Food at Iddenshall Hall Care Home
Our Head Chef is proud to be part of the team here at Iddenshall Hall. His job is to manage the catering department, ensuring they provide excellent meals and drinks in line with our residents varying requirements and nutritional needs while ensuring the highest standards of food safety.
The Head Chef and his team enjoy conjuring up interesting and new menus and ideas to delight residents, families and visitors to the home. They hold regular themed events and enjoy the challenge of delivering lots of interesting food related experiences. For a taste of what we offer, please see the example below
John Pomfret
John leads the catering team, creating and developing seasonal home cooked menus that are nutritious and varied. John ensures he knows each resident and their preferences, keeping them satisfied with a diverse and delicious range of meals. The team also try to ‘out cook’ each other, especially on the cake and biscuit front!
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'.
