Food at Winchester House Care Home
Our catering team at Winchester House consists of experienced chefs who offer only the best in nutritional and delicious food. It is important for older people to have a healthy, balanced diet to maintain physical and mental well-being and avoid vulnerability to infection, reduced muscle strength and fatigue. Our menus reflect the individual tastes and dietary needs of people living at the home. Please see below for a taste of what what offer:
Matt Taylor
Hi my name is Matt Taylor and I'm a head chef at Winchester House Care Home. I have worked in hospitality all my life, started out working in hotels and restaurants but I struggled with unsociable hours so I decided to move to the care sector. I've joined Barchester in 2009 and I've never looked back. I absolutely love my job, talking to the residents, trying to find out their likes and dislikes so I can present their food exactly the way they like it. I love coming up with new ideas to surprise and delight our residents with nutritious a flavoursome home cooked meals.
Dietary requirements
For residents who have difficulties swallowing, we modify the menu of the day so that the dishes are more palatable for them. To support our chefs in producing these dishes, our hospitality team and our Chef Academy organise theory and practical workshops. The chefs work with the chef trainer to prepare tasty, modified meals safely and according to IDDSI frame work. This encourages residents to eat and enjoy their food. All our chefs have been trained in IDDSI food descriptors.
Attracting top chefs
Our chefs are recruited on the basis of an interview with the regional hospitality support team and the manager of the home. Selection also involves a practical element, where potential chefs are asked to cook for and meet a panel of people living in the home. Chefs take their job extremely seriously and the annual Barchester Chef Competition sees our chefs battle it out in regional heats and then at a national final for the accolade of 'Barchester's Chef of the Year'.
