Oxfordshire care home chefs cook up innovative way to serve residents meals

Two chefs working at The Close Care Home in Oxfordshire have created an innovative way of presenting resident meals to benefit people who have difficulty swallowing.

Food is prepared in a pureed form using moulds to present it in its original shape. Fish is pureed and moulded into a fish shape and vegetables can be prepared in the same way.

Head chefs, Matthew Drayton and Charlotte Maisey created the technique to make food more palatable for residents with eating and swallowing problems and to allow them to recognise what they’re eating.

Mr Drayton said: “The idea came from one of our team whose grandparents were in a care home. The food given to people with dementia was a meal blended to a paste – something he felt could be improved.

“We all worked together to find ways of making pureed food not only recognisable but appetising.”

Alzheimer’s Society estimate 80 per cent of people living in care and nursing homes have a form of dementia or memory problems, resulting in many residents requiring extra assistance or special requirements when eating.

Many care home residents have problems swallowing, eating or drinking or Dysphagia as a result of a Stroke, Parkinson’s disease or Motor Neurone disease.

In a 2014 report on Dysphagia by The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT), they highlighted the benefits of improved nutrition and hydration on physical and mental well-being.

Services like Apetito Ltd and offer special services for care homes, including pureed and ‘texture modified’ foods to allow residents to eat easier and enjoy their meals.

Ms Maisey added: “We often ask our residents what they would like to eat and create an easy to swallow version of that dish. It is far less belittling for people to have something that looks like a meal rather than a bowl of slop.”

The new way of serving meals at The Close has led to residents getting more pleasure out of their meals and eating more.

The Close at Burcot recently received a visit from Oxfordshire County Council’s quality and contracts officers, who were impressed with the way food was being prepared and served to residents and suggested Mr Drayton and Ms Maisey share their techniques with other care homes in the county.

Oxfordshire County Council, make regular visits to care homes in the county to monitor the standard of care and have created three courses to allow more than 40 care home chefs to learn how to turn pureed food into a visually appetising meal.