Meet Chef Ray at Cadence Kent-Meridian

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Welcome to the answers for elders radio show. meet the trusted experts who will give you straight answers and will help guide you on the path of later life care. Now here’s your host, founder, caregiver and CEO, Susanne Newman, and welcome back everyone, to answers for elder’s radio network. And we are here with the team of Caden’s, said Kent Meridian, Caden senior living, which is right on Benson road in Kent Washington, just across the field from Kent Meridian High School, overlooking the field, with a dugout and everything to be involved in. We’re so excited to meet the team members and we are here with the amazing and very um getting some really big notoriety in her industry because the community is crazy about her, and that is chef Ray, who runs the dining program at cadence Kent Meridian. Cheffray, thank you so much for being on our program thank you for having me so cheffray. You are obviously oversee the dining area and for someone that would move into cadence living, what does that mean overall? Tell us a little bit about Um how that that fits into their lifestyle. Yes, we’re open all day, seven am to seven PM. We will have scheduled times form for lunch, breakfast and dinner. You could come down anytime order whatever you want. Um, there’s this Um, this saying our our yes is our mantra. So anything a residents requests, we will absolutely do so if I came down at three o’clock in the afternoon and said I want breakfast, I could get it. Absolutely. Yes, that’s wonderful. So, chef ray, just as an as a resident. If I were to go down, Um, what would be on the menu today? So for today’s breakfast, we have the eggs benedict, UM, my favorite. Yes, with the Canadian Bacon Poach Egg, homemade holiday sauce, which toasted English muffin. Um. The soup of the day is the home style being in Bacon. So definitely comfort food. Nice Tuesday, so we’re doing chicken CASSIDILLAS, homemade guacamole, homemade salsa, sour cream. We have fresh corn salsa. Um. And dinner we’re gonna do a Asian theme. We’re doing a grilled chicken karaoke with JAS beef and Broccoli, with Yaki Saba noodles, steam back toy and saltape cabbage and dessert was a homemade lennon blueberry cake. That is amazing. And of course you have these are like are these like the specials? And then you have a regular menu with things. If somebody doesn’t, let’s say they don’t like that bean, beefrom Broccoli or or Asian food, there’s other types of things on the menu. There not absolutely. We haven’t always available menu. So there’s Burger’s petit fle Mignon, we have salmon, we have almost everything and anything you can name up cops, Salad, chef salads. Um, you could come up with your own signature sandwich, like yeah, many types of protein, roast bee, p Shudo, Ham, Salamie Bon’s amazing. And so when if somebody comes into your dining room, obviously it’s like eating in a nice restaurant, is it not? Its solas a little bit about the experience when they go have a meal. Um. Yeah, so for when when they come down, Um, we have, of course, our servers come and most, most of the servers and residents are very familiar to each other and they say hi, how are you, and they asked what the soup of the day is. We take their order. Start off with, you know, with the appetizer, Um, and then we take their entree, just like a real restaurant. It’s not like all put at once. It’s like right. So when they’re done with their soup, we take the sup away and come up with the with the main entree, and when they’re halfway done with the entree, we check up on them how the experience was, how everything is Um. Then we offer for a dessert, homemade dessert, and when they’re done with their dinner taken away and we’re not the dessert. And Yeah, it’s it’s it’s fun for the servers and for the residents and absolutely everybody here is amazing. Our residency are just are, just amazing. That’s so cool. So, chef fray, if I move into Kent’s Um senior living and Um, how am I charged for meals? CHARGED FROM UM? You are not charged for meals and meals are included with the three meals, three meals a day plus. That’s wonderful. Yes, and you know, that’s the beauty of people will often say that senior living is expensive, but when you really add up, you don’t have to grocery shop anymore. All of your to your utilities are paid for. You know, you get house cleaning, you get all kinds of you know, your cable services and uh, you know all of those things. You start adding it up, it’s very, very reasonably priced, and that’s the thing that I love. Yeah, for sure. We actually do have a resident who said that. Every single time. She’s like, I’m so glad I don’t have to grocery shop, Cook my meal, clean up afterwards and everything’s all right here when I come down to that home or restaurant. And we want to hear. Yeah, for sure. It’s again this whole vibrant living, you know, inspired living, what you guys call it Um Philosophy. I’ve really taking you know, a lot of US boomers are are looking at downsizing and we don’t necessarily want to want to keep doing all the stuff that we’ve done, and this is a really nice opportunity to go ahead and downsize, you know, sell that House that is too much, and then just be spoiled and do things on your bucket list where you know you’ve always wanted to do. And that’s the Nice thing about being a senior living now, because there’s a lot of opportunities within the community. But also there’s opportunities outside that maybe you normally wouldn’t do because you you’re much more part of the community when you’re there and that’s obviously really good for mental health. So, Cheffray, I’m going to talk a little bit to you about people that may have dietary requirements. How do you meet those needs? Um. So, for low sodium