ISSUE 104
NEWSLETTER
JUNE 2020
@home
WITH COLDWELL BANKER TOMLINSON to order. After a brief period in which he supervised the immigration of some new staff who were open to a different way of doing things, the revolution was accomplished.
Putting Food on Two Hundred Tables
W
ith nine months under his belt as Executive Chef at Touchmark's senior residential community on South Hill, Alex Stoy, along with key members of his staff, felt comfortable taking a week to attend the Touchmark national conference in Texas during the first week of March. No sooner had he settled in, however, but the phone rang with news that the virus that had been spreading in Wuhan, China had showed up in a nursing home in Kirkland. Stoy immediately ordered all the common beverage stations removed that dot the hallways at Touchmark and other common areas restricted. Two days passed, and the true extent of the crisis began to emerge; he conferred with his staff and issued another order: the dining room was to be closed. Everything had changed. Alex had been brought to Touchmark in May of 2019 to spearhead an overhaul of the community's kitchen. A graduate of SPCC's nationally recognized culinary arts program, he had worked at some of Spokane's leading restaurants before taking a supervisory position at le Catering, which provides high-level cuisine to corporate clients and civic organizations, with diners sometimes numbering in the hundreds. Thus, he was eminently qualified to oversee the transition from a conventional foodservice operation, in which a limited menu of items is prepared are prepared in huge batches and plated out en masse. Touchmark wanted something different. Their community had gradually filled with boomers, most of whom were foodies expecting a varied and diverse menu filled with custom choices and, perhaps most important, made fresh
The task was not only hugely complex, but hugely important. Nothing in the retirement services industry is more important, more crucial than food. Beyond the obvious need to provide wholesome nutrition, with such elements as calories and sodium carefully controlled, the preparation and serving of food is the fulcrum of social interaction in a community, which is, in turn, essential in maintaining a positive mental outlook. An executive chef in such a community must work with specialists in health care and psychology to balance the comfort of reliability with the pleasure of surprise, and stimulation with relaxation. Touchmark's aim in all things is the safety and well-being of their residents, and in the bull’s-eye of that target sit food and drink. No sooner had Alex Stoy's transformation of the Touchmark kitchen coalesced, but Covid-19 raised its very ugly head. Gone were the leisurely meals in the dining room, at which guests were encouraged to linger over coffee and dessert. Now, 150-200 meals had to be prepared to order and delivered by hand by the wait staff to each apartment or bungalow. Behind the scenes, Stoy had to figure out how to maintain variety of his menus while suppliers were telling him that the cuts of beef and pork and types of produce he required were now hard to come by as processing plants closed and cut back. In his earlier duties as Executive Chef, Stoy had had to arrange for service not only in the dining room, but throughout the myriad special events offered by Touchmark to enliven the days of its residents. While we wait for a reliable treatment and vaccine, these events have had to give way to carefully planned celebrations in which at-risk guests can participate safely, celebrations such as the fabulously successful Mother's Day extravaganza, in which families piled into cars, and, along with hobbyists from throughout the region piloting their prized Auburn Cords and Dodge Belvederes, drove around Touchmark's long circular drive, while their loved ones looked on delightedly from their balconies or from their social-distanced lawn chairs. And who do you suppose was tirelessly ferrying the gifts from the cars to the Touchmark staff ready to distribute them? Who but Alex Stoy!