This paper describes the first in a series of interactive workshops designed for a three-year research project concerned with addressing nutritional issues in older hospital patients. As many individuals are involved in the process of assessing and treating patients, and preparing and delivering their food, existing ‘food systems’ have been difficult to envision and understand holistically; each individual is involved, to a greater or lesser extent, in only a fragment of the whole system, not able to appreciate the totality of the experience encountered by the patient. Preparing for this workshop enabled the disparate disciplines within the research team to work together on common objectives and to understand more clearly the problematic issues within current food provision in the hospitals. The workshop itself involved the individuals collectively known as the ‘food family’, identified during preliminary ethnographic studies, to ensure that the researchers’ understanding of the status quo of the current food system was accurate and full. The rationale for the design of the activities and methods used in this workshop is described along with an evaluation of the outcomes of these activities and how they helped verify data and inform the next stage of this project.