Nation’s rest home chefs sharpen their knives

Nation’s rest home chefs sharpen their knives

Chefs from residential care homes are refining recipes and getting ready to compete in a challenging new category at next week’s New Zealand Chefs National Salon 2015.

The ‘Lifestyle Cuisine’ competition is created by ServiceIQ’s Catering Sector Advisor Pippa Saxon, dietician and Food Advisory Service consultant Pip Duncan, and MediRest Area Manager Shaun Corlett.

Normally the domain of baristas and restaurant chefs, the Salon’s new category is designed to showcase the talents of cooks striving to serve beauty over bland gloop, in the country’s rest homes and hospitals.

Pippa says: “Good food is a great pleasure, so the quality of what’s on the menu is an important consideration when people are trying to choose a rest home. Well-presented, delicious dishes are essential and can be a highlight of the day.”

Satisfying many different cultural and dietary requirements presents a great culinary challenge for cooks and diners. Especially when the spectre of “soft food” from life’s early years makes a dreaded, but necessary come-back in old age.

“Many elderly need a pureed diet and the test is to present this kind of food attractively to make it appetising,” says Pippa.

The competition will reveal which residential care companies present the best pureed and soft food dishes. For instance, how to create a mouth-watering, nutritious mousse and make it look good enough to eat is a vital skill.

“Dishes must have plenty of appeal to tempt diners. This is one of the most important ingredients for success,” says Pippa.

Chefs from the nation’s major rest homes are burning to compete. Within days of announcing the category, nearly every work space in the test kitchen was taken.

“It’s attracting overwhelming support from the sector,” says Pippa. “Everyone is trying to come up with a point of difference to attract new residents. It’s also a rewarding career and one where opportunities will increase as more of the population enters retirement.”

Pippa and ServiceIQ help cooks in the residential care sector, catering sector and district health boards to advance their skills and serve a superior standard of food to elderly patients and residents.

The ‘Lifestyle Cuisine’ competition gets underway at 4.15pm on Sunday 2 August, Logan Campbell Centre, ASB showgrounds, Greenlane, Auckland.

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