Episode 26: The Chef Who Built A Culinary Time Machine - With Craig and Jessica Bowerson

[00:00:16] Speaker A: When you see the moon at light Gonna have a mother runner wonder, Wonder what it'll be tonight. [00:00:34] Speaker B: And greetings to all. And for the pre and post today, before we intro, our incredible guest, Craig Bowerson. Karen had a surprise for me she was holding back that she wanted to discuss and wouldn't tell me what it was. [00:00:51] Speaker C: Yeah, no, don't get excited. Like, it's not a surprise. Like, woohoo. It's more of a. I wanted to have this conversation with you and then I thought, I'm going to save it for the pot. [00:01:00] Speaker B: Great. [00:01:00] Speaker C: Here it is. You walked out of The Odyssey at 90 minutes in. [00:01:05] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Yeah. Took a lot of effort to stay that long. [00:01:09] Speaker D: Actually. [00:01:10] Speaker C: I. I'm. I don't even know what to say. I thought it was a masterpiece. So I need to know what compelled you to get up and leave and how could you even do that? [00:01:22] Speaker B: I didn't like it. I. First of all, movies are too long. So like, I've made. I made a. I do love still going to the theater, but I have made a bargain with movies because they're all so long now that I just won't stay beyond two hours of runtime and I'll just wait until it comes out on streaming a few months later and I'll watch the rest of them unless it's absolutely outstanding and then I'll stay. And I'm a huge Christopher Nolan fan. I worked on some of his movies when I was in China. His disciple Wally Pfister directed Transcendence, which I thought was an incredible script. Less good of a movie, but it's from his tree. I've loved tons of his movies, but he's now, in my view, at least in this particular case, over producing his movies. Like the soundtrack itself, and maybe I'm just getting old was so annoying and unpleasant to listen to that I had a tough time staying simply because of the sound I found also a lot of this, and I won't spoil or anything because people already know kind of what the story is. Even though he put his own spin on it. I thought some of the. The visuals and the actual scenes were just so grotesque and, and gory and pleasant that I was like, I just, I didn't like watching it. Like, I didn't like the story that I was seeing. It was way out there. I was not a fan. I think it's incredibly overrated. I find it so hard that so many people are so into this movie when there are so many obviously unpleasant aspects to it. But hey, if you love it God bless you. I support the movie industry and I'm happy that it's doing well. And I do love me some Christopher Nolan, but no for me. [00:03:03] Speaker C: Okay, well. [00:03:04] Speaker B: But I will watch the rest when it comes out on streaming. [00:03:07] Speaker C: So you don't have any strong feelings is what you're trying to say? [00:03:10] Speaker B: None at all. None at all. [00:03:12] Speaker C: I. Well, I. I also do not enjoy a long movie. And I was gearing myself up for, whoa. How am I going to sit through three hours? Do I need to come over and grab one of mom's adult briefs? Because, you know, what about my popcorn and my drink? And then I need to. I love popcorn at the movie. And then I need to drink a lot because of the popcorn. So I was concerned about that. It was a valid. But I also remember being forced to read the Odyssey in ninth grade, which is funny to me when I look back and think. I don't. We were young. I don't know how I could have gotten. I remember reading it for Mrs. Maher's ninth grade English class, and I still remember struggling my way through it. Also, it's written in prose. It's tricky, but I thought the movie was a visual spectacle. I loved every part of it. And I had forgotten about the fact that so many of these famous Greek myths are part of this story. And it also brought to mind one of Dad's most famous sayings that I love so much. Are you ready? [00:04:13] Speaker B: Yep. [00:04:14] Speaker C: Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. I mean, I love that he used to say that. I was watching the movie and I thought, oh, right, Trojan Horse. That's the reference I kind of forgot. No spoiler there, by the way. Trojan Horse. [00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I think everybody knows what that is, generally. [00:04:31] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. [00:04:33] Speaker C: Okay. Well, I know we were off topic, but I just needed to ask you that question. But I would really like to dig into our delightful guest today, Craig and Jennifer Bowerson, who came to us. [00:04:45] Speaker B: Oh. [00:04:45] Speaker C: Through another reference that I also want to quickly discuss. