The kitchen is the heart of the home, this is no different in a senior living community. Good food brings people together, and in senior living communities the dining room is one of the few places where everyone gathers. Staff and residents sit down together to eat, mingle, and enjoy each other’s company. Extensive menus claiming variety are always a bullet point in community brochures and facility tours but is a large menu really so much better? Not always. Large menus with too many “always available” items can suffer when it comes to food quality. When more food has to be ordered it can strain the budget, so costs are cut for quality’s sake. Having too many items can also stretch cooks’ attention thin, potentially lowering quality further. Now that we have gone through why bigger doesn’t always mean better, let’s address why a smaller menu can provide more quality and variety.
Having a smaller menu without as many “always available” items gives cooks a chance to improve their recipes, making sure that each meal is delicious. It provides more room in the budget for high-quality food. Fewer menu items mean that each staple can be swapped out week by week, filling the menu with variety! Smaller menus also leave more room for special dishes. Dishes like a favorite recipe from a mother or grandmother can be put into the mix, rather than providing 3 entrees for that day.
Here at Bel Aire Senior Living in American Fork, Utah we know that homemade, high-quality food is important. We focus on a few high-quality dishes rather than having a large number of “always available” dishes. If a resident does not like one of the items, we have a daily substitution that they can swap in to make it just the way they like it! We believe delicious food matters, and that is our focus.
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Bel Aire Senior Living
801.763.0622