“Hey, how do you want your eggs this morning, Virginia?” Lead Cook Tonya Maguire asks as she takes two eggs from the carton.
“How about over easy?” Virginia calls from her seat at the dining table just on the other side of the kitchen bar.
“No problem. You want toast with that?”
This is not a conversation you would overhear at most nursing homes. But at The Restoracy, it happens every day as part of the skilled care facility’s goal to bring personalized care to seniors.
“It’s an essential part of our process in how we serve people,” Culinary Manager Jay Baker says. “We get to know the people because we’re serving the same people every day.”
A private, family-owned company, The Restoracy of Carmel and its sister location in Whitestown are designed like neighborhoods to provide skilled nursing care through a home-modeled design. Each of six brightly colored houses in Carmel is home to 12 residents, each with his or her own room and with care ranging from rehabilitation to long-term and even memory care. The goal of staff is to restore health, dignity and familiarity for seniors.
One part of instilling that sense of familiarity is the way meals are prepared in home and served at a family dining table.
“We don’t have a central kitchen,” Admission Coordinator Molly Schulz says. “Residents can literally see and talk with the person making their food just like they would at home.”
Each day, cooks prepare three hot meals in the home kitchens. The cooks begin the meal in one house and then move next door to finish any last minute preparations to make sure that food is served hot and fresh.
Both Schulz and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Katie Galvin have worked at more traditional nursing homes in the past.
“One of the top problems we would hear is, ‘My food is cold,’” Schulz says. “We have solved that problem.”
The Restoracy complies with diet requirements, such as for renal patients or those with congestive heart failure. The cooks also provide various textures as needed and can accommodate food allergies.
Galvin says that while there is a set menu, the residents can always choose and that options at The Restoracy go beyond what residents would find at other nursing facilities. For example, each month a food council meeting is open for anyone to attend.
“They can bring up issues, make requests and offer suggestions,” Galvin says. “As a group, they decide and vote on holiday meals. We get the flexibility to change the menu to fit the culture.”
When some residents wanted to add taco salad to the menu, the staff came up with a way for those who needed softer options to have beef soft tacos so the residents who wanted it could have taco salad.
One resident desperately wanted some ribs, but ribs are difficult to eat even when you don’t have special texture needs. Baker figured out a way to make a rib meal work for everyone.
“Sam, I got you ribs!” Baker told him.
“No way!” Sam exclaimed.
Sometimes, residents and staff contribute outside recipes. In fact, one of the most popular menu items is Bryan’s Italian Chicken, which is a recipe that comes from the family of Bryan Lindsay, founding partner and executive director of The Restoracy of Whitestown.
Family and friends can even bring in food they have prepared at home, and it can be saved in the refrigerator for up to three days.
“You would not be able to do that in a traditional nursing home,” Galvin says.
Schulz says that other facilities often serve 50 people in a dining room.
“It’s like staying at a hotel and having a continental breakfast with a bunch of people you don’t know,” she says. “This is more like family.”
And as with a family home, there are no set visiting hours at The Restoracy.
“I tell people, ‘It’s like home,’” Schulz says. “‘When you’re here, treat it like home.’”
“Residents can literally see and talk with the person making their food just like they would at home."