Apprentice Oscar finds his vocation

APPRENTICE Oscar Balgobin found the career he loves by a happy accident and is now a chef at Lilian Faithfull Care’s care home in Stroud.

Whilst doing an IT course at college he took a part time job in a kitchen doing pot wash and enjoyed it.

He said: “I liked the whole kitchen environment – I’d always liked cooking, I did GCSE.” arts in care environments with the artists taking-up ‘arts residencies’ in the operator’s care villages, leading workshops for residents in their respective disciplines.

Oscar decided to develop his interest in catering and went on to get a position as an apprentice chef in a hotel restaurant. Then the pandemic struck.

“I heard the news of the lockdown on the radio and knew the restaurant would shut. We cleaned everything down and that was it,” he added.

This was when Oscar came to help out at Lilian Faithfull Care’s Resthaven care home in Stroud, and he has stayed ever since. He has no regrets.

Oscar siad: “I’m glad it happened. It’s a lot better here. I didn’t realise that care home cooking was like this to be honest.

In response to lockdowns, a spinoff initiative, We Belong Together, supported the group’s independent living apartment tenants and those in the wider communities it serves, helping to tackle loneliness by providing a weekly focus at a time when interaction outside of support bubbles was limited to virtual means.

Now, all the activities have been packaged as Little Golden Moments, serving as a tool for loved ones, care providers and anyone supporting someone living with dementia. With the option to tailor tasks to participants’ preferences and ability, the aim is to engage them in meaningful occupation, whilst inviting their input, such as favourite memories, personal interpretations or new ideas.

Tabitha Moses, project facilitator at Bluecoat, added: “We hope Little Golden Moments will inspire creative engagement with people we love and support.

“Each activity has been tried and tested, both in-person and on a digital screen – all are dementiafriendly and Zoom-friendly. You don’t need to have any arts experience, just a willingness to have a go.”

“They never tell you about these places at school or college. I thought it would all just be frozen food. I was really surprised everything was fresh –I didn’t expect that at all. The quality is just as good as the restaurants.”

Oscar restarted his apprenticeship in Level 2 NVQ in food preparation at Resthaven care home.

As part of the course he spent time in the kitchens of three Lilian Faithfull Care homes.

“It’s really helped me working for different chefs and seeing different ways of doing things,” he added.

Part of the chef’s training at Lilian

Faithfull Care involves learning the techniques needed to prepare meals for residents who have swallowing difficulties.

Oscar now makes the individual purees and then pipes them to recreate the dishes on the menu.

He said: “When I first did it I was surprised what you can do with it when you are taught properly how to pipe it.”

Oscar was able to complete the majority of his apprenticeship within his normal working hours, which has made it manageable.

He has passed the two theory exams and put in plenty of preparation for his practical exams. One of them was to create a main course and dessert from scratch in two hours.

For the second practical he was observed doing his normal role for a couple of hours.