Suzanne: And welcome everyone to the Answers for Elders Radio Network, heard across the US on your favorite podcast channel. And also we are so excited to bring to you content that really matters. And one of the things that I think a lot of us are looking at when we’re looking at for that next chapter in our life, whatever that is, sometimes you can’t take care of that house anymore. You don’t want to take care of that house anymore. It’s really gotten too much and too cumbersome. You start thinking about other options, and senior living is kind of something that’s a buzzword, but I don’t think the average person out there really understands all the benefits and the amazing things that go on in these communities. And so we’re very fortunate to have major staff members from Era Living who has eight communities here throughout Greater Puget Sound, mostly in King County. And we’re very excited to have the Director of Culinary and Dining Operations, Mr. Justin Rutledge. And Justin, welcome to Answers for Elders.
Justin Rutledge: Thank you, Suzanne. It’s a pleasure.
Suzanne: Well, I’m glad to have you here because food is a big deal, and the average person thinks that they’re eating food that’s like hospital food. That isn’t what happens. And you run like a regular fine dining restaurant every day, pretty much, don’t you? Tell us a little bit, Justin, about you, and how you designed and put together this amazing culinary program at Era Living.
Justin Rutledge: Absolutely. Thank you. Our programs are designed more like a hotel or a country club. We’re focusing on fresh local ingredients and really trying to build that, what we call Alman cooking, cooking to water. So really trying to break that stigma of the pre-made kind of scoop and serve food. So we’re really focusing on, on being able to provide that quality product for our residents.
Suzanne: Yeah, I’ve had lunch there in several of your communities, the last time not too long ago at the Lake Shore in Renton. Fabulous luncheon that I had, and I have just enjoyed the opportunity where I live, to sample what you do. So I know this is the amazing thing that you do. So you have an overview of a culinary program. So how does that work if you’re a resident? What happens with that?
Justin Rutledge: What we do, our chefs, we really focus on resident-driven menus. This is not our restaurant, this is your home. And so what we really like to do is get the feedback from the residents chef inspired menus, pulling from their techniques, pulling from their backgrounds and really putting forth a quality product that then is then approved by our dietician. So we really try to focus on giving that whole package. Our goal is to really try and please 100% of the people 100% of the time and when we fall short that’s ok. We look to see where and how we can improve.
Suzanne: I would love an example of how somebody inspired something a choice. Do you have like a story that you could share with us?
Justin Rutledge: Absolutely. So you mentioned the Lakeshore earlier. I did all of our communities. They’ll have their own little flair, their own kind of uniqueness. And at the Lakeshore, we have a high Japanese population. And so what you’ll see at the Lakeshore, you will not see in our other communities necessarily. They have a lot of those a la carte items that we’re cooking to order chicken katsu. They’re doing ramen and things along those nature to please those. So sitting with the residents and seeing what they’re looking for, and then again, designing those menus around that community, it really provides that extra touch as opposed from menus coming from the top down. They really truly are resident inspired.
Suzanne: I’m sure it also, when you say resident inspired, it also includes comfort foods. I’m sure that you do plenty of that as well.
Justin Rutledge: Yeah, so the key to that is in the options. So what we’ve really seen over these last few years is a transition into, as I mentioned earlier, kind of that country club hotel kind of model where we’re really trying to offer as many different options as possible. And again, the goal is to please everybody. And so what we’re really trying to accomplish is by doing that, by offering choices. And so allowing residents to pick and choose different sides, with sauce without sauce. And also focusing on diets we’re seeing a lot of gluten free and other diets coming through the pipe now. And so rather than saying, no, you can’t have this because it contains gluten, the answer is yes. And it’s working with our culinary teams on how to extract product before, say, we add in gluten. Maybe we’re using rice flour to thicken that dish with that roux as opposed to all purpose flour.
Suzanne: I would assume people that have special dietary needs, you probably know that in advance. So if they’re ordering something from the menu, you already know that with the residents because they’ve given that information up front. I’m assuming is that correct?
