Joska W. Hajdu is Senior Vice-President of dining services for Brookdale Senior Living and an Executive Chef. He founded Brookdale’s award-winning Culinary Arts Institute dedicated to the professional development of chefs and has over 28 years’ experience in the hospitality industry. (www.brookdaleliving.com)
How can retirement residences manage the meal challenges of multicultural populations (additional menus, new foods, different mealtimes) with limited budgets?
No matter how diverse the food preferences are, they all begin with the same core ingredients, and then are presented in various manners utilizing different cooking techniques. We have found that one of the best ways to address the many different cultures within our communities is to seek out feedback from our residents. Their past travels, the diverse areas that they have lived in, and their cultural backgrounds have shaped much of the food preferences they have today. By sharing those experiences with us, our residents assist us in planning menus that are full of resident favourites. We encourage our residents to share with us their preferences and even their favourite recipes. We also work to accommodate different mealtimes by offering an open-dining concept where residents are able to enjoy a leisurely meal at a time of day that suits their preferences.
Please tell us about your Celebrations program and what you will be doing with it this year.
This year, Brookdale Senior Living will take its residents on a virtual “trip” around the world through its award-winning Celebrations program with the theme “Amazing Places of the World.”
A year-long life-enrichment and dining-program opportunity designed exclusively for its residents and communities, Celebrations offers authentically themed experiences, memorable special events and enriching programs. With 2011’s theme, there will be opportunities to visit both natural wonders and man-made marvels across six continents. The journey begins at the winding Venice waterways in Italy and will finish in North America to see the spectacular northern lights.
How do you find chefs that can cook all these multicultural specialties when ethnic specialties aren’t typically taught in North American culinary school?
Brookdale has a few different programs that work to achieve this great challenge. The first is our very own Culinary Arts Institute which we use to train all of our newly hired dining services management associates. By educating associates with our own faculty members, we are able to teach the material and focus in on what is pertinent to our communities and our residents. Another program that assists with this is our own in-house Menu Manager program. This menu program has a database of more than 4,000 recipes. When we were building this database, we solicited regional recipes from communities all across the United States. Many of our country’s regional cuisine comes from the ethnic population of that area. Therefore, by incorporating regional favourites, we are also adding some ethnic foods into our menus.
What is the most important thing that retirement residences can do to improve the dining experience for their residents?
One way is to simply listen. At Brookdale we realize the importance of listening to our residents and dining guests, and find ways to say yes. Managers and associates are empowered to find a solution whenever a resident has a specific request or suggestion. We have a saying: “If it is in our kitchen, it is in yours.” As long we have the ingredients in the kitchen, then we will prepare what the resident wants, even if it is not on our menu that day. We also offer alternate preparation methods, and serve smaller or larger portions if requested. We encourage passion in our associates and ensure that they go above and beyond in every situation. We strive for resident satisfaction each and every meal, each and every day.
What advice do you have for retirement residence executives as they plan their food service operations for the next five years?
Stay current, evolve and always look for ways to reinvent what you may already be doing. Our residents are highly educated, and many of them are very interested in the “what’s new” in the world. It is important for us to stay on top of the trends and find ways to incorporate them into our dining services departments. We must also be aware that some of the “what’s new” may not appeal to our residents and therefore it must always be about their preferences.
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