I wanted to share with you what The Chef Tree do differently with regards to supplying you a Care Home chef.
Some Chefs have the following mindset with regards to working in care homes:
“I’ve just got to blend some food, boil something within 2 inches of its life and then serve it.”
Mealtime is the highlight of every care home resident’s day. We decided to create a “Nutrition for the Elderly” course. All of our Chefs have to complete before they work in a care home. First of all to give them the knowledge and understanding of working in that environment. It can be quite daunting working in a care home. If you come from a restaurant background where everything is fast paced and ticket lined or the stress level is slightly different. It’s a different type of environment working in a care home kitchen- you’ve got a deadline to hit. The residents are used to having lunch at the same time every single day. It’s consistent and routine and important for our ageing population to have their meals at that time.
What we realised was we could educate our Chefs into understanding the importance of making sure the nutrition was in the food. Show them how to prepare all the different textures. Teach them how to feed elderly people who have diabetes or dysphagia. Inform them how to interact in a care home environment. We can give our Chefs that little bit more knowledge and clarity before they step foot into a care home, and it makes all the difference.
The feedback that we have had from the Chefs have been amazing. They have found the nutrition for the elderly course very useful. It gives them the knowledge to confidentially walk into a care home kitchen and do a good job.
A lot of care homes that we supply Chefs to have been really impressed with the quality of Chefs we are supplying, and have even had residents write our Chefs letters to say how good the food was. This means a lot to the Chef Tree team, as we know we are doing the right thing.
Our mission is for every Chef that gets sent out to care homes to pass our Nutrition for the Elderly course.
Need a care home chef? We provide all levels of chefs across the whole of Bristol, Bath, Cotswolds, Wiltshire, North Somerset, and South Wales. Call us on 01179041001, email hello@thecheftree.co.uk, or visit our contact us page
