Seafood becomes more popular with our residents every day and is an important part of offering a menu with plenty of variety. It also presents some special challenges. It’s perishable, delicate, expensive and can be tricky to cook. Taking all of this into...
Ask anyone who is responsible for a professional foodservice operation what keeps them up at night, and be prepared to hear a pretty long list of concerns. In one category will be things like providing guests with enough variety, being on top of making seasonal...
There are many skillsets that any good chef has, and that any aspiring chef must master. These include knife skills, good sanitation practices, building flavors, menu and recipe development, labor and food cost control, management skills and the application of heat....
Not many people would argue with the idea that the foods we eat effect our health. Where the differences of opinion come in is about which foods are good, which are bad, and which are just plain ugly. It doesn’t help that the experts seem to alter their opinions...
For many years, much of the food offered at senior-living communities has been described – unfairly or not – as “institutional.” Because we serve an at-risk population, two of our top priorities must be good nutrition and food safety. These important concerns...
Keeping our kitchens well-staffed is one of our biggest challenges. While steady work and early evenings – relative to a typical restaurant or hotel – are practical advantages to working in a senior-living kitchen, it’s often not enough to lure the best workers to our...
One of the greatest pleasures of being in the food business is knowing that what we provide often ends up being the best part of another person’s day. This is even more true in our chosen niche, senior-living. Certainly, the nursing staff, housekeeping, event staff,...
Improving your kitchen operations from the prep work up. Every day more communities are making a commitment to improve the quality and variety of the food they serve their residents. This process may include making a number of changes to basic operations. Menus,...
Proven techniques to lower those critical numbers We live in a time when the standards and quality of meals expected from kitchens at senior-living communities are clearly on the rise. More experienced managers, better-trained staff, made-from-scratch recipes, more...
I don’t think I am going out on a limb to say that most of us don’t get into the restaurant business because of a visceral attraction to the field of sanitation. More likely, we chose this path because of a love of food and wine, a proclivity to hospitality, or the...