Support workers are back in the training kitchen
Colleagues at Home From Home Care have been sharpening their culinary skills and enhancing their knowledge of specialised diets, thanks to a series of intensive training sessions led by award-winning chef Darren Hampton and nursing associate Clair Blanchard.
Held in the training kitchens at Lincoln College, these sessions focused on the vital importance of catering to the diverse dietary needs of the individuals in our care. Each person we support has unique nutritional requirements, and our meals must be created with care, consideration, and a dash of creativity.
Over the course of a full day, our team members got hands-on experience preparing a variety of traditional meals, from shepherd’s pie and lasagna to chicken with rice and vegetables. After six hours of mashing, boiling, roasting, and baking, they left the kitchen better prepared to meet the complex dietary needs of the individuals we support.
Learning skills to cater for complex dietary needs
The training kitchen also equips our colleagues with the skills to manage more complex dietary needs, such as preparing meals for those with Celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, diabetes, lactose intolerance and maximising nutrition and variety in soft food diets.
But it’s not just about cooking delicious meals. As Clair points out, it’s equally important to ensure that everyone feels included, no matter their dietary restrictions. “To make the menu plans inclusive, we create separate menu plans, adapting the main menu for those who require specialised diets,” Clair explains.
These twists on common meals are the bread and butter of Home from Home Cares’ nutritional strategy – adapting recipes as simple as mashed potatoes to include more vegetables, iron, fats, sugars for example.
“Some of our individuals may need increased calories, so we fortify their meals. But we have to be careful not to change the taste,” says Chef Darren, On the other hand, some individuals may need to follow a healthier diet, requiring different adjustments.
Facilitating improvisation and creativity
The techniques taught in the kitchen are invaluable for all our colleagues both in and out of the homes. Teaching them new skills and giving them a better understanding of cooking and nutritional requirements.
Rather than teaching specific meals, the training facilitates improvisation and creativity, this is key to our approach as menu plans are constantly changing to suit an individual’s needs and wishes.
With each meal the menu adapts to changes in preference or dietary needs, meaning what might have been right last week, won’t be suitable for the weeks to follow. This adds much needed variety to diets and fine tunes it to perfection.
After a full day cooking up a storm, Support Worker Jack said:
“The kitchen training is such a good opportunity for me personally, because it expands my skills and knowledge, it broadens my horizons, helping us make healthy and fortifying meals for the individuals we support.”
And it’s not all science. As Darren and Clair emphasise, cooking should be enjoyable.
A technically perfect meal is only half the battle; it must taste good too. For many of our colleagues, the best part of the training was getting to enjoy the delicious results of their hard work.
Support Worker Ruth said her favourite part was “What I had for lunch this afternoon, a Cottage Pie, that I made from scratch by myself… It was delicious!”
For many of our colleagues, this training was their first experience with traditional British cuisine. It has not only empowered them to create enjoyable meals for the individuals we support but also to bring new culinary skills into their own lives.
“A highlight for me was learning how to make British food, I came from a different background, where I haven’t been able to make any of these meals before now. Now I can do that for the individuals, and I can also take what I’ve learned back to my own family, which I’m very happy about.”
