It's a vast improvement, but I think it will be very difficult to keep up the standard

Shirley Mills, patient

I tried a celery and red pepper soup starter, which had a piquant flavour and a hearty texture.

The choice of main courses sent my indecisive tastebuds into orbit.

The options included sweet and sour chicken with vegetable rice, beef masala with potato bahji, braised lamb with parsley dumplings, chicken escalopes with a tomato and coriander sauce and roast cod in mushroom sauce with mashed potatoes.

I am pleased to report no lumpy potatoes, not a congealed sauce in sight and the meat was melt-in-the-mouth tender.

But who am I to judge? The real arbiters are the patients, who generally gave the thumbs up.

Shirley Mills said: "It's a vast improvement, but I think it will be very difficult to keep up the standard of what we've seen today.

"I'm a fussy eater, but I have eaten more today than I have ever done."

Tucking in to some "posh pear and chocolate crumble", Daisy Mattock said: "The soup was great.

"It is very good food, but there were only certain things I would have eaten even with the new menu."

Value for money

The menus work out at around 80 pence per head, which is real value for money at this standard and the recipes could be tackled without difficulty by any hospital chef. They were devised in conjunction with dieticians and groups such as hospital catering associations and The Vegetarian Society.

Loyd Grossman said: "This is the very, very beginning of something I hope will be a vast improvement in hospital catering , which I believe is going to benefit a lot of patients."

None of the chefs involved in creating the recipes was paid for their contribution. They gave their services free for the six months they were involved with the project.

Loyd Grossman: vast improvement

Michael Caines, the two-Michelin-stars chef who helped to create some of the new recipes said: "We are not reinventing the wheel here.

"We wanted to do recipes that would work, with good colours and flavours.

"The patients should demand better quality."

Chief executive of the NHS Nigel Crisp praised the work of everyone involved in creating the new menus.

He said: "We want to give people a better experience on the wards and we want to make the food better."

Another new initiative is to make the food available around the clock, 24 hours a day, so that no-one misses out.

There is no doubt it will find many people consuming more appetising food than they would normally eat at home.

But fortunately, you do not need to be confined to a hospital bed to try out the new menus.

A website has been set up, containing all the new recipes at www.betterhospitalfood.com.