diets, we’ll start with that. We don’t do additional salt on some recipes because they already have salt and pepper shakers on their table if they would like to add and for diabetic Um, no sugar added. We do have no sugar free ice cream, no sugar free desserts in house as well. Um. So, yeah, and we we do everything to accommodate all of those. Um. That’s wonderful and I’m sure there’s a lot of people these days, especially when we were speaking with nap deep earlier about, Um, the wellness side. Some people are very gluten Um, you know, intolerant, things like that. So you know that, you get to know that resident and obviously if they’re going to order something like, you know, Um Pasta, you might have a different type of pasta that you can use for them or something like that? Yes, absolutely. Yes, yeah, so, again it’s a really nice way to do. You have someone preparing your meals, but they they do it to customize it again for your particular desires and needs, which is really important. And so now you’ve been serving seniors for a long time. Chef Ray, tell us a little bit about your background. Yeah, so, Um, I’ve been in this industry for over ten years now. Um, when I started as a cook, I was working another retirement down the hill from here and my grandma was staying at that place. Um, that’s that’s where I all started, back in two thousand eleven, two thousand twelve, when I was first Um. And also my my father is a chef, my mom was a caregiver. So I got a combination of both and here I am working being a chef in the retirement home. Um, I went to Uh locort on Blue College of Calory Arts, went to go get my diforma there and get a little background and cooking. So when I’m actually, you know, running a restaurant, I need to focus on all of the health, you know regulations and or working for our our type of group or our seniors. So it’s it’s been experience for me and I love it. I’m gonna stay working in this position for the rest of my life, you know. And the thing is is that, I don’t know if you guys know, but somebody asked me once if you could have changed your profession early in life, what would you have been? And I always say I would have loved to have been an executive chef. I love to Cook Myself. So and so that’s the thing. But when I meet people like you, it’s like wow, you know, to be able to express your creativity and your love for people, Um, through, you know, through food, it’s pretty amazing. And certainly to see this all the joy that you bring people every day through all of the things that you do. Um, that that is rewarding. To be able to wake up every day and know that you’re making a difference like you do, Um, is pretty special. So we’re really Um honored that you’re you’re here with us. So obviously you’re very passionate about what’s it like working for cadence? You’ve been in the industry for a long time. Um, how is it? How is cadence? Can’t Meridians, tell us a little bit about your community and how things are there? Um, I I love it so much. One is because I’m so close to I’m like five minutes away from work and cadence have so much support. I think that makes a big difference, Um, with the different types of titles and people reaching out to you and it’s just not me throwing in there and working. There’s a lot of corporate for people who check up on me and I love that. I Love the love, I love the support, I um everything about cadence. I just feel like this is the best you’ve ever worked when I’ve been with over, working for a different retirements for over ten years and so far cadence has definitely won my heart and would definitely love to grow within this. You know community. Yeah, well, and it’s so amazing because of where you’re located and really the opportunities that you have to be so integrated with the community. You’re so centrally located and yet you’re you know, you’re you have this other whole side where you are you know, have the special events and things like that that you do, and I did here not too long ago that Um, you sponsored. I saw a social media post. Kaden sponsored a golf tournament and you made special barbecue sauce, and rumor has it that they’re trying to get you to sell it. Yeah, Um, yeah, the Chipotli Cherry. That was some of the barbecue sauces that I did there, and I did my version of the sweet baby ray. I did Sweet, Oh my goodness, the Jeff Baby, chef baby race. I did my version of it, Um, and there was actually some gophers who said they would buy it, they would buy my stuff. So that’s one selling point that we can definitely use. Yeah, yeah, you should. You should package it up and and anytime somebody goes for a tour, you hand him a thing of your Barbara part because they would love it and enjoy it, you know, for a long thing. You know, I remember that amazing place. That’s like and barbacue sauce keeps pretty well. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well, how do we reach you, Tracy? You’re here and I’m gonna revert to you. So again, we want people to come from meal and check out chef ray and how amazing she is. So, Tracy, tell us how we reach you. I sure will, and it’s encore dining is our program and because we want people coming back time and time again. So, Um, she definitely we are so thrilled to have her and her team. She is assembled at this amazing team as well. Our number is two, five, three, three, one, two hundred and you can reach just at Eden’s Kimbridian DOT COM. Awesome and everyone. Tracy and I are going to be right back with more information on cadence senior living. Right after this. We at answers for elders. Thank you for listening. Did you know that you can discover hundreds of podcasts in our library on senior care? So visit our website and discover our decision guides. That will help you also navigate decision making. Find US AT ANSWERS FOR ELDERS DOT COM.