An advance step has been taken, however, in the introduction of cooking into the nurse’s course of study. The nurse’s work in the diet kitchen ought to mean a lightening of some of the burden in the main kitchen. The custom of management of this department varies and each institution must work out its own problems. Where there is a regular dietitian in charge, with the diet kitchen work as her exclusive business, the matter is easier of adjustment. Where this is not possible two nurses may be assigned for this special duty, making the term of service two months. The junior nurse may thus be initiated by the senior diet nurse, the housekeeper having general supervision of the entire work. The value of this practical experience in cooking can scarcely be overestimated, for unfortunately a great many young women enter a hospital with no more definite idea of how to prepare food for invalids than they have of medicine or surgery. In order that this course in practical work be productive of the most good to the nurses, previous instruction in the principles of nutrition, food values, and in the processes of digestion, should be given. Valuable, however, as the diet kitchen work is in the nurse’s education, unless it is arranged that that department assume a certain responsibility for preparing a part of the hospital dietary, its introduction is hardly justifiable. In most cases the diet kitchen should furnish at least the special diets and desserts, all broths, jellies, etc. If the diet kitchen facilities are adequate, it may be wise to have all the cooking for private patients done in this special department. In this way it is possible to devote more attention to attractive arrangement of food, as well as more care to its preparation. Where the housekeeper has a real interest in the people for whom the food is prepared, and has cultivated the fine art of cookery, or has a degree of native ingenuity, many delightful dishes may be constructed even of odds and ends, and a variety secured out of very little. The very first essential to proper feeding is good cooking, and this, like most other expert service, is an economy rather than a waste. For this reason many institutions that have tried both methods claim that the employment of a trained chef at a good salary was really a saving to the institution when the total cost of the culinary department was reckoned. This is in comparison with the old method of having the cooking done by women who had received no previous training, and had no special desire to study the art of cooking or to become more proficient in it. CHAPTER VII. [Sidenote: Purchase and Care of Food Supplies]