This book fills a gap that is decades old—the problem with institutional food. Long the butt of jokes, complaints, and recriminations, institutional food has often represented the epitome of the worst that food can be: unhealthy, bland, colourless, placeless, and joyless—an afterthought that is underfunded and overcooked. Enter Joshna Maharaj, a chef who is also a TEDx speaker and food activist. Her bona fides are impeccable—she has worked in institutional food settings in Toronto for over 10 years and has revolutionized the way food is served in those settings. In this highly readable volume, she espouses what those of us in Food Studies know well: “Food is never just food” (58).

Les chercheurs doivent citer ce travail comme suit :

• Sumner, J., (2025), "Review of "Take back the tray: Revolutionizing food in hospitals, schools, and other institutions"", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i1.472)

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1. hospitality
2. institutional food
3. social gastronomy
4. social justice
5. sustainability

Original publication: Sumner, Jennifer. "Review of "Take back the tray: Revolutionizing food in hospitals, schools, and other institutions"." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 8, no. 1, 2021. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v8i1.472. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.