Leveraging Chef Skills to Improve Long-term Care Diets

By: Mark Wilson – Food & Beverage Consultant

With over 35 years experience in the food business in both the U.S. and Canada there are a number of examples I could share with you. However one that is of particular interest is a challenge I was handed to improve the dining experience for residents of a long-term care facility in Toronto. The facility specialized in providing a high quality of life in a safe and comfortable environment for its long-term care residents.

The main challenge was working with a budget of just $7.46 CAD to provide three meals plus three snacks per day with high nutritional value for 300 residents. I had to improve the overall dining experience looking at a menu with a number of caveats such as food allergies and low sodium and fat. I also had to create a diverse menu with a new and flavorful variety of meals and improve the overall food presentation.

Some might say how hard could it be? I was working in an industry that was not known for its cuisine, in fact quite the opposite, I was working in an industry that was known for food that was quite bland and lacking flavour. I was also working with a very low budget with the challenge to improve the menu dramatically while producing food in mass quantities. The food program I worked on for the long-term care unit was my main focus. However, all food was produced in a central kitchen space that also served 300 hospital patients per day and an adult day-care. All of the learning and many of the 50+ recipes I developed crossed over to the hospital and adult day-care patient feeding. So wherever possible I designed recipes that could be utilized across all areas of the facility.

I was determined to help not only improve the menu, but the residents’ quality of life. Many of the residents were of course advanced in years and did not have big appetites. This meant many were not eating properly. I hoped that by improving the quality of their food it would encourage them to eat better and enjoy a much needed healthier diet. Food is one of their greatest enjoyments and by offering a menu full of variety and tasty choices I hoped it would help them continue to live life to the fullest.

I had previous experience providing recipes and products to large airline companies and their caterers. This is another industry where mass produced food with varying dietary needs and budget restrictions were required. This played a role in how I addressed the challenge to produce healthy, tasty foods on a budget of just $7.46 PRD (per resident day). Luckily, costing recipes to create the right menu price and profit is a large part of what I do for my customers as well.

Some of the areas I addressed to meet the tight budget included:

  • Improvement of cooking skills and utilization of using scratch cooking methods vs. using fully prepared items. We tested and tasted over 80 items in a weekly panel forum with management and dietitians.
  • Recipe development was a large area of focus. Formalized specifications and standards were built including plate presentation enhancements.
  • I developed alternative cooking techniques and organized and provided staff training on current equipment and on the new recipes.
  • Costing and procurement also sourcing alternative suppliers
  • Another idea I implemented was to have an internal recipe contest where residents, patients and staff could submit ideas to add their input into recipe development, this was well received and helped with staff and resident morale and some recipes made it onto the menu cycle.

I took into consideration that demographic, ethnicity and the resident’s ability to eat certain foods was very important. The dietician’s role is to provide the resident with everything they need to maintain health and wellbeing. My job was to stay within their guidelines (low sodium/fat, high protein etc.) but also make it taste great and look appealing. My thought was this: Until recently these people were cooking for themselves and going to restaurants with family and friends therefore expecting great service and food quality. A few years later and they’re in a care home. Q: why should they settle for badly cooked boring food which looks terrible? They should expect home or restaurant quality. So my plan was to take the comfort foods this generation grew up with, i.e. a really good home-made Mac and Cheese, Sticky Toffee Puddings etc. and present them properly and get the residents interested asking the care staff “what is lunch today”.

I spoke to many residents and sat in on resident council meetings about food and received very honest feedback. Many residents don’t eat well because they are not interested in the same old stuff they have been eating for years. Food can be the only highlight of their day, so my opinion was we better make every effort to make it as great as we can every day, every meal.

Within my four month contract I had developed the menu as required and was able to incorporate a number of options that provided healthy, gourmet quality foods. Some examples of the offerings included lunches with fresh made soups such as yam, apple-ginger or split-pea. Dinners provided classic entrees such as coq-au-vin while offering vegetarian choices such as vegetarian chilli and ratatouille. We also added fresh fruits such as cantaloupe and pineapple and a choice of breakfast services: a hot meal earlier in the morning or a continental breakfast for those who preferred a later morning meal.

I also found my background working in the manufacturing industry assisted in coming up with ideas with mass appeal that could be produced on a large scale without sacrificing quality. In 1995 I joined the newly-formed food service team a very large company in Canada and for 10 years, I helped develop and implement their Integrated Menu System for the U.S. and Canada. I headed up their North American transportation channel, and developed custom label product for casual dining chains customers.

My manufacturing industry clients and broker partners produce and market meats, sauces, grains, yogurt products and unique cooking materials for the QSR, casual and fine dining channel, as well as the HMR/supermarket industry. My operations clients include premium QSR, casual independents and chains restaurants, start-up businesses and restaurateurs’ looking to upgrade their offering or improve profitability and of course the health care market.

P.S. After my contract I was asked to attend a fundraiser at the hospital and was honoured for my work the previous year.

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