Senior plates

Before cooking for Harvard Park Retirement Residence, Colleen Steele was the executive chef for four successful local restaurants at once. With that job came irregular schedules, many interrupted days off, no real vacations and rarely did she have the opportunity to interact with the customers on a regular basis.

A little over a year ago, she traded in the fast-paced, competitive restaurant scene for a quieter, but no less challenging, assignment.

“It’s like cooking for friends and family,” she says, describing the differences between her previous position and her current job cooking for seniors. The challenges of cooking for senior residents are a lot different than preparing gourmet meals for a clientele you may never see.

“Here,” she explains, “we serve three meals a day to the same people.” It’s not uncommon for residents who spent 40 or 50 years cooking for their families to explain to Steele how to cook one thing or another or to offer her their recipe for a favorite dish. This form of communication was at first uncomfortable for Steele who is an award-winning chef and not accustomed to having someone tell her how to do something she had been doing for decades.

“It takes time to develop relationships,” she says, “but that’s the best part.” And relationship is what is needed when cooking for seniors.

“I offer the seniors an opportunity once a month to speak to me one-on-one during what we call the Chef’s Corner. The seniors always have access to me but I set this time aside especially for them to talk to me privately about any concerns they may have regarding the meals or our cooking.”

This time has become very special for Steele and for the residents. It’s when they can express their likes and dislikes and share recipes with their friend, the chef.

She learned early on to take “baby steps” when it comes to introducing anything exotic. When she tried to introduce herbs into some dishes she found the residents consider the unfamiliar plants to be “deadly.”

“Change is hard for the elderly, so I take it slow,” she says.

One way that Steele introduces change is by “messing” with the bread on Fridays. “All of my baked goods are made from scratch. We don’t use mixes. We do buy sliced bread but we make all our other breads, cakes, cookies, etc.” Steele always cooks on Fridays and bakes bread for the noon meal. She gets creative with the breads by adding an herb or some other ingredient to introduce change.

“Now they look forward to the mystery bread.”

There are still some residents who don’t like even their bread changed and request that Steele buy a certain kind of bread from a certain store. Despite her own preferences for fresh baked, non-white breads, Steele obliges because it brightens their day and keeps them eating and that’s what is most important.

“I wouldn’t go back to the restaurant world for anything.” Steele says, “I love cooking for seniors.”

The Cheney Care Center is an assisted living facility unlike the Harvard Park Retirement Residence so it requires executive chef Wayne Buyea to prepare meals that address both regular and restricted diet needs of the residents. Buyea, who has been cooking for over 20 years and also has gourmet restaurant experience, started cooking for seniors several years ago and says he’d never go back.

“Cooking for seniors,” he says, “can be every bit as challenging as cooking gourmet meals especially when you add in the dietary restrictions of many of the residents. You don’t have the luxury of using a range of ingredients when you have residents who have food allergies or are diabetic or have other health related issues that restrict their diets.” This challenge doesn’t prevent Buyea and his staff from creating delicious and attractive meals.

“I always try to provide alternative dishes that are close to those on the regular menu.” It’s important, he explains, for residents not to feel like they are missing out on all the good food or they will lose interest in eating. With some creative planning and cooking Buyea and his staff are often able to provide good tasting and attractive alternatives for residents on restricted diets.

If a resident can’t have potato or flour products for example Buyea has rice on hand as an alternative and for diabetics there are desserts made with sugar substitutes. “When we aren’t able to find a suitable substitute that is close to the regular dish, we try to offer the residents something we know they like that still meets their dietary requirements.”

That’s where communication is important. The residents are usually not shy about letting Buyea know what they like and don’t like. Buyea also has a suggestion box where residents can place written comments or suggestions anonymously.

On every other Friday, Buyea gets creative putting together the special food for “Happy Hour” a time when the residents come together listen to live music, eat hors d’oeuvres and drink non-alcoholic beverages. It’s something many of the residents really look forward to.

LeMay Buntrock, one of the residents, says she always tries to make it over to Happy Hour.

“It’s important,” she says, “It’s good for everyone.”

