David Martin wants to change the way older Australians eat in aged-care dining and he is doing it one delicious restaurant-style meal at a time. Dynamic, energetic and contagiously passionate, David works at St Vincent’s Care as their Hotel Service Manager and Executive Chef Manager for Victoria and New South Wales.
While David has worked in aged care for nearly a decade, he comes from an even longer background in fine dining and high-end events. He has worked at Rockpool Melbourne under the legendary Khan Danis and cooked at top international brand hotels.
With this broad range of culinary and managerial skills, he is transforming the meals at St Vincent’s ten aged care properties in South Eastern Australia. “The adult children of an elderly resident came to me at a recent family open day and said, ‘Dad has never been happier or healthier. You have made such a difference to his life,’” David recalls. He pauses and adds, “They said this in front of my son. It filled me with immense pride.”
David works from one of St Vincent’s Health’s hallmark properties, which is surrounded by bush and the chime of bellbirds on a bend in the Yarra River at Kew – a few kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD. Here, residents enjoy a menu that varies every day, offering a wide variety of choices.
They start Monday morning with gruyère, bacon, spinach and eggs; there’s shakshuka on Tuesday and smoked salmon rosti with poached eggs on Wednesday. By Thursday, it’s buttermilk pancakes topped with mascarpone and lemon curd. A different breakfast every morning is followed by freshly baked scones, blueberry muffins or raspberry Danish – and then an à la carte lunch with options such as juicy pork chop with sage and calvados or steamed fish with chimichurri. Dinner gets even better, starting with a soup like broccoli, bacon and spinach, followed by mains such as tomato quiche and penne carbonara. This style of dining is replicated across St Vincent’s Care’s ten properties, each with its own production kitchen staffed by between three and 30 kitchen professionals, collectively producing 20,000 meals a day.
To achieve this high-end bistro-style dining, David had to specifically design the residential care kitchens. “I started with the Escoffier brigade system,” David explains. “Pastry, larder, hot section. I designed it like the workflow of a fine dining restaurant. The kitchen itself was fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment. We built a dream kitchen with hibachi grills, a wood-fired oven, sous vide and a Thermomix. The pastry section even has an anti-griddle,” he says proudly, referring to the benchtop cold plate that flash freezes creams, sauces, purées, yogurt and other liquids and semi-solids down to minus 34°C.
David has also assembled a dream team, recruiting individuals like himself who have extensive training and experience in five-star hotels and fine dining restaurants. “I have so much love and respect for hospitality, but ten years ago the demands of a young family made me reassess my priorities,” he says. “I found that I could work at an extremely high level while still maintaining a work-life balance.” David has leveraged his professional contacts and networking skills to attract highly skilled chefs who are ready for a change in working conditions. “I have a team who have come from some of the best restaurants in the country,” he says. “There used to be a stigma around working in aged care, as if it were for chefs who were bored and just wanted to clock in and out. We’ve proven that it can be a pathway for industry professionals to be as creative and passionate as they have ever been.”
David and his team collaborate with dieticians and speech pathologists to ensure that every meal not only meets but exceeds healthy food targets, offering a selection of delicious, nutritious food suitable for residents who have difficulty swallowing. “We also sit down with the residents themselves and ask them what they want to eat,” David adds. “There is a lot of feedback and we are constantly adapting dishes that feel familiar to residents. Food is very emotive.”
When asked about food costs, David reveals something enlightening about his employer. “St Vincent’s Health understands that investing in quality will pay health dividends. Their strong commitment to a healthy food-first approach – as opposed to relying on supplements and medication – is evident in the health and happiness of the residents.”
David adds, “I still learn a lot from our residents who have fought for Australia and worked for us. It’s an honour. If I can change the way I look after my residents, then hopefully this ripple will create a wave. We need to do better.”
