For the past 30 years, Homestyle Aged Care has provided residential care homes and service in the greater Melbourne metropolitan and Geelong areas. As a prominent owner / operator of ten high-quality, purpose-built homes Homestyle Aged Care is home to over 950 residents.

The team at Homestyle believe that each person has lived a full and rich life in their own way and work closely with their residents to continue stimulating memories, whilst encouraging and watching new friendships develop.

We caught up with Tim Humphries, Homestyle Aged Care CEO and Michael Foley, Head of Catering to uncover how Homestyle is delivering a home style foodservice experience to their residents.

Tell us about the foodservice operation at Homestyle Aged Care?

We employ a total of twenty five chefs, ten of which are Head Chefs. We offer a seasonal menu so each season the entire menu changes and it is reviewed by all ten Head Chefs, Senior Management and an Independent Dietitian.

We employ some great chefs, many have come from a hotel background and are enjoying working during the day rather than evenings which suits their family commitments. They have great skills and take a lot of pride in their work and love to share photos and recipes of their meals amongst each other.

What equipment is installed in your kitchens?

Our kitchens are equipped with RATIONAL SelfCookingCenter® and VarioCookingCenter® units, Comenda dishwashers, Cambro shelving and heated carts, Hupfer heated plate dispensers and a Garland range.

How do you decide what equipment you install in the kitchen?

We attended a Food for Life seminar hosted by Maggie Beer a little while ago and she highlighted the importance of using commercial kitchen equipment in Aged Care due to the efficiencies and the overall HACCAP benefits. We have been lucky enough to have been working with Craig Lategan Comcater Area Sales Manager for some time so we have been across the benefits of commercial kitchen equipment for quite some time.

Craig and the team host demonstration and training days at the Comcater Sales Office and Demonstration Kitchen. Our chefs and managers attend and they are great hands on sessions where the team learn about new features in the ovens and ensure that the equipment is being used to its maximum potential.

At the last session, they demonstrated that you can use the RATIONAL combi ovens to toast bread; we were still using a conveyor toaster. It may seem like a simple task but when you’re time poor, every minute counts.

How is Homestyle Aged Care altering its foodservice operation to create a more home style environment?

We know that nothing can replace the feeling of your own home, however we do go out of our way to provide the best quality in homely comforts, care and support.

We are always looking for ways that we can deliver this through the foodservice operation and have designed our next site (located in Tarneit) to have a front of house bench to serve meals from.

We are trying to make it feel as domestic as we can, so that it resembles an island bench like we have in our homes. We are working hard to remove anything that makes it look and feel institutional.

We have also incorporated a nostalgic kitchen in a number of homes set up with residents living with dementia patients in mind. The kitchen is equipped with domestic kitchen equipment so that residents can associate with it. We will encourage them to go in and make themselves a cup of tea, open a fridge and do all those things which they would have done in their own home.