{"id":50335,"date":"2024-12-13T08:47:07","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T22:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/?p=50335"},"modified":"2024-12-13T08:47:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T22:47:08","slug":"pay-it-forward-david-martin-aged-care-dining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/blog\/pay-it-forward-david-martin-aged-care-dining\/","title":{"rendered":"Pay it forward: David Martin is changing the way we think about aged-care dining"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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David Martin wants to change the way older Australians eat in aged-care dining and he is doing it one delicious restaurant-style meal at a time. Dynamic, energetic and contagiously passionate, David works at St Vincent\u2019s Care as their Hotel Service Manager and Executive Chef Manager for Victoria and New South Wales.<\/p>

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While David has worked in aged care for nearly a decade, he comes from an even longer background in fine dining and high-end events. He has worked at Rockpool Melbourne under the legendary Khan Danis and cooked at top international brand hotels.<\/p>\n

With this broad range of culinary and managerial skills, he is transforming the meals at St Vincent\u2019s ten aged care properties in South Eastern Australia. \u201cThe adult children of an elderly resident came to me at a recent family open day and said, \u2018Dad has never been happier or healthier. You have made such a difference to his life,\u2019\u201d David recalls. He pauses and adds, \u201cThey said this in front of my son. It filled me with immense pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

David works from one of St Vincent\u2019s Health’s hallmark properties, which is surrounded by bush and the chime of bellbirds on a bend in the Yarra River at Kew \u2013 a few kilometres from Melbourne\u2019s CBD. Here, residents enjoy a menu that varies every day, offering a wide variety of choices.<\/p>\n

They start Monday morning with gruy\u00e8re, bacon, spinach and eggs; there\u2019s shakshuka on Tuesday and smoked salmon rosti with poached eggs on Wednesday. By Thursday, it\u2019s buttermilk pancakes topped with mascarpone and lemon curd. A different breakfast every morning is followed by freshly baked scones, blueberry muffins or raspberry Danish \u2013 and then an \u00e0 la carte lunch with options such as juicy pork chop with sage and calvados or steamed fish with chimichurri. Dinner gets even better, starting with a soup like broccoli, bacon and spinach, followed by mains such as tomato quiche and penne carbonara. This style of dining is replicated across St Vincent\u2019s Care\u2019s ten properties, each with its own production kitchen staffed by between three and 30 kitchen professionals, collectively producing 20,000 meals a day.<\/p>\n

To achieve this high-end bistro-style dining, David had to specifically design the residential care kitchens. \u201cI started with the Escoffier brigade system,\u201d David explains. \u201cPastry, larder, hot section. I designed it like the workflow of a fine dining restaurant. The kitchen itself was fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment. We built a dream kitchen with hibachi grills, a wood-fired oven, sous vide and a Thermomix. The pastry section even has an anti-griddle,\u201d he says proudly, referring to the benchtop cold plate that flash freezes creams, sauces, pur\u00e9es, yogurt and other liquids and semi-solids down to minus 34\u00b0C.<\/p>\n

David has also assembled a dream team, recruiting individuals like himself who have extensive training and experience in five-star hotels and fine dining restaurants. \u201cI have so much love and respect for hospitality, but ten years ago the demands of a young family made me reassess my priorities,\u201d he says. \u201cI found that I could work at an extremely high level while still maintaining a work-life balance.\u201d David has leveraged his professional contacts and networking skills to attract highly skilled chefs who are ready for a change in working conditions. \u201cI have a team who have come from some of the best restaurants in the country,\u201d he says. \u201cThere used to be a stigma around working in aged care, as if it were for chefs who were bored and just wanted to clock in and out. We\u2019ve proven that it can be a pathway for industry professionals to be as creative and passionate as they have ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n

David and his team collaborate with dieticians and speech pathologists to ensure that every meal not only meets but exceeds healthy food targets, offering a selection of delicious, nutritious food suitable for residents who have difficulty swallowing. \u201cWe also sit down with the residents themselves and ask them what they want to eat,\u201d David adds. \u201cThere is a lot of feedback and we are constantly adapting dishes that feel familiar to residents. Food is very emotive.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about food costs, David reveals something enlightening about his employer. \u201cSt Vincent\u2019s Health understands that investing in quality will pay health dividends. Their strong commitment to a healthy food-first approach \u2013 as opposed to relying on supplements and medication \u2013 is evident in the health and happiness of the residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

David adds, \u201cI still learn a lot from our residents who have fought for Australia and worked for us. It\u2019s an honour. If I can change the way I look after my residents, then hopefully this ripple will create a wave. We need to do better.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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As seen in summer 2024\/2025<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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David Martin, Executive Chef at St Vincent’s Care, is transforming aged care dining with high-end, restaurant-style meals, putting flavour and nutrition first. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-50335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","tag-appetiser-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50335"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51241,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50335\/revisions\/51241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}