During a recent Happy Hour, young volunteers came around with a tray of tarts: blueberry, cherry, cream cheese and nuts. There were also trays of cheese, meats and crackers. Drinks are quickly refilled. Nurses say some residents don’t eat much during the week but at Happy Hour their appetite miraculously recovers.

The smiles, laughter and especially the consumption of the Happy Hour foods is just one of the rewards for chef Buyea.

For seniors who don’t live in a retirement residence or have access to a live-in cook who understands their dietary needs and wants, there are chefs like Peter Balogh a Culinary Institute of America trained chef from At Your Service. Balogh and the other chefs from At Your Service often work with the elderly preparing meals for them and educating them on proper diet.

“What happens a lot is when an elderly person develops a health problem like diabetes or a heart condition, they don’t know how to cook foods that they have been instructed to eat by their doctors. They may have been cooking a certain way for 40 years and simply don’t have the knowledge or skills to prepare the kinds of foods they now need. We work with these clients listening to what they like and don’t like then teaching them how to cook meals that fit into their dietary restricted diets without loosing the taste or appeal of the dishes. It’s easy to eat poorly or lose interest in food when it tastes bland and there’s no variety.”

“Seeing a client’s health improve as a result of our services is very gratifying.”

The chefs all agree that beyond the needed culinary skills, knowledge, and creative talent, cooking for seniors requires listening, understanding and teaching; it requires relationship and that’s the most rewarding part.

Herb Rubbed Olive Steaks

From Peter Balogh of At Your Service

4 (6-ounce) tenderloin steaks

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 bay leaves

Table salt, to taste

Black pepper, to taste

1 cup white wine

3 tablespoons tomato puree

1/2 cup kalamata olives

Rub the steaks with oil. Crush 2 bay leaves and sprinkle them on the steaks. Let stand at room temperature in single layer for 2 hours. Remove most of the bay leaves. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Sauté steaks in a skillet over medium-high heat about 4 minutes per side, remove to a platter.

With the pan still hot, pour in wine, and scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add tomato puree, one whole bay leaf, and the olives.

Cook over low heat 5 minutes to thicken. Add the steaks for 2 minutes.

Yield: 4 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 440 calories, 26 grams fat (8.8 grams saturated, 55 percent fat calories), 36 grams protein, 3.5 grams carbohydrate, 109 milligrams cholesterol, .6 grams dietary fiber, 428 milligrams sodium.

Mustard Roasted Salmon

From Peter Balogh of At Your Service

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons butter

2 (6-ounce) salmon filets

2 tablespoons chopped shallot or onion

2 tablespoons raspberry preserves

2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar

Preheat to 450 degrees.

Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and mix with the Dijon mustard.

Oil a small baking dish and place the salmon in it, skin side down. Sprinkle the salmon with salt and spread with mustard and butter mixture. Sprinkle with pepper. Bake salmon 10 minutes.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet, and sauté the shallots for 3 minutes. Add preserves and vinegar. Simmer and stir for 3 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve salmon with shallot mixture spooned over it or on the side.

Yield: 2 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 484 calories, 30.5 grams fat (11.7 grams saturated, 57 percent fat calories), 35 grams protein, 16.5 grams carbohydrate, 143 milligrams cholesterol, .3 grams dietary fiber, 590 milligrams sodium.

Grapefruit Game Hens

From Peter Balogh, of At Your Service

1 grapefruit

2 game hens

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup shelled pistachios

Thaw hens in refrigerator.

Preheat to 400 degrees.

Peel and section grapefruit. Work the skin away from the meat of the chicken. Insert two or three grapefruit sections under the skin of each hen

Rub the skin of the hens with the oil. Squeeze the juice of two of the grapefruit sections over the hens and stuff the remaining grapefruit sections and pistachios into the cavity of both hens.

Put hens in the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 350 degrees.

Roast for 70 minutes, basting every 20 minutes with the juices in the pan.

Yield: 2 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 546 calories, 30 grams fat (4 grams saturated, 49 percent fat calories), 55 grams protein, 13.8 grams carbohydrate, 233 milligrams cholesterol, 3 grams dietary fiber, 139 milligrams sodium.