Orchard Care Homes has established a new award scheme that recognises and gives credit to the cooks and kitchens of each home. The scheme has been set up as part of the company’s national initiative to standardise an excellent food and beverage offering in each home. 

The first home to gain the Centre for Culinary Excellence accolade is Yorkshire-based Nesfield Lodge. The kitchen staff were praised for ensuring the kitchen was kept to the highest possible standard; ensuring health and safety checks were in place, as well as delivering an appetising menu to the residents.

Andy Savage, Food & Beverage Manager, Orchard Care Homes commented: “The importance of food and the kitchen team within care homes is undisputed. We are committed to providing the very best quality and service to our residents and our new initiative is a way of inspiring and motivating our kitchen teams to do this.

“Our cooks are very proud of what they do and we want to empower them to share their experience and learning with each other. This is a way of enabling that to happen.”

To achieve the accolade of Centre for Culinary Excellence, each kitchen must achieve eight benchmarks. These include FSA Food Rating - 5, CQC – person centred dining experience, cooking fresh seasonal dishes from scratch, food and menus reflects the preferences of residents, HACCP – safe and clean kitchen environment, catering with care for diversity, food themed activities for residents regularly undertaken and managing a defined monthly budget. 

At least one Centre for Culinary Excellence will be established in each cluster area of Orchard Care Homes, covering a geographical area from Yorkshire up to the North East. The designated centre will then act as a go-to centre to give support and training to those homes in its vicinity. The next region to be awarded a Centre is in the North East.