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:49] Speaker C: The reach outs that we are getting from our Huntington woods crew. Because, you know, we are the most popular podcast in Huntington Woods, Michigan. [00:04:58] Speaker B: Number one. [00:04:59] Speaker C: Number one. And we've gotten some beautiful reach outs from people we've grown up with, including my friend Sarah, who I grew up with through elementary school, but specifically through Debbie Chaney Stanley, who worked for me at the Huntington woods pool. And you were on swim team with her, right? [00:05:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I was on swim team with Debbie. We grew up together, swimming. And it's so great to get reconnected with her through her recommendation. I mean, through her, like, just reaching out to us and telling us that she's been listening to the podcast. And that led to me catching up with her and having a great phone call with her. Hi, Debbie. I know you're listening. [00:05:35] Speaker C: I told her she'd be getting a shout out. [00:05:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And there will be some. Some meetup in Rochester, potentially for some Taiwanese beef noodle soup in the future, which I did recommend to her because she lives out there. [00:05:47] Speaker C: Beautiful. Well, she sent us this really delightful Instagram story about Chef Craig and what he does for the residents of his senior living facility. And it is really incredible and how lucky that you reached out to him. And he was available to chat with us along with his wife, who has a lot of her own contributions to this specific story. But we don't want to give away what he has done with his residence as the chef, but he'll share that with us as well. But I just wanted to reiterate to Debbie and really, any of our listeners, when you have thoughts and suggestions on who you think we should be talking to or topics we should be spotlighting, we're grateful and we do it. You reached out to Chef Craig right away, and lucky you did, because I think in a short period of time, he's going to be too busy to respond to us. [00:06:45] Speaker B: You never know. You never know. But he also, I'm sure, checked us out and realized that we were doing something legitimate and as part of. Poured our heart and soul into it. And we're kind of kindred spirits. So without further ado, let's hear what he's up to. But of course, in the meantime, here's a ditty from Mom. [00:07:14] Speaker A: The blue skies are with you today, and you're gonna have a lot of fun, because most of them are doing different days. Somewhere over the rainbows Skies are blue. [00:07:38] Speaker C: So where does the call come in? [00:07:40] Speaker E: It came into the front desk at the resort, and I thought it was one of my purveyors calling to get an order. And we had just started the lunch rush, and I'm like, I really don't have time for a phone call. And the lady at the front desk said, well, he's. He says he's a producer. And I was like, what? [00:07:56] Speaker C: And you're thinking, yeah, now? [00:07:58] Speaker E: So I ran up and I was. I grabbed the phone. I was like, hello, this is Craig. And he goes, hey, I just saw your interview, or I read your interview, and then I saw your interview that you had with Owen by the oven. And he said, I'm more interested in Your story. I said, well, I'm kind of busy right now, so can I give you my cell phone number? And he called me back on my phone. I. I had headphones on. And so I'm cooking in the kitchen with my staff talking to him on the phone. And he's telling me about movies he's done. And he said he has a list of actresses. And he started naming names, but they were people that I had watched growing up. And I'm like, yeah, I haven't seen them in a movie in a long time. And he's like, yeah, they don't have senior movies. So these actresses and actors would like to go to work. And so we'd like to turn your stories into a possible movie. So I have an appointment coming up later on this afternoon to actually talk about maybe selling this. My stories to this producer. So. [00:08:57] Speaker C: Wow. Well, congratulations to you. What an exciting time for both of you. That's amazing. [00:09:02] Speaker E: It's. It's been kind of overwhelming, to be honest. It's something that I haven't expected and I think I've expressed it before. I feel like I didn't really do anything. All I did was cook. [00:09:14] Speaker C: Well, that's not nothing. That's a really big something, especially in the way that you're cooking. [00:09:18] Speaker B: All right, well, we've got Craig and Jessica Bowerson with us. I'll let them introduce themselves and maybe you can first tell us a little bit about the two of you. Craig is a chef at a senior facility. I know Jessica's had many positions in the senior facility care world as well. Maybe just tell us a little bit how you guys met and what you guys do in the senior world. [00:09:42] Speaker E: We started cooking together almost 11 years ago. I ended up working for colleges mostly. I enjoyed that because you get breaks off when colleges are closed, kitchens are closed. So it was kind of nice to be able to visit my kids because I basically had the same breaks they did. I ended up doing a catering over at the Cedars Nursing Home while I was at the college. And they had something happen with their food service program. And so they called the college and said, hey, we ate your food. We really enjoyed it. And we were wondering if you guys could come over and kind of manage the kitchen. Would you come back and work for us as one of our employees and not through the contract company? And so the contract company ended up selling my contract to the nursing home who purchased me for. I think it was a two year term. Ended up staying for. Sorry about that. [00:10:37] Speaker B: Take your time. No worries. As we Discussed before getting choked up is all part of this podcast. Karen's going to