Gaining food tips from the best

One of Australia’s best loved cooks, Maggie Beer, is inspiring our chefs to take the food they serve to a higher level.

Hotel Services Manager Beth Laverty said NVC Group aims to provide residents in Residential Aged Care Facilities with fresh, healthy and seasonal food all year round.

“Serving great food is important to our not-for-profit organisation because it is essential to meeting the Aged Care Quality Standards under which we operate,” she said.

“We are committed to ensuring quality, seasonal food is served to our residents all year round and one way I am helping to achieve this this year is by engaging the Maggie Beer Foundation to provide online training.

“For many workers in the hospitality industry, Maggie Beer is quite a celebrity. She is really looked up to, so by purchasing the aged care training modules from her foundation, I am hoping my team’s ambition to serve great, nutritious food grows.”

The 11 Maggie Beer Foundation training modules NVC Group staff are doing include:

• Creating tempting finger food and sandwiches
• Cooking techniques with impact
• Cook fresh, chill, enhance
• Feed the eyes: food presentation
• Keep it fresh: kitchen garden
• Delivering higher protein all day
• Rethinking texture modified foods
• Food culture of first Australians
• Embracing food from diverse cultures
• Improving the dining experience
• And maximizing flavour: engage the senses.

Ms Laverty said she had particularly enjoyed the module: Creating tempting finger food and sandwiches.

“Sandwiches is a light meal often served in our aged care homes, so learning how they can be jazzed up by adding sauces and mustards for extra flavour, was really helpful,” she said.

The online training is specifically designed for the aged care sector and it is being delivered with assistance from a grant from the Australian Government.