Care cook of the year competition open for 2015 entries

Keen care home catering staff and chefs have until 6 Feb 2015 to enter the 15th annual National Association of Care Catering’s Care Cook of the Year competition.

Entrants must design and cook a tasty and nutritionally balanced two course meal consisting of a main and a dessert that is suitable for residents in a care setting.

However the dishes must cost no more than £1.50 per head for both courses combined to imitate the restricted budgets chefs in care settings regularly have to work to. The menu will be based on four servings and chefs have 90 minutes to prepare and serve the dishes.

Neel Radia, national chair, NACC, said: “Catering within the care sector is a highly skilled vocation and responsibility. It is also a growing sector as the population continues to age apace.

“As well as the culinary ability and flair to create great-tasting and well-presented food, very specific knowledge and understanding is required by cooks and chefs when planning menus for the elderly and vulnerable entrusted to their care.

“The NACC Care Cook of the Year competition is vital to the sector. Our sector is privileged to be represented by talented and selfless cooks that continually demonstrate best practice and push themselves and their abilities ever further to do the very best they can for the elderly they serve. I urge everyone, whether working in care homes or in community settings such as meals on wheels and luncheon clubs, to enter this prestigious competition and show the wider industry exactly what we’re made of!”

The two highest-scoring competitors from each regional heat go on to the grand final on 10 June 2015 at Barking and Dagenham Technical Skills Academy to compete for the title Care Cook of the Year 2015.

The competition aims to celebrate the work being done by catering staff working to improve the health of people over the age of 65, despite an estimated one million older people currently being malnourished either in a care setting or in their own home.

Organisers are hopeful next year will see the competition grow even bigger, after 2014 became the most popular year for the competition since it began.