One of the great elements of being a manager, executive, or administrator in the health care industry, and I mean this to include assisted living, is the opportunity to work with a diverse group of personalities and skill sets.  The range of professional disciplines needed to operate a health care or personal care organization is broad:  medical professionals, computer technicians, human resource experts, maintenance professionals, accountants, clerks, and food service professionals to name only a few.  You need the ability to work effectively with each and provide an environment of cooperation and teamwork within this multi-disciplinary group.

In many cases these team players are bright, opinionated and very protective of their turf.  At the top of list of those “Proud and Protective” of what they do are the food service group.  There is no one more proud, proprietary and protective than a chef!  I include foodservice managers, dietary department managers, and head cooks, to boot.

It is easy to see why. Where else does a person’s work get scrutinized and evaluated openly and candidly three times a day, every day, every week. Even if you do your job very well, you will never satisfy everyone.

I still remember walking into the very first assisted living facility I owned, on the first week of opening and hearing a resident loudly proclaim for all to hear, “This food tastes like #%)+&!”.

So many things factor into our perception of “good food”:  personal preferences, past experiences, memories, mood.  In short, it is not an easy job to feed large groups of people and have everyone satisfied with the results.

It is not an easy job, but is an important one.  Effective managers and food service professionals must insure food preparation is consistent with the vision and expectations of their health care organization.

I have seen cooks run management out of the kitchen, but inevitably this doesn’t work.  Managers need to allow “the artist” in the kitchen the freedom to work, but we all should remember that we eat because many people have contributed work and skill.  Good food is the goal; teamwork is needed to get it right.