Kitchen tours take residents behind the scenes

Residents from Juniper Annesley were the latest guests to tour the Rowethorpe Catering Centre kitchen where the focus is on preparing homemade meals.

Introduced earlier this year, the one-hour kitchen tours enable residents from across Juniper sites to see the inner workings of the bustling catering centre in Bentley.

This latest tour was the fourth in a series following recent visits from Juniper Hilltop, Juniper Trinity and Juniper Cygnet customers.

On arrival, Annesley residents received a warm welcome from Juniper’s Hospitality Coordinator South Jason Low and some background on how the catering centre was a fresh cook operation with the catering team preparing as much as possible onsite.

During the tour, residents had a first-hand look at chefs and cooks working on the day’s menu, the equipment used to prepare meals, supplies of fresh fruit, vegetables and meats, and the innovative ways the team continues to enhance its meals.

Over the course of a year, the busy catering team notches up some huge fresh food statistics including the use of more than 18,000kg of bananas and about 14,000kg of potato varieties.

Discovering how potatoes were ordered peeled and vacuum sealed due to the volume used, to save time and avoid oxidisation as well limit the amount of waste was just one of the interesting information takeaways for residents.

Hospitality Services Manager Kirrie Hall said the kitchen tours were part of Juniper’s overarching Dignity in Nutritional Excellence (DINE) program, which focused on providing high-quality, nutritious meals for customers.

“The tours are about our chefs engaging with and getting to know our residents and how we use fresh produce on a daily basis,” Kirrie said.

“The feedback has been very positive, with the residents really enjoying seeing how everything works.”

To cap off the enlightening and entertaining tour, residents had an opportunity to ask any catering questions that came to mind at a scrumptious morning tea with an array of fresh fruits, cakes and sandwiches.

As part of an ongoing partnership with Curtin University, several students were on hand to transfer residents to and from the tour and gain an insight on the day-to-day workings of the centre.