There are few arenas that require more flexibility, creativity, and discernment in presentation than cuisine for Senior Living dining. After all, food brings community, entertainment, and health to residents. For our foodservice teams, we empower our staff members to expand their horizons and become top-notch, culinary artists in ways that boost resident satisfaction.
This means coming up with creative recipes that look attractive, taste amazing, and inspire interest while being scalable, nutritious, and affordable. Recently, our Senior Dining Executive Chef Bill and Food Service Director Jaimie decided to hold a competition for any cook, regardless of title, to make the most creative dish possible with shrimp and scallops (a regional favorite).
Below, Jaimie explains the process, winning dish, and overall joy and comradery that ensued from their culinary competition.
The Competition
Chef Bill Ward and myself are constantly talking about things we can do to engage the team, along with ideas to do the same with the residents. He said, “Let’s have a competition!”
We have a team of cooks with varied skill levels, from apprentice to executive chefs in their previous jobs, so a cooking competition seemed to be a great activity for them. Chef Bill communicated the idea and set a few ground rules. They needed to use shrimp and scallops and the day was set — the rest was up to them.
The Pressure’s On
Chef Bill invited the community directors and the executive director to join us for judging the dishes prepared by 9 of our cooks. He also reached out to Thomas Cuisine leaders to join in a virtual judging, which was gladly accepted.
The actual competition day was a sight to see. I couldn’t have been more proud watching our culinarians working together, giving advice and bouncing creative ideas off of each other. Each cook presented their dish to the panel of judges while fellow team members took photos – it was a momentous event to see everything come together. The judges were very happy to be a part of this activity and couldn’t believe the amount of talent standing before them.
Roger’s Winning Plate
Roger Seanor was the winner of this Cook’s Competition, with his idea to create purple couscous caviar in his rendition of scallops and shrimp. Roger has been with the team for 10 years and came to us with experience at some of the top restaurants in the Pittsburgh area. For this competition, he started experimenting with couscous immediately to make it look like caviar. He used beet juice to dye it a beautiful purple and from there he continued to add his own creative flair.
The Ceremony Day
Fast-forward to award ceremony day! Chef Bill again planned and executed the entire ceremony. He had a display of medals and pictures of each contestant’s dish; it looked amazing. Two of the judges, our executive director and HR director, presented the medals during the ceremony to each cook along with being a part of a photo op. Every team member within the department attended the ceremony and participated in cheering on the cooks. Anyone who walked past our dining room stopped to see what was going on. Residents and team members from other departments began cheering on our very talented cooks, which filled the community with so much love and support. It was truly amazing!