be with you in about seven to ten minutes. [00:10:46] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I cry about it. [00:10:50] Speaker E: I ended up staying for about five and a half years total. I'll be going back next month. They actually called up after our video went viral. They called up and asked if we would come back and re establish the menu system that I had developed previously. So during that time, Jessica came in. As a cook, I worked her way up to director. And really, if it wasn't for her being my director, I would have never been able to do what I did. Because most directors are very by the book. You know, this is the menu. There is no changing it. This is how this works. And because she was my director, she knew exactly what my vision was. [00:11:26] Speaker D: And so she said I was okay with changing the menu and doing all the legwork and everything as long as we were compliant. I wanted to make sure that if State comes, we're doing everything that we were supposed to be doing to make sure that everybody's safe and all of the cooks have all of their information that they need and just making sure that everything was done correctly. [00:11:48] Speaker E: So basically, I ended up learning a lot about menu law. When it comes to serving in nursing homes, where you have to have your menu approved by a dietitian, it has to be posted for two weeks prior to actually being put out. So having learned all that, what I ended up doing is having a dietitian that was very willing to sign off on some things as well. So I ended up asking residents for about, you know, any recipes that you want to give me. And I ended up getting two couples, and a gentleman who was by himself ended up giving me a total of, I think about nine recipes. And so I spent the next three weeks working with my dietitian, getting it all together, changing out the menu items, posting it for the two week period, and then trying my best to recreate what they had given me. [00:12:37] Speaker C: So you're. And I should. I don't mean to interrupt, but I want to say that. [00:12:42] Speaker E: Please. [00:12:42] Speaker C: We found you. We found you. That's all right. You'll be interrupting me later when I'm a little emotional too, but we found you through your. An Instagram post about how you, in the senior home where you work, specifically asked people to share recipes and techniques. How did that come to be? Did you ask specific people? Did you just kind of put out a group message? I mean, what. What was the origin of that? [00:13:07] Speaker E: Originally, what happened was it was the middle of COVID and so we're dealing with locking people basically in their rooms. They weren't allowed to come out, so the only solace they had were food. And when you're serving food to people, that it wasn't that it was terrible food, but if you're at home, you don't necessarily want to eat seafood carbonara over linguine. You know, it's. People are like, I can't even pronounce half of this. It's. So we just want food. And I said, okay, well, what do you want me to make you? And they said, we want you to cook. Like, we would cook. And I said, well, what. What did you cook? And they kind of looked at me, and I said, if you give me recipes, I'll see what I can do about either adapting those recipes or adding them to the menu. And so they all kind of agreed, and they said, hey, give us a few days. One lady, she could no longer cook for herself, and it was something that kind of. She was very proud of her food. I think one of the reasons she ended up liking me was I cooked almost all of her anniversary dinners. [00:14:08] Speaker B: Since it's also. I just wanted to maybe ask, like, it's fascinating that they were so proactive in trying to kind of alter their own culinary environment. Like, at. When my, you know, our mom was in an assisted senior home for about a year, and she would never have thought to, like, ask them to prepare something different. I don't think many of them there would have been thinking about that. The food was fine. It wasn't horrible. It was definitely edible. It was plentiful, and it just wasn't something that they thought about that much. And even if they had come to my mom's group and said, hey, we're willing to shake it up and do some different recipes. We want your homemade recipes so this feels less like an institution or a restaurant, but something that you would eat when you were back home. I don't know that any of them would have remembered a recipe or how to produce it. So, like, did you run into some of those challenges, like people not being able to remember the whole recipe, or maybe they just had a dish and you had to help them fill in the blanks? [00:15:09] Speaker E: I had a few. It was kind of nice because the ones that couldn't recall, they would actually have their children call. And so I ended up. [00:15:18] Speaker C: That's amazing. [00:15:20] Speaker E: Having. I'm trying to think. [00:15:21] Speaker D: There's a lot of times where you get together with family members and you have meetings about their. How their care is going. And during those times when you are with a more vulnerable patient that can't speak for themselves, you know, or a resident that can't speak for themselves, their children were there to kind of say she really loved this when, you know, we had this going on at the family. So