As Chris Took adds a pink umbrella and a bendy straw to his freshly blended cocktail, the drink looks as appetising as anything served at London’s top hotels. But this cocktail has been made in an altogether more serene setting and some of the ingredients are unlikely to be found on any bar menu.

Mr Took is the chef at the Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Although the idea of presenting a cocktail to the seriously ill may seem odd, Mr Took says it can help patients to regain their appetite.

“A lot of people when they come in haven’t eaten for a long time,” he said. “So we start off very lightly with things like smoothies and cocktails and progress from there..

“We make the smoothies out of nutritional drinks but we add things to them that add calories and taste such as fresh soft fruit and full-fat vanilla ice-cream. And we make them more interesting with the decorations so they look like a delicious cocktail and people can laugh at them.”

In his black-and-white-checked trousers and white jacket, Mr Took, 52, is a familiar and well-loved member of the hospice’s staff. Like the nurses, he makes daily visits to the ten inpatients and also regularly provides food for dozens more patients from the community and their carers.

“This isn’t a sad place,” Mr Took said. “I love dealing with these people, who have still got their sense of humour. They want to eat, it’s a normal part of the day and they want to be normal and still have a laugh. Laughter is everything.”

But persuading a very sick person to start eating again can be fraught with problems, even with Mr Took’s gradual and considered approach. For many people, food has become a battleground between them and their carer and can cause untold anguish.

Kimberley McLaughlin, director of family and carer support at St Francis, says that part of the palliative aid offered by the hospice is aimed at both patients and relatives. She said: “The carer, which could be the wife or husband, will eat in secret because they feel this tremendous guilt because the person they are caring for isn’t eating anything. Chris encourages them to have a meal together again while they are here and physically sit at the same table together.”

Jo Fernandes, practice development nurse at the hospice, added: “There can be tension between what a relative wants them to eat and what they want to do. Chris aims to take that tension away. The patient takes a lot of pleasure in the family member starting to eat in front of them again. To watch their wife or husband enjoy a meal is a massive thing.”

Treatment or medication for long-term conditions can have a detrimental effect on appetite, including loss of taste, swallowing problems and nausea. As such, not every resident in St Francis can manage a meal from Mr Took’s extensive menu, even though food is presented on smaller plates with little portions. “If there is something the patient doesn’t like or they want something else then they get what they want,” Mr Took said. “The food we make is not exotic, it’s home-cooked, simple food, perhaps something that your mum would make, like shepherd’s pie. Comfort food works very well.”

Provision for the terminally ill is not cheap. It costs more than £3 million a year to run the Hospice of St Francis and only one quarter of this comes from the Government. The remainder must be found through fundraising.

Help the Hospices is the national charity for hospices and a donation will help it to support valued centres such as St Francis. To judge by the praise lavished on Mr Took and his colleagues by residents, any contribution would be extremely well spent.

Brunhilde Hart, 75, says her time in the hospice has brought back her appetite. “When I’m at home I have very little appetite. I eat enough to survive but not the right things. But the food here is wonderful. You wouldn’t get better meals in a five-star hotel.”

KPMG, the professional services firm is matching donations to Help the Hospices made through the Times Appeal