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How to listen and understand what is expressed by the older hospitalized person regarding food? How to take this into account in patient care? Based on the case of Mrs. Comer, hospitalized in follow-up care and rehabilitation (Soins de Suite et Réadaptation; SSR), the authors show how the subject’s fixation on certain foods serves as an essential support for the continuity of the self in old age and a means of combating the disorganization to which the other—the caregiver—is actively invited.After recalling, on the one hand, the importance of nutrition in hospital for older adults, and on the other, the major psycho-affective functions and meanings of food, the study of Mrs. Comer’s case illustrates how regression takes place during the prolonged period of hospitalization, bringing forth parental imagoes and figures, primary modalities of connection, and the predominance of orality. The issue for the patient is not so much, or not only, the consumption of food itself, but rather the reception and acknowledgement of her request by another. The relationship to food and the conflicts surrounding it are fundamentally directed towards another person, in this case, the caregiver. This article aims to support professionals in their reflection and positioning by shedding light on the intra- and inter-psychic dynamics at play during food-related situations that can lead to misunderstanding in institutional settings.