just taking those times when the family was in there to ask them, like, or, hey, they're asking for this specific thing, and we just really can't figure it out. Do you know what they're talking about during those care plans and things? That was a really, really great time to connect with family members. And then we would have. Once a month, we have meetings where all of the residents are invited and they get to share how they. How they feel. And sometimes the cooks get to be there. [00:16:09] Speaker E: And so you were asking. Originally it was a resident council meeting. And at this point, I think it was right. Right in the middle of COVID Only about five residents showed up to the meeting because they didn't feel like anybody was listening to them. A lot of them felt disgusted. And so the five that did show up, as the nurse was walking me in, she says, I'd like to apologize because they're just going to let you know they hate your food. And I was like, hey, I'm. That's fine. [00:16:37] Speaker C: Good prep ahead of time. [00:16:38] Speaker B: Very kind of her to manage expectations like that. [00:16:41] Speaker E: Yeah, she. She let me know that. That they're just going to basically let it out on you. And so I listened to them. When I was at a smaller nursing home, one of the residents there, and this is where I got the idea to even try this in the first place. I had a resident there who had dementia, and he had gone back to his childhood. His dad was a cook at a restaurant in Winneca, Illinois. And he used to come to the window, and it would just tell me stories about what was going on. I always played Frank Sinatra real loud so all the residents would come out. And, you know, he loved to sing with me while we were talking. So left work one day and called the Winnetta Chamber of commerce, asked for some information on the restaurant. And the chamber of commerce member was kind of excited. She was like, ooh, I can. I can get some information on this, definitely. So she ends up calling the local nursing home there and talking to residents, and they said, we remember the place. And so they started going through town records. They found his, I think, the father's business license, and a census report that had him listed, the children listed. And then they got as much information about the menu from the residents as they could. And so we recreated the restaurant. [00:17:55] Speaker C: You recreated the restaurant in the senior living facility? [00:17:58] Speaker E: Yes. [00:17:59] Speaker C: So there you go. Now I have chills. That's amazing. [00:18:02] Speaker E: Well, he told me his dad was called the Big Noise from Winneka and that the song the Big Noise from Winneka was originally written about his dad. They think, and I can't 100% confirm it, there's an original recording that was actually made in the restaurant where the big band member said, this one goes out to you, Andy. Who was. Andy was the guy's name. And so a friend of mine was in the Kansas Wesleyan Jazz Band, and I said, hey, can you guys come in and play the Big Noise? [00:18:32] Speaker C: So you're really recreating more than just the food. Nostalgia, the entire ambiance for them. [00:18:39] Speaker E: I tried to. [00:18:40] Speaker C: That's incredible. It's gotta be so gratifying for you and for these residents who are. You know, listen, there's such a level of displacement when someone goes into a senior living facility. And I guess until I saw your post, I didn't even really think that much about. You know, so many people identify themselves as the family cook, you know, the person who makes all the family meals. And, I mean, I want to just be clear that my mother was not a good cook. [00:19:09] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:19:09] Speaker C: But it was part of her identity that she made meals for us. I will say that while she wasn't a good cook, she was a really good baker. And she. Very specifically, when my parents designed their kitchen, when they were redoing it, my mom is a tiny person. They had one countertop lowered, like a cabinet, and countertop lowered so she could roll out her pie crust. And I will say that one of my big regrets is not learning how to make those pie crusts, because there was something that she did. I couldn't tell you what it was. I watched her do it, but I never really learned it. But I think that it's gotta trigger some really lovely memories, even for those who might be struggling with dementia. Maybe there's a piece brings them back a little bit, or. I mean, even the story of this man who's living in a very different time. [00:19:55] Speaker A: You're. [00:19:56] Speaker C: You're bringing that to him in such a meaningful way. How lovely. [00:20:00] Speaker E: Well, that's. That's his reality. So, I mean, it's not. I don't need to try to change it. [00:20:05] Speaker D: He was so excited. Like, he rolled right up to the band and he was just clapping, and he was. It made his day. It was amazing. [00:20:13] Speaker B: That's amazing. Craig, did you. Did you guys both. When you were going through this process of learning all these different recipes, did you learn anything new yourself that could help your own chefing even beyond this experience? [00:20:26] Speaker E: I've learned a couple things. [00:20:27] Speaker B: That's a word, by the way. Chefing is a word. I don't know if we