The Life of a Nursing Home Cook

The life of a nursing home cook or care home cook can be a rewarding career choice. Helping people every day by providing them with healthy, nutritious meals.

Brian’s story

Brian has been a cook in a healthcare facility for over 30 years, starting as a kitchen assistant and rising the ranks to running the kitchen in an exclusive care home in Norfolk. In a nursing home environment, you’re part of a vibrant community of different people. The relationships between staff, families and residents are the most important factors in the quality of life for older people.

Why choose healthcare catering

One of the best things about working in a care home, Brian has said, is the patients or residents. Their life stories are fascinating, they have such wonderful stories to tell of their lives and experiences. The joy on their faces, as they reminisce about a bygone time, is priceless. You get to know the residents in the care home you spend your days in. You listen to their stories about their families and loved ones. Their careers and life events. It can be difficult getting to know people who are entering the later stages of life, you build a bond and strong relationship

I started working at a hotel in London for work experience and then they took me on for weekends. Later going on to college to train as a Chef. I love the job and I’ve got a passion for cooking and working with people from all backgrounds.

Work/life balance

Working in a care home means 24-hour care for most of the staff. Night shifts and long working patterns to ensure cover for all of the residents, making a healthy work/life balance difficult to maintain. One of the best things about the life of a nursing home cook, working in the kitchen side of things, is the hours are more rigid. Residents have 3 set meals per day, that are prepared by the kitchen staff and the latest meal is often 7 pm at the very latest if a special event. Generally, the working day ends around 6 pm so you can still get home to your kids and family at a reasonable time.

Experience

When you train as a Chef in college you gain a foundation of knowledge, learning all the basics and classic recipes and techniques. It gives you a good basis so that as you progress through your career you can pull things from this. It’s really important to have this, but I’ve learnt even more through working on the job. Building up your skills and knowledge is crucial and will help carve out a positive career in the catering industry.

Brian’s story talking about the life of a nursing home cook is one of many examples of how being a part of this industry can be wonderful. Build the career you want with a career in catering and healthcare. Meet people who inspire you and drive you to grow and develop skills that you can teach and pass on to the next generation. Take a look at our live opportunities or reach out to our team at Cucumber Catering to find out more.