Meet the chef bringing gold-standard catering to the care sector

With dishes such as haggis bon bons with lemon and pepper mayonnaise, Thai-style meatballs and a classic cranachan in his repertoire, it’s no surprise to hear that Stuart Middleton once cooked for David Beckham.

However, the former catering chef has traded in tending to high flying celebs like “Golden Balls” to supporting the nutritional needs of people in their golden years in the care home sector with Renaissance Care.

It’s a marked change for the 33-year-old, who is Catering and Dining Operations Manager with the care home provider.

With a career that covered cooking for everyone from the RAF to the Haig Club whisky launch at Gleneagles, Stuart’s seen it all. However, with 16 homes across Scotland under his watch now, providing care for 740 residents and roughly 1,150 staff is a challenge like nothing he’s faced before.

“Being a chef in restaurants and hotels can be quite a thankless, laborious job, and it is tough in the care homes, but you can see the real impact you have on residents,” he said.

“It’s not just about nice food, it’s about giving residents good nutrition, and through that you’re bettering someone’s life.”

Ensuring the journey of care home food from supplier to table is gold standard is now the main aim for ultimate perfectionist, Stuart. It’s no mean feat, but as Renaissance Care’s head of hospitality, he sees this as more than just a challenge; he sees it as his duty and the rights of the residents he works with.

Catering for the varying tastes of 740 people is tough enough but amongst that group are people with unique, and often complex dietary requirements.

Some residents might have no problem eating a classic lasagne, served in its traditional way, for example. Others may have medical needs that make this task next to impossible and in many cases extremely dangerous.

Some residents are at risk of choking on solid food like pasta while others might struggle with loose sauces and fluid. But that doesn’t stop Stuart in his pursuit of excellence.

“The thought of eating a lasagne that’s been blended, reconstituted and piped on to your plate might leave some people scratching their heads,” he explained.

“It certainly begs the question why you’d go through a process like this, but why should someone living with dysphagia be treated any differently, is my question?

“Eating is a huge part of a resident’s day and the experience of a fun and sociable dining environment plays a major part of that as well, but if someone has a condition which increases the risks of choking, or if they have dementia and would struggle to differentiate certain food on their plate, or even reduced motor skills that make using cutlery difficult, it’s my job to address that.

“You might not be able to cater the exact same menu for everyone, but if we can deconstruct the meal and present it in a way that looks similar, has the same nutritional value and still offers the same dining experience, then that’s our aim.”

Stuart left school in Elgin at 16 and started his catering career as a kitchen porter at Renaissance Care’s Meadowlark care home in Forres before studying at Murray College in Elgin. There, he completed a three-year course in HNC Professional Cookery before securing work with Diageo’s corporate hospitality team. Here he was lucky enough to have worked with the team of chefs at Gleneagles and was even more fortunate to be involved in the launch of Haig Whisky where he catered for David Beckham.

Working with whisky and food – his two main passions in life – helped his love of catering blossom even further and he gained more experience as a contact caterer for the RAF, before working in consultancy and outside catering and eventually coming back to Renaissance and care homes.

It has been a colourful journey for Stuart, but that experience has only served to drive him further forward and change perceptions of catering for the care sector.

“I started off washing dishes in a Renaissance Care home, so it’s nice in a way that I’m back here again, this time leading a team of 34 chefs.” he said after returning in the last year.

“I’ve found in my time that the catering industry as a whole really looks down on people who work in the hospitality side of the care sector, that we do a lesser job than that of a restaurant or hotel chef - you can see it in some people’s faces. Yet that really isn’t the case. I work with some really great chefs who work incredibly hard to produce tasty and nutritious meals. And what’s more inspiring is that our chefs really care about the enjoyment and benefits good food has for our residents.

“I can see the impact of my cooking in the faces of the people I work with – our residents. I can see it in their attitude and I can see it in their nutritional stats. We’re making a huge difference everyday.

“Everyone thinks the care sector provides a poor version of hospital food and everyone’s had or heard a bad experience of that, but we’re so far removed from that now it’s unreal.

“Everything’s freshly cooked and our homes get five fresh deliveries a week. The kitchen is the heart of every home and it’s no-less true than in a care home. If we get our residents’ nutritional care right, then their overall care and wellbeing becomes much more manageable.”

Part of Stuart’s work since returning to Renaissance has been to make residents’ catering experience industry-leading. He has reviewed the nuts and bolts of the organisation’s catering operations and developed a strategy which now spans across all homes.

Residents have just as much of a say in the menu as chefs through activities like Meal or No Meal, where residents sample new menu ideas and vote on the winning dishes. Meanwhile, local traditions and preferences of taste are also given just as much prominence in planning as medical and nutritional dietary requirements.

The next step for Stuart and his 34-strong team is to implement their summer menu and continue to develop their strategy.

“Every day brings a challenge, but an enjoyable one,” he said.

“How do you turn a steak pie into finger food for example? What if someone can’t have that number of calories in a single sitting, or has dementia and doesn’t recognise the dish?

“You turn it into a vol-au-vent. The texture is the same, the flavours are the same, it’s the same dish just smaller and more manageable.

“There are wider challenges brought through the cost of living crisis but Renaissance is supporting us through that and it’s important to always offer our residents choice as well as quality.

“We’re fighting the fight together.”