practical living
Caramel creams from the‘ Crunch and Soothe’ chapter of Lobster for
Josino. Photo: Matt Jewell
A dying wish
An aged care chef rewrites the rules on cooking for terminally ill patients.
Peter Morgan-Jones interviewed by Conor Burke
What would be your last meal? For Josino, all he wanted was lobster, but that wasn’ t to be.
“ You know what really annoys me? If I was on death row, I could choose my last meal. Just because I’ m sick, I can’ t eat what I want.”
Those were some of the last words chef Peter Morgan-Jones heard from his old friend and colleague, Josino. The next day, he was gone.
Part of Josino’ s bucket list was to say goodbye to all of his friends and loved ones. During Peter’ s visit, Josino’ s lunch arrived, and he became visibly dejected. This former chef couldn’ t stomach the hospital food.
This last visit provided Peter’ s inspiration for a cookbook that aims to put some love into palliative care via the kitchen.
Lobster for Josino: Fabulous Food for Our Final Days is full of practical, innovative and molecule-bending recipes for those with life-limiting illness or entering their last days.
Old favourites like grilled lamb and salmon niçoise salad appear, as well as the unconventional Guinness air, Christmas pudding mist, and papaya and lime oral spray. And of course, there is the lobster recipe that started the whole thing.
An incredible amount of thought and research has gone into the book. For example, each recipe is labelled with key terms – NBM for nil by mouth, SP for smooth pureed, and so on – to let you know who the recipes will be suitable for. There are pages with various contacts for support organisations, food suppliers and helpful kitchen equipment. And the first three chapters are full
of helpful ideas and tips from palliative care specialist Professor Rod MacLeod, dietitian Jessica Lynch and speech pathologist Prudence Ellis.
In her foreword, Maggie Beer perhaps sums up this book, and its aims, best:“ Peter has challenged the status quo for food for dementia residents in aged care and now he tackles an incredibly complex and emotional subject – food for the latter stages of life.“ Food isn’ t just to give us nutrients – I feel it’ s involved in the most primal urges to nurture, to show love.” Aged Care Insight sat down with Peter to talk more about his cookbook and how it can possibly change aged care meals for the better.
ACI: How has cooking for aged care changed your outlook? PMJ: It’ s a huge paradigm shift, but it was probably the most rewarding job I’ ve ever had. It gives a lot back, more than it would if it was in a restaurant. For a person with dementia, or who’ s quite sick, it’ s very rewarding to give them a good dining experience.
What are some key things you’ ve learned in this part of your food journey? It was a real eye-opener. I take my hat off to all the hospital and aged care chefs and cooks. There’ s a minefield of legislation you have to follow, because you’ re cooking for vulnerable people. It could be life-threatening if you don’ t do it right, so there’ s a lot of pressure on an aged care cook or chef. It’ s a difficult job, but also very rewarding. It’ s really positive.
What’ s involved in writing a recipe for people in aged or palliative care compared with regular restaurant diners? With restaurant menus, you write them out, and if a dish doesn’ t sell, you reword the menu – and you can actually improve the sales of that dish just from words. In aged care, you need to understand the residents and find out what they want, not what you think they should have. That’ s the difference.
We’ re seeing a slow paradigm shift now of your meat and three veg, which was a comfort food. Most people in aged care love
20 agedcareinsite. com. au