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Be taught the most recent eating traits throughout the Senior Housing Information DISHED Sept. 3-4 in Atlanta, Georgia. DISHED brings collectively operators, homeowners, culinary employees and administrators to debate their methods and challenges and brainstorm options to innovate their operations. To register for this occasion, go to the hyperlink right here.
I lately had the chance to guage a senior dwelling “Chef of the Yr” competitors. The occasion highlighted the speedy tempo at which the business is evolving culinary companies.
The occasion, hosted by Life Care Providers, introduced collectively 5 of the operator’s group cooks on the Sysco headquarters in Houston to showcase their abilities by cooking dishes comparable to floor turkey meatloaf, entire trout with couscous, marinated ahi tuna, spiced chickpeas and lentil salads.
It’s clear to anybody in senior dwelling culinary companies that eating traits are altering with the arrival of the child boomers. Whereas yesterday’s senior dwelling residents have been content material with batch cooking and cafeterias, the residents of at present and tomorrow need contemporary fare made precisely to their preferences.
As Senior Housing Information has written about for years, that is pushing senior dwelling operators to be rather more inventive with their components. On the identical time, operators have gotten ever-more environment friendly with expertise and different instruments as meals and staffing prices weigh on working budgets.
The LCS Chef of the Yr competitors confirmed me that culinary creativity is alive and effectively among the many operator’s cooks. However past that, I’ve seen outside-the-box considering elsewhere in senior dwelling eating companies, exemplified by how operators like Harbor Retirement Associates (HRA) and others have raised the bar for the standard of the meals they serve older adults dwelling of their communities.
On this members-only SHN+ Replace, I replicate on the latest occasion I attended, look at the altering traits of senior dwelling eating and supply the next takeaways:
- Senior dwelling kitchen tech and instruments making an influence
- How meals traits are translating into new senior dwelling culinary methods
- The place these traits are main and what lies forward in senior dwelling eating
Fashionable instruments and tech of senior dwelling eating
One huge pattern I’ve seen – each on the latest LCS meals competitors and within the wider senior dwelling culinary world – is how operators are prioritizing effectivity of their kitchen tech and instruments. Whereas instruments comparable to mixture and conveyor ovens and blast chillers will not be new to the business, operators are leaning on them in 2025 to spice up effectivity of their eating applications.
LCS has invested in new mixture ovens throughout the communities it owns, LCS Vice President of Meals and Beverage, John Pietrangelo advised me. The ovens could be programmed to cook dinner and preserve a dish’s temperature whereas employees carry out different duties. For instance, employees can cook dinner a roast in a single day and have it able to serve by the next morning.
LCS additionally equips communities with conveyor ovens that transfer meals alongside a belt and may cook dinner as much as six totally different sorts of meals concurrently.
Pietrangelo’s imaginative and prescient of the long run contains automated ghost kitchens serving many various sorts of cuisines however working out of 1 kitchen area. Residents would order through kiosks and get the meals when they need it.
Up to now few years, senior dwelling operators have experimented with robots that may ferry meals from the kitchen to tables. Now, they’re searching for to convey automatons into the kitchen itself. Steve Lindsey, CEO of Backyard Spot, advised me the corporate is starting to check utilizing robots to flip burgers or bake pizzas with the objective of accelerating consistency in cooking and making do with fewer employees.
Utilizing tech that may cook dinner meals with much less human intervention additionally raises the ability ground for senior dwelling culinarians nonetheless studying their commerce.
Individually, operators comparable to Harbor Retirement Associates are also implementing AI into their level of gross sales (POS) programs to acknowledge patterns, enhance the velocity of ordering and cut back meals waste whereas storing information in a means that may be shared amongst communities and employees.
Operators comparable to Backyard Spot Communities are additionally revamping their ordering software program to not solely make it simpler for residents to get what they need, however to permit employees to spend extra time with residents. The operator is in the midst of planning out its subsequent two years of eating expertise spending, displaying it plans to take a position closely in these options.
To me, all of this exhibits operators are making a critical effort to enhance their eating applications by way of new instruments and tech. I don’t assume senior dwelling culinarians may have a scarcity of latest tech and instruments to select from, however I do marvel how they are going to funds for them as tech budgets increase in nearly each aspect of operations. The reply to that query might lie in fashions that work like actual eating places or membership applications that generate income versus being a value middle.
Business serving up extra creativity
In 2025, senior dwelling cooks will not be solely making their meals toothsome, however nutritious. On the identical time, they’re lowering and even eschewing sure components in an effort to fulfill well being and wellness wants.
That was on full show on the latest LCS cooking occasion. Judges scored dishes on their dietary parts, and in a single spherical, the senior dwelling cooks needed to make dishes with out utilizing salt in any respect. The dishes I attempted throughout the occasion have been all diverse and flavorful, and the cooks packed them filled with vitamins. Primarily based on my expertise, I can solely assume these dishes could be a success with senior dwelling residents.
The LCS occasion was solely a style of what I see the bigger senior dwelling business doing with meals. Operators comparable to Benchmark Senior Residing consider that residents are more and more on the lookout for extra elevated eating experiences and international flavors.
If selection is the secret for child boomers, then I consider that present senior dwelling eating choices will go well with them effectively. Operators are modifying their eating venues into smaller extra intimate areas that vary from informal to chef’s desk experiences. Operators are additionally rising extra components themselves, such because the case for Backyard Spot Village, and dealing with native meals producers to boost farm-to-table choices, comparable to what Harbor Retirement Associates has spent the previous 12 months specializing in.
Primarily based on my latest conversations and what I noticed throughout the LCS meals occasion, I feel operators will make their menus more healthy and supply much more decisions for residents who need an ever-expanding array of flavors. All of the whereas, they should make do with kitchens staffed by smaller groups and gear that reinforces effectivity.
I do foresee challenges forward in what precisely operators will convey to their meals applications and the way residents will obtain it. Though serving robots are enjoyable to look at, a number of operators have advised SHN that the tech amounted to a novelty in the long run and didn’t increase effectivity a lot. Whereas I feel the novelty issue is robust and price pursuing, operators have to be cautious to not closely put money into one thing that works on paper however not in apply.
