Chef of the month

Tell us about your background in care

I qualified from catering college many years ago and joined a care home around 15 years ago as a second chef, which is where my passion and enthusiasm began. I worked hard and obtained my first head chef role six months later, commissioning a brand new kitchen in a state-of-the-art purpose-built home.

What is special about working in care?

People say if you can cook, you can cook anywhere, and I suppose to a certain extent that is true, but for me I enjoy looking after our residents utilising my skills as a care chef.

I enjoy preparing the specialist diets to the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI) framework and the presentation involved, ensuring residents receive the same food choices as residents on a regular diet.

Building relationships with residents and relatives is extremely rewarding. It is especially invaluable to build relationships with the families and residents as they can provide me with vital information to tailor their meals to be enjoyable and nutritious.

How do you vary your menu to provide choice for residents?

Our menus are developed to make sure that the correct balance for each resident is achieved and we are using seasonal ingredients.

Resident meetings are held to discuss what they would like to see on the menu, and we have taster sessions and regular relatives' meetings. On admission we ask residents or families if they have any favourite recipes they would like to share, and we add it to our ‘Recipe for life’ folder and include them in our menus.

Residents come into us with many different dietary requirements, allergies or intolerances. We adapt the meal to their specific needs, and they still have the same choices as everyone else.

We make sure that we know the residents’ likes and dislikes and always remain aware of and support their cultural preferences, beliefs, values, rituals, traditions and what’s important to them around food and drinks. I provide personcentred care catering to one and all.

What does your typical menu look like?

Our menu consists of meat, fish and vegetarian choices every day using fresh vegetables, soup, sandwiches and sweet puddings, along with two snacks a day (including homemade cakes and biscuits).

Our main meal of the day is served in the evening as it has been proven that residents living with dementia sleep better with full tummies. This has worked well for our residents and so we provide a lighter meal at lunchtime. Furthermore, in the morning the residents have a cooked breakfast along with a choice of cereals, croissants, toast, preserves, yogurts and fresh fruit.

How do you meet the nutritional and heath needs of your residents?

We have weekly reviews with the whole care team at our clinical governance meetings, to talk about all aspects of the nutritional needs of the residents, any weight losses, or gains and why, any SALT (Speech and Language Therapist) referrals, and the nurses can advise, for example, if weight losses are due to ill-fitting dentures or any illnesses. All diets are catered for following IDDSI guidelines, and the requirements needed, such as gluten intolerance, diabetics low salt, vegan, etc. We ensure all the care staff are aware of the residents' requirements after the assessment and on admission into our home.

How do you cater for residents living with dementia?

We want anyone living with dementia to live well. Depending on how advanced the dementia is determines what they need, but we typically have finger foods for our residents who have lost the fine motor skill to use a knife and fork.

Picture menus are available for residents who cannot choose from the menu, along with show plates displaying all the choices for the service.

We also serve our meals on blue plates, as this is a good colour for the food to be more vibrant; everything stands out on a blue plate and has a better visual impact for our residents. A resident living with dementia will still eat with their eyes and if a meal looks appetising and colourful, they will be more encouraged to dine.

What is your most popular dish?

Our most popular dish is our roast; we do a mid-week roast as well as a Sunday roast. Another of the residents’ favourites is fish and chips on a Friday.

What is your favourite dish?

I like to cook sweet dishes such as cakes and puddings. My own favourite is antipasti with pickles and cheeses.

How do you make the dining experience special for residents and their families?

It’s been difficult of late with the pandemic restrictions, but we now are able to have families back in to have a meal with the residents. We have a separate area for them to dine together, with flowers on the table with their favourite music playing in the background. If it’s a special occasion such as an anniversary or birthday, they will have a card signed by the staff and a present gifted to them.