ADAPTING MENUS TO CHANGING RESIDENT PREFERENCES
Testing the waters Baxter-Magro enlists “dining ambassadors” to help her determine what direction the menu ought to go. Her volunteer tasters help her to keep in touch with the trends without leaving resident preference in the dust. “It’s about sampling,” she said. “Before
you make something a staple on the menu it’s really important to try these things out, to provide tasting events and other ways for people to sample these dishes. If it’s a vegan dish, the tasting might appeal to vegans but it also works as a way to excite the general population. Maybe they are not interested in vegetarian choices at first, but if they sample it, they develop some interest.” At The LaSalle Group, director of culi-
nary operations Jose Fernandez said a per- sonal touch is required in order to move a menu in the right direction and at the proper speed. His chefs meet frequently with resi- dents, “and we also meet with the families to learn their preferences and habits. We have a family night once a month where the chefs interact with families and residents in order to personalize that experience,” he said. Some training often is needed in order
to make this approach effective. “If chefs come from restaurants and hotels, they aren’t used to interacting with the guests. It can be strange at first,” he said. “But once they meet the families and the residents it becomes a very positive thing for the chef. They come to feel like a part of the com- munity, a part of the resident’s home.” Keating calls this “touching tables,” and
while it is a key component in his effort to stay current, he likes to start those conversa- tions before residents even sit down in the dining room—before they even move in, in fact. “Typically, it starts with the marketing team. They will collect information during the tour and they will share that with corpo- rate,” he said. “Then as soon as they walk in I get out and talk to that resident about their likes and dislikes, and we start to build that relationship and have that conversation.” Ideally, a senior living culinary executive
won’t just be building the menu in response to what today’s residents want. The chef needs to be looking forward, planning for the emerging tastes of residents who may still be five or 10 years away from their move-in. Ader urges senior living communi- ties to conduct focus groups not just among today’s seniors but among those who may be coming down the line.
8 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MAY/JUNE 2018 At Sodexo, wok stations are popular, giving residents more individualized meal options.
“When they go to dinner, where do they go? What kinds of foods do they like? The people who have been in your community can tell you what they like today, but you want to talk to the slightly younger people too, the people who are going to be your customers. If they are eating in local res- taurants, maybe you want to go to those restaurants to see what they like, because that is who you are building for,” he said. Do that, and you’ll likely start to hear dis- cussions about quality and service, about lo- cal produce and healthy dining. The trend is perhaps most noticeable when it comes to the style of meal preparation. Senior living is in the midst of a sea change with restau- rant-style service and individual prepara- tion. That’s a whole new paradigm and it’s a high bar to meet. “Owners and operators have to be really
conscientious about the cost of a per-resi- dent day. The costs are the guard rails that are put around innovation,” said Krystopa. Fresh, local ingredients may cost more, and a strategy of individual meal prep can require more hands on deck. “Labor also comes into it, not just having more people but being able to afford someone who is skilled enough to purchase wisely and stay within those costs.”
Small-batch strategies It’s no small trick to deliver on-demand cuisine on a large scale and still keep costs under control. The task is made doubly complicated when the prevailing winds
blow in favor of fresh (i.e. perishable) foods and locally-sourced produce obtained from small suppliers. It sounds like a perfect storm for blowing apart a culinary budget, but experts in senior dining say it is possible to meet the call for personalized preparation without busting the bank. • Wok this way. At Sodexo, Baxter-Magro encourages senior dining providers to experiment with formats that highlight freshness and personalization. She’s a big fan of the wok station, where residents can choose the proteins, veggies, and sauces to suit their tastes. “It’s very visual and it gives people the opportunity to lit- erally point to ingredients that they want. It’s customized to their individual tastes on that day, in that moment,” she said.
• Cook ahead. Retail-inspired service trends sound like an easy way to crank up labor costs but Bill Lutz, president of Optimum Solutions & Strategies, said there are ways around that. A cu- linary consultant with a background in fine dining, he encourages senior living chefs to experiment with partial cook- ing as a way to individualize effectively. “Every community has chicken on their menu, so you put it on the grill, put on the grill marks and seal the outside, then you take it off the heat. You put it in the refrigerator and when it’s ordered you put it in a 500-degree convection oven and it will come up to temperature in two minutes,” he said. “Now everything is served fresh and hot and you don’t have
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