Why Serving Beef Tongue Represents Exceptional Dining
I was asked by a community to do some media outreach surrounding their exceptional dining experience, their executive chef, and their five-star dining atmosphere. My first question to everyone I talked to from the community was, “What sets your dining apart from other senior living communities?”
I received a lot of the typical answers: resident-focused staff, customer service training, making dishes from scratch with fresh ingredients, knowing our residents’ tastes, and adjusting dishes to meet dietary restrictions.
Don’t get me wrong, all those elements are important in quality dining. But just by sharing those concepts, I probably didn’t convince you that this particular community’s dining experience is unique or extraordinary.
What is convincing is giving you a specific example of how all these elements are brought together in a tangible way to deliver an intangible concept – exceptional dining. I need a story that illustrates the community’s dining story.
During an interview, the community chef told me that a couple of residents wanted to try beef tongue, so they came up to her and requested it. The chef was hesitant to put something so exotic on the menu. But the residents had asked for it, so she researched it, came up with a recipe and made beef tongue an entrée selection one night. It turned out to be a very well-received dish, not a one-time walk on the wild side.
Has beef tongue been on your community’s menu lately? Would your residents even think to ask for it? Would your chef know how to prepare it and then actually serve it? Would you want to be in the room watching the reactions as a bunch of seniors tried beef tongue for the first time?
Just hearing the beef tongue story gives you an entirely new perspective on how dining operates at this particular community. Beef tongue certainly made dining more memorable than “adjusting dishes to meet dietary restrictions.”
It’s the little stories that tell the bigger story of your community, especially with the media and consumers. People will stop for a few seconds to hear about serving beef tongue to seniors. Reporters love examples like this, because they are, at their heart, storytellers.
Next time you have an abstract concept or community value to explain, uncover the small stories that give people the bigger picture of why your community is truly different or unique. If you want to talk about personal attention, stop the next three residents you see and ask them to tell you their best experience with your staff. Or simply go to the kitchen and ask if anyone has ever requested beef tongue for dinner. Because it’s likely that the stories you hear are the very stories your community should be telling.
That’s a great example — not only of exceptional dining, but of another “common distinctive,” person-centered care. It’s a great illustration of responsiveness, relationship, and reasonable risk-taking!
i heard a story from the chef at one of our Independent/Assisted Living communities in Illinois that warmed my heart and told me more about that community than anything on the menu would have: He noticed a lady dining alone, looking sad, and he stopped to ask her how her meal had been and if there was anything he could do for her. She told him the meal was fine, but she was feeling lonely and missed her home and her spouse. (She was recently widowed.) He sat down at her table and listened for a few minutes. At the end of their conversation he asked if she would have lunch with him the following week. She agreed, and their lunch dates became a weekly event. Not only did this resident appreciate having someone to talk to, but the chef appreciated having a resident’s personal perspective on his cuisine! They each had something to offer and something to receive.
And, after all, that’s what true community is all about!
Interesting and different things are great, especially where other things around can tend to be bland. Great post!