Care home catering team offers residents Michelin star menus

18th November 2011, 12:18pm

An innovative care community in Scotland is offering the best in gourmet cuisine for its home owners and residents by serving Michelin-starred dishes designed by some of the world’s top chefs.

Inchmarlo Continuing Care Retirement Community, in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, continues its annual culinary tasting dinners for home owners, residents and their families - where they have the chance to enjoy dishes created by celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White and Heston Blumenthal.

The most popular dishes are voted on by the participants and then made available on Inchmarlo's regular menu, providing home owners residents - and visiting family members - with the opportunity to sample Michelin star standard food.

Food lover Professor Charles Skene, chairman of the Skene Group which owns and operates the Inchmarlo Retirement Community, said serving good, exciting food is a vital element in the success of the Community – and added that he was confident no other retirement community and care home in the UK offered similarly high standards of cuisine.

He said: "I love travelling around the world trying out food in famous restaurants by Michelin star-rated chefs. Many years ago, it dawned on me that there's no real reason why people in a retirement community could not share my passion for good food.

"We decided to bring that experience to them so that they could enjoy food like this for themselves.

"The result was that I started working with our catering manager and head chef to hold tasting dinners using recipes from famous restaurants that I've visited to allow us to select recipes to go on our regular menus. So someone ordering Gordon Ramsay's pan-fried duck with orange sauce will get as close a dish as we can to that served in one of his Michelin starred restaurants.

"For many older people, meal times are the highlight of the day and I'm very pleased that we are making that experience more enjoyable."

Inchmarlo House is the care home at the centre of the Inchmarlo Continuing Care Retirement Community – a purpose-built collection of 148 retirement properties and care facilities that was the first of its kind to open in Scotland and the first in Britain in more than 100 years. Work is currently underway of building the next phase of 15 two-bedroomed apartments and houses for the community.

In its last two inspections from the Care Inspectorate, Inchmarlo House has scored the highest grade possible – 6 'Excellent' – setting it apart as one of the handful of care homes in Scotland to achieve this grading.

Recipes from famous and Michelin-starred restaurants are initially sampled during Professor Skene's regular food tasting dinners - there have been 38 tasting dinners to date - that are held on the estate for Inchmarlo home owners and their friends. The next dinner is taking place on November 30 (see menu at end). If popular, the recipes are then adopted by the Inchmarlo House chefs to appear on the regular menus at the care home, and for family members and home owners who come to eat in the fully-licensed bar and for private functions in the Red Drawing Room.

Professor Skene added: "Our tasting dinners are always a great success and very well attended by home owners, the retirement community and people interested in good food. We provide a range of cuisine and all of the attendees are provided with critique cards so that they can give us as much feedback as they can on each recipe.

"It means that we are able to look through everyone's comments and find the most popular food that was tasted - so that we can then place this on the regular menus and ensure everyone has the chance to enjoy it.

"Initiatives such as this are important in ensuring that people who live in care home receive the best possible care and that their lives are enhanced and fulfilled. We're delighted that our high quality food and the range of other activities on offer in the Inchmarlo community is helping to provide the highest quality of care to all of our residents."

The Inchmarlo community currently consists of 148 retirement houses and apartments - which are available to those qualifying over the age of 55 - as well the 52-bed care home in a Grade B listed Georgian mansion house at the centre of the estate, which homeowners get priority entry for respite or permanent care when their health patterns change.

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Pawel Kulon

18 November 2011 at 5:19pm

I totally agree that the mealtimes are a highlight of the day for the residents and being head chef at silver springs care home in jersey I must say that mealtimes must be to the highest standards in order to satisfy our clients. However I believe that we mustnt forget about the residents' needs which are differ in so many ways from ours. My clients appreciate simple, home cooking but at the highest quality with each dish being prepared from scratch and presented in restaurant style format being nutritionally balanced and adequate to the clients diets. I see that as a key to succes in care establishments, although I still believe that introducing such events as described above It's a great idea which adds value to quality dinning experience.

Pawel kulon

18 November 2011 at 5:20pm

I just want us to remember who our clients are and what are THEIR needs. Not what we think they should like because we do.

Sue Kenyon

21 November 2011 at 10:58am

Excellant scheme............gives me something to look forward to when my time comes!!!!!! Also, tutors in Colleges need to embrace this sector of Hospitality and Catering as it is clearly a growing market and presents good employment opportunities

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