realize that, [00:20:31] Speaker E: but it is definitely. I. I have learned quite a few things. There's little tricks and things that I've learned and picked up. I will say that sometimes grandmas can be the harshest critics, but they do it in such a gentle way that you're. We had one gentleman that cooked for me and one of the residents that actually turned in recipes. She asked him, he wanted to be a chef, and he was, you know, real. He always wanted to impress people. And one day he had cooked her eggs, and she. He went out and he was like, hey, how's breakfast? And she goes, you want to do this for a living? And he's like, yeah. She goes, maybe you should look at finding a different job. [00:21:09] Speaker C: Amazing. [00:21:10] Speaker E: So he. He now runs a restaurant, and he says, I still tell people that story. [00:21:14] Speaker C: Talk to me about dysphagia and am I using. Am I pronouncing that correctly and how you prepare food to address it? [00:21:23] Speaker E: A lot of times, it all depends on the level of difficulty that a person has eating. A lot of times they have to work with a speech therapist who actually recommends different levels of that. For us, when we had residents who had dysphagia issues and they would turn in recipes, we tried to make sure we took those extra steps to learn what we had to do so that they could still get what they wanted. One thing that was kind of would be difficult as, like, fried chicken. So you have to basically make the chicken take the entire thing apart. You're scraping the meat off. You're putting the breading off to the side, and then you have to process the meat to the level that it needs to be. It can either be minced and moist, where it's just diced to a certain diameter or a certain measurement. Itzy is what? [00:22:10] Speaker C: Because. I'm sorry, I'm. I'm going to interrupt because dysphagia is. Would. Would someone choke on food that wasn't the right. I don't. I don't know exactly what they're. [00:22:20] Speaker B: I think it's their. They can't swallow normally. Like, their normal swallowing processes don't work. Is that right? [00:22:25] Speaker E: Yes, that's one of them. So there's different levels, and it can be anywhere from you just need your food cut up to. You need your food in a pudding consistency. So one of the things we would have to do is learn the best way that we could break down what it is that they had so that we could actually present it to, to look like what it is that they wanted and not make it look like a big pile of mush that was scooped onto a plate. [00:22:50] Speaker C: So, but that does make sense because the presentation piece, you know, when you are losing other pieces of your faculties, I would imagine that that visual piece is really important to them. [00:23:02] Speaker D: Definitely. [00:23:04] Speaker E: One of the really cool ones was with one of the couples that had originally given us recipes. The wife ended up staying in the assisted living area. The husband ended up having to go to our special care area. But he started to get to where he didn't like to eat. And so we made it a point that a lot of times if it was his wife's recipe, hey, your. This is your wife's, you know, lasagna. This is your wife's. And so we made sure that if he, when he had it, we process it down. So. But it still looked like his wife's lasagna or his wife's Italian chicken. So we always tried to make sure that we kept it where it needed to be. So that way they always got what they wanted. [00:23:43] Speaker C: Amazing. [00:23:43] Speaker B: Craig. Also, we, for those of our audience that watch this podcast, they know that we try to steer the conversation towards senior poop anytime we can. And so I'd like to. I know you're not a doctor, but I'd like to ask you a couple questions that might help us with our mom, because we did have a situation last week, which we do have every once in a while, and she hasn't caught up. [00:24:06] Speaker C: Code brown. Sorry. [00:24:07] Speaker B: Yeah, she has incontinence both ways. And so just for like a 24. And this has happened before, like over the course of a 24 hour period, there's a prolific poop situation going on. And like, you know, and it's like, it's, it's. And so we always try to identify, okay, what was it, you know, like, what was new introduced into the diet that might have caused this. And we've narrowed it down to a couple working theories, and we also agree that it's possible we'll never know. And usually it passes and it's fine. And she's back to normal, which happened this time as well. And we thought that maybe it might be applesauce, which was a new thing introduced into her diet. And I'm just Wondering if you can comment on applesauce in general, if you use it, if you think that is possible, that it was a culprit or anything else we should be aware of. [00:24:55] Speaker E: I'm not 100% sure. Not being a doctor myself, I've never. I think most of the time those things are situational. I don't think there's any one thing or group of things that I could be like, hey, this is always causing problems. I've seen different. Different foods react with different people. And I think it's just a matter of at where your body's at at that point. Sometimes it just. It's ready to reject whatever it is. And you know, okay, well, I'm gonna try to avoid that from now on. [00:25:22] Speaker