I just received my Red Report and while I appreciate the excellence in developing new methods while bringing in worldwide flavours, introduced by our dearly departed Anthony Bourdain and others. The media level in food exposure is vast. With every level of the dreaded masterchef series on tv I am fed up(pun intended) for the seared scallop appetizer that is so wrong it’s sets the TV celebrity off his nut! The man is renown, and that is not in dispute, but I’d like to see him in a high production environment like a hospital or large long term care facility to deliver the goods on spec and on budget. This is my reality, and juggling all the standards of food production and bring so many other elements such as deliveries in textures according to a health requirements or restrictions. Who’s the masterchef now?

Ok, my rant is over and now I want to challenge all of you in the industry of retirement, long term care and active living facilities to share the challenges you have encountered. These facilities are here to stay and most assuredly are on the increase! This of course creates other issues such as shortages in staffing for the same. With most location(s) they are desperately short of FSW’s and PSW’s. Perhaps the candidates in the upcoming civic election will bring solutions forward to help.

Over the very hot and humid summer in Ontario we mitigated some requests to substitute within our regulations to offer a robust protein packed salad, and for hydration snacks popsicles, fruit waters and other accepted standards. We encountered many comments of appreciation as our dietary staff worked to help food services through these challenges.

Let me know your thoughts! I know this post will reach many countries and invite you to also provide some of the challenges you have encountered and what you did to remediate.

Chef Pat