[Considerations regarding the food of the hospital staff]

The question concerning the food of the hospital staff has drawn attention only tardily. However, food is a faithful mirror in which the knowledge, the capacities, the values and the imaginary ones of an institution are reflected. It is in 1905 that the reform made by the "Administration générale de l'Assistance Publique de Paris" is specifically concerned, for the first time, by the food of the hospital staff. It is a change in the practices, founded until then on the principle of equality in food treatment, resulting probably from the monastic form of the hospital in the earliest times. The introduction of the system into force today was done gradually in the years 1930. From now on, hospital staff pay their meal to the administration which establishes the account of it on the basis of a refectory card. At the end of this evolution, nothing is similar any more in the hospital on the ground of the hierarchical relations between the administration and its staff. The era of self-service restaurants has open, transforming the consumer into an autonomous active and participative individual, in an institution converted into the play of democraty company.