Cooking up a change in aged care
Working as an aged care chef or cook needs to attract the same esteem as a military or sports chef according to high profile chefs Simon Bryant and Peter Morgan-Jones, HammondCare’s executive chef and food ambassador.
PHOTO: Peter Morgan-Jones with Maggie Beer at this year's Tasting Australia event in Adelaide.
At the recent Tasting Australia aged care discussion panel in Adelaide, they highlighted the need for aged care to be recognised as a genuine career pathway as an alternative to working in a restaurant.
Mr Bryant says there is a real cultural issue in the perception of a career in aged care.
“These are chefs we should be respecting,” he says, emphasising the challenges aged care chefs face such as catering for modified diets and the food safety regulations for a vulnerable population.
“So why don’t we hold these guys in high esteem?” he queries.
“If you eat out at a restaurant and you’re still hungry you can still go to a McDonalds on the way home. In aged care you can’t do that, you have a captive audience and there’s more at stake.”
Mr Morgan-Jones says he has the greatest respect for cooks and chefs working in aged care or hospitals.
“The highlight of an older person’s day living in a care home is meal time,” he says. “There is a huge amount of creativity which goes into catering in aged care.”
Eating is the only thing we do on a daily basis which engages all the senses - sound, taste, visual, smell and touch - Mr Morgan-Jones points out. “Neurogastronomy has found there is a lot more to eating than we think.”
The author of Don't Give Me Eggs That Bounce: 118 Cracking Recipes for People with Alzheimer's points out making food attractive for people with modified diets can be as simple as serving food on a china plate with a nice spoon rather than in a plastic bowl.
Mr Bryant believes there is a missing gap between the career thinkers and what’s really out there.
Chef Simon Bryant
“I talk at schools and take on work experience people and ask them what they want to do. They want to travel the world working in a restaurant; aged care isn’t on the radar as a school leaver,” he says and he is calling on young chefs and cooks to be brave and be an early adapter.
Mr Morgan Jones thinks we need to be equipping people to have a passion and a catalyst for change in the workforce and he highlights the aged care industry offers a lot of benefits: “Restaurants can come and go,” he says. “This is a safe job, better hours and very rewarding.”
Mr Morgan-Jones, whose career highlights include catering for Buckingham Palace garden parties and working in some of Sydney’s most iconic restaurants says getting a lady who hadn’t eaten for two days to eat a meal and spend time with her was probably the most rewarding things he’d done.
One factor which may eventually help address these issues is the increasing competitiveness of the aged care industry; the food served may just be the point of difference when it comes to people choosing between providers in the future.
Current aged care providers offer many services, and while previous generations were simply happy to have nutritional food, Mr Bryant highlights that the increased interest in cooking and cooking shows have changed the landscape.
Baby boomers are food obsessed and will demand more of their aged care providers in the future: “While you may not be able to drive your car, you can still dine and drink well,” he says, and wonders whether aged care providers will offer ‘rock star chefs’ in the future both in residential and retirement living options.
Dietary needs are also changing with more people eating vegetarian or gluten free, and the increased rate of food allergies.
Peter Morgan Jones says he previously worked as Head Chef at the Art Gallery of NSW where he and his team would prepare meals for 400 people events. “At least 50 people would need special dietary requirements, and these people will be coming into the system later.”