Food at Reigate Beaumont Care Home
Meet our Head Chef, Roman Rybakowski
I have been part of the team at Reigate Beaumont since 2005. As Head Chef, my role is to produce a fresh, nutritious and well-balanced menu suited to the needs of each resident. I ensure that the team and I maintain the highest standards and provide a first class dining experience. I enjoy chatting to residents and their visitors and ensuring that they enjoy the food I have prepared. I am particularly proud to be the winner of the 2016 Barchester Chef of the Year Award in the South East Division. Outside of work, I am a keen cyclist and also enjoy going to the cinema and cooking, of course.
Food and Nutrition at Reigate Beaumont
We often receive compliments from residents, friends, families and visitors to the home on our outstanding and delicious food. Our Head Chef won the Divisional Chef of the Year Award at this years Barchester Care Awards. All our food is produced using fresh ingredients by our catering team, which reflects the individual tastes and dietary needs of people living at Reigate Beaumont. The residents enjoy freshly baked cakes and biscuits on a daily basis. We also love making extra special cakes for birthdays and other treats for special occasions. We host barbecues for residents and families on our terrace and cook up a storm in the summer heat. To get a flavour of the menu we serve here, please see the examples below.
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'.
