ISBN 978-1-923589-73-5
PAPERBACK
Elder Eats
The Aged Care Kitchen Companion
Why shouldn’t aged care residents enjoy the same delicious and nutritious food you and I would love to eat?
Good food is vital to a residents’ health and happiness. Quality meals not only nourish the body but also lift the spirit, and for many residents, mealtime is the highlight of their day.
Drawing on more than 22 years of experience creating and preparing fresh meals for aged care residents, chef Deborah Cairney’s vision is to develop a recipe book that supports chefs and cooks in providing wholesome, visually appealing, and cost-effective dishes for the elderly.
She hopes to inspire and equip those working in aged care kitchens to make every meal something residents can truly look forward to.
About the Author
This recipe book is filled with nutritional recipes that I curated and adapted for aged care residents over my 23-year career as head chef at a NSW Aged Care facility. The recipes are nutritional, cost effective, use only the freshest high-quality ingredients, and can be produced with minimal time and staffing available.
It was a vision of my employer and myself to give the residents quality, nutritional food for this stage of their lives. I have collected and tested the recipes in this book, with this vision in mind. I have been guided by my qualifications in commercial cookery, hospitality catering management, business catering operations, workplace training, and my years of experience in aged care kitchens.
I have included diabetic, gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan recipes, to cater for people with dietary requirements. Most of the recipes can be made gluten free by swapping out the existing ingredients for gluten free products.
In aged care budgets are important, but so is quality and nutrition, and all the recipes in this book have been costed using the best ingredients to provide the elderly with food that they will look forward to eating. I have included a 7-day sample menu incorporating all meals and beverages at a cost of $15-16 per resident, per day (at time of publishing). This figure was achieved through making 90% of the menu items on site, which has the bonus of limiting the amount of processed food offered to residents. Chefs in aged care will be familiar with strict budgets and so will understand the importance of being innovative to provide premium quality and choice for residents. Information on menu planning, tables of weights, measurements and oven temperature tables are included to assist in producing these recipes.
Recipes can be adapted for different medical requirements and can be made presentable for residents with Dysphasia, or any related swallowing problems, by pureeing the foods and using moulds to recreate the food. Pureed foods are also available already moulded for purchase from food suppliers, these products are frozen and only need steaming. The moulds save time and look like the food that is being served but in puree form. e.g. menu item Lamb Chop Casserole with Mash Pumpkin Peas and Mash Potato would be moulded in the shape of lamb chops, peas, pumpkin, and mash. Moulded products look desirable for the resident to eat, which is important, as we all know we eat with our eyes first.
I hope this book can be of assistance in your aged care kitchen and support you to provide the residents you cook for to enjoy nutritious and delicious meals.
I would like to dedicate this book to the Proctor Family who owned Figtree Point Age Care, without their vision and support I would not have been able to deliver this type of food to the residents.
Also, to my children Heidi, Tanya and Sam for their encouragement to compile and publish this recipe book.