patients in hospital has been an exciting challenge to take on with the great team at Mater,” Mr Mangan explained. 

“We’ve been working together for a long time to create these new menu options, bringing together a wide range of culinary knowledge to meet our objective of providing delicious, restaurant-quality dishes that remain focused on health and wellness.”

“Mater’s Food Services team are at the forefront of food innovation in healthcare across Australia, redefining the way we look at food in hospital and we are all excited to see this menu come to life for the patients who will appreciate it most.”

Mater’s private patients will be offered a range of exclusive, high quality entrees, mains and desserts from the new menu as it rolls out this week, from middle eastern lamb with pomegranate tabouleh and balsamic through to poached berries with lemon mascarpone.