Justin Rutledge: That is correct. So it starts with when they’re doing, the assessment with the community health team, and informing us and letting us know what their dietary restrictions are. That then triggers a consult with our in-house dietician, and then that triggers a training with our culinary dining and life enrichment teams, to ensure that everything that we’re doing, we are recognizing that diet and making sure that, again, we’re offering the same choices just because you may be a diabetic or gluten free. Doesn’t mean we restrict your choices.
Suzanne: You could do something with with a sweet potato, or an extra vegetable or cream spinach or something like that. That would be definitely a wonderful potato alternative. And I think those are the things that I think are really important that it doesn’t have to be this sacrificial thing. You can actually enjoy the new adventure. And when people come into your communities, I’m sure they’re asking a million questions. What are some of the questions you get?
Justin Rutledge: The number one question we get is the choices, how to navigate. And so one of the things I tell all of our chefs is to take a moment to kind of go over the options with the residents, there’s multiple menus. There’s daily specials, there’s a la carte items, there’s feature, and so really showing the residents how to navigate those menus, and how to ask for choices. There’s a lot of things that we can do that may not be on the menu. For example, if we had a chicken breast on the menu, but you wanted to turn that into a chicken BLT. The product’s all there on the cook’s list, we have to go to do it. So kind of letting them know to ask the questions before every meal. We have what we call a pre-meal stand up. And that’s with all of the servers, the cooks and the chef, and kind of walk through what the meals look like for that day, for them. You know, if we’re doing AAA beef. Kind of give you a little bit of a brief history of the dish as well so that the servers have information to share that.
Suzanne: I love that. And I’m sure that a lot of times you’ll have theme nights or things like that where you can do like you talk about beef a French theme would be really fabulous to do things on Bastille Day or something like that I’m sure you kind of coordinate with life enrichment. Is that true? So, it’s an adventure every day.
Justin Rutledge: It’s an adventure every day, and that’s a true statement. So, what we’re consistently trying to do is, and on those themed holidays or on those fun days, Bastille Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, we just create those themed menus. Make it fun.
Suzanne: And that’s awesome. If I want to come down and have a poached egg, I can just have a poached egg. I mean, that’s the beauty of having those choices. We’ve been talking about a lot of different things of these wonderful meals. But sometimes you feel like you want comfort food so you have that as well.
Justin Rutledge: Absolutely. You know, and that’s, again, the chefs coming out and doing the table touches, talking with the residents. Eggs are always on that cook’s line, however you like it, and probably whenever you like it, our dining rooms don’t close. You know, we’re what we call any-time dining. So we’re open.
Suzanne: So if I feel like I don’t want to go have breakfast until 11 o’clock, I can go down and have breakfast at 11 o’clock or I can skip breakfast and have lunch or do whatever you want to do. That’s the beauty of something like this. So, obviously you have done an amazing job with your dining experiences and I can only imagine that resident input, and making sure that you are always on top, keeps it that way. Tell us a little bit about how you listen and how you dialed in on that.
Justin Rutledge: There’s a couple different ways that we do that. One of them is in each community. We have what we call a food service advisory meeting and that’s where any and all residents are welcome. We talk food. We’re changing our menus out seasonally, and I’ve mentioned a couple of times, really truly, we are building our menus around our resident feedback. And so those meetings in particular are a good way of kind of getting a good idea of what the community is looking for on their seasonal menus. And then the chefs take their expertise in kind of tailoring those menus to meet those needs. Another way we do that, I mentioned earlier, is what we call table touching, and so being present in the dining room and meeting and talking with our residents I mentioned before: this is not our restaurant, this is home, and it’s just words if we’re not out there communicating, showing that that statement is true.
Suzanne: And you have eight communities around King County and all over King County. If people are touring, they can have experience your food, can they not?
Justin Rutledge: Yeah, absolutely. We, we welcome it. We welcome it. We take every opportunity to meet potential new residents. And so the dining services director, the executive chef, they’ll all come by the table just to say hi. And we’re proud of our communities. We’re proud of what we do. We want to show that.
Suzanne: So if you are interested, any of you in checking out an Era Living community, we’d love to have you go to their website at www.eraliving.com.
