Council chiefs issued a tough taste challenge when the Evening Press attacked plans to give cook-chill food to residents in elderly persons homes. Come and try it for yourselves, they said. So Chief Reporter and occasional Eating Out writer Mike Laycock did.

Mike Laycock, centre, samples the food at Glen Lodge, with residents Violet Humpherson, left, and Bill Robinson, right.

Some unkind (and quite misleading) souls may claim I'll do anything for a free lunch. But as I headed out to Glen Lodge, I reckoned I'd never done anything like this before.

I had broken the story on Monday that City of York Council was considering buying cook-chill food from York District Hospital to give to residents in its elderly person's homes, with some of the homes' own cooks facing the chop. Our leader column had said the move was not on, and made far from complimentary comments about cook-chill food.

Bob Towner, director of community services, reckoned the criticism was quite unjustified, and invited us to taste such food for ourselves, and see how it was already being provided elsewhere in York. So I visited Glen Lodge in Heworth with Mr Towner just as residents were finishing their lunches on Wednesday.

Glen Lodge, which provides sheltered accommodation with extra care, mostly for elderly folk, has been giving residents cook-chill lunches from YDH for just over a year.

Residents have the option of paying £1.80 for the two-course meal, or making their own arrangements for lunch. About half tend to ask for the home's lunch each day, says Glen Lodge manager Trish Smith.

Each day, residents are presented with a menu for the following day, offering a choice of four or five main meals, including a veggie option. On this occasion, the choices included braised steak, haddock, beef hot pot and vegetable hot pot, while the puddings on offer included apple pie and custard, prunes and ice cream.

"We couldn't offer such a range of choice without the cook-chill system," said Trish.

The meals are delivered chilled to the home and then "regenerated" in a special regeneration unit, rather like a large oven, with steps taken to ensure every meal is heated to the correct temperature.

I sampled the hot pot, braised steak and the fish, served with creamed potatoes and veg, and must say I personally found them all well-cooked and pretty tasty, particularly the braised steak. Not, of course, that I was able to make any direct comparison with something freshly cooked on the premises.

But residents Violet Humpherson, 85, and Bill Robinson, 78, certainly seemed quite satisfied with their daily lunches.

"Some of them are very good," said Mrs Humpherson. "I'm a salad person and have it nearly every day."

Mr Towner said that under Government "Best Value" policies, the council has no choice but to look at a whole range of alternatives to improve quality and choice, while if possible reducing costs. "Best Value is about challenging some of the things we have traditionally done for years."

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