Short course teaching aged care cooks to cook with care
Food presentation and the provision of optimum nutrition are just some of the subjects included in TAFE SA’s new short course which has been developed in response to industry needs to upskill aged care cooks and caterers.
Aged care chef Katie Otto is involved in a new short course to upskill aged care cooks.
High profile food identity Maggie Beer has been pushing for an increase in training for several years now and the ‘Enhancing your cookery skills and nutrition knowledge in aged care’ has been created in conjunction with the Maggie Beer Foundation.
TAFE SA and cookery lecturer Jan Koerner, points out Government funding has helped the children’s services sector in this way, but until now the aged sector’s needs have not been addressed.
“I approached Maggie about how we could together provide training to update the industry and re-train those people who have worked in aged care kitchens for many years – and who perhaps now take a ‘but that’s how I’ve always done it’ approach,” explains Ms Koerner.
High profile chefs Simon Bryant and Peter Morgan-Jones, HammondCare’s executive chef and food ambassador, recently joined Maggie Beer in a panel session at the Tasting Australia event where they highlighted some of the issues being faced by the aged care industry – lack of training for cooks and chefs was one of them.
Mr Bryant welcomed the course but feels more support and training is needed and he would like to see a higher level of qualifications for the industry. He points out the regulations for cooking in aged care facilities are far higher than those for a restaurant and an increase in nutritional knowledge could lead to reduced medication costs simply by eating the right food. “If a person is taking an iodine supplement, give them seaweed,” he says.
Mr Morgan-Jones says a huge amount of creativity is required by aged care chefs, who need to offer choice and variety. “And then you’ve the dietaries,” he says.
He believes the need for training in an aged care setting was more than that needed for restaurants, highlighting some of the risk factors associated with cooking for vulnerable people on modified diets.
“For those requiring food to be a specific thickness, it needs to be strictly adhered to for the safety of the person – get the wrong thickness for a person with dysphagia and there is a risk of Aspiration pneumonia,” he says.
Food presentation can also be challenging for those on modified diets. “A bowl of slop on a plastic plate isn’t very appetising,” says Mr Morgan-Jones. “We need to instil passion into the presentation and quality of food, and a love of ingredients.”
Aged care industry chef Katie Otto together with TAFE SA’s nutrition lecturer Alison Jeffs, will deliver the course. They will provide instruction on planning and evaluating meals and menus that meet dietary guidelines and specific nutrition care plans such as for people on texture-modified diets or who follow cultural or religious diets.