B: That sounds true. Sometimes it's just ready to reject whatever is coming in and maybe something here and there could trigger it. But you never. You never know. But. But I'm assuming that every once in a while you might get feedback or somebody who would, you know, say, hey, have you ever had an experience where not. Not to put you on the spot, but have you ever had an experience where the whole. The whole building was like, experiencing a situation and you had to figure out what was going on there? [00:25:48] Speaker E: I'm trying to. No food borne illness type situations. [00:25:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:53] Speaker E: I think on occasion I had a resident who had an issue with black pepper, and sometimes he would eat something that had pepper in it and he would, like, he would let me know, hey, there was black pepper in that, wasn't there? And I would say, yeah. He goes, I spent the rest of the night on the toilet. Oh, I couldn't help it. [00:26:09] Speaker C: Jessica, you had a story about helping a resident with cognitive decline working through some miscommunication challenges. Can you tell us a little bit about that? [00:26:21] Speaker D: I was the cook in the assisted living area. And one thing that is kind of sad about working in the assisted living area is, you know, you get to know like, right when they come in and, you know, and then they just kind of decline. Well, this one lady, she had gotten Covid. And after that, she really. Her words never really came back to her. So she would use like, if, like she didn't like ketchup at all, but it was no red. But unless you understood what she was talking about ordering at the dinner table, you're like, I don't understand what she means. Whatever is red. Like, I don't know if there's tomatoes on there or whatever, but it meant ketchup. And she liked white toast. Most of our residents ate wheat Toast. But she liked white toast. And if you brought her and she didn't order, you know, she just. The usual. The usual. But she didn't remember what the usual was. So we were supposed to remember. But so she liked white toast. And there was. After she had declined, she ended up moving over to our special care unit. And the nurses over there, they came down to our assisted living wing, and they're like, look, I need a white person. Like, this lady is just screaming at us that too dark, too dark, too dark. And like, she doesn't. And I'm like, who is it? You know? And when they told me who it was, I was like, oh, no. Like, I can handle this right now. She just wants white toast. It's her toast. That's too dark. But they were so used to. They. They just gave everybody the same thing, you know, they just gave them all wheat toast. But she didn't like wheat toast. She wanted white toast. And so the. The person thought that they were being racist, and she wasn't being racist. She just wanted white toast. [00:27:58] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. [00:27:58] Speaker D: It was the toast that was too dark, but everybody down. There was. Nobody down there was white. And so they just assumed that that was what she was referring to. But she. But she just really. She wanted white toast. [00:28:11] Speaker C: I think it's really impressive how well you get to know the residents through your experiences. [00:28:17] Speaker D: Yeah, that's. [00:28:18] Speaker C: It's really meaningful because you're serving, literally serving such a vital role in their lives. I mean, food is becoming. And not just the food, the experience of eating and that. That's their social time for many of them, and that you understand their preferences and you are really making this effort that I think is incredible. Are there any fan favorites? Are there any foods that you make that you think, oh, everybody loves, blah, blah, blah. [00:28:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we'd love any tips just for us that are living at home and caring for those that are not in a senior home. Any secret dishes that we should be putting out there. [00:28:52] Speaker E: Fried chicken was our staple. It was when I first got to the nursing home. They served well, it was a fried chicken. And so we ended up making homemade fried chicken every Sunday. When I first got to the nursing home, I changed it. I was like, nah, I'm not going to fry chicken on a Sunday. And so I don't remember exactly what I changed. It might have been just to a meatloaf, but like a basic meal because [00:29:14] Speaker D: it was a brisket and macaroni and cheese. I will never forget. [00:29:17] Speaker E: I ended up go wrong with that. [00:29:19] Speaker C: How can you get wrong with that, by the way. [00:29:21] Speaker D: They were furious. [00:29:23] Speaker E: I got a phone call from the CEO that Sunday afternoon, and he said, hey, how come we don't have fried chicken? I said, well, we changed the menu. He goes, no, and we don't change the menu on Sunday. He goes, you need the fried chicken. So, yeah, it got changed back, but we ended up making homemade fried chicken instead of being bringing in a pre made one. So that was all. [00:29:42] Speaker B: You were gonna almost have a facility revolt. There was no fried chicken. [00:29:47] Speaker E: The other thing that got me, I didn't. I didn't serve pie as dessert one Sunday, and I ended up getting a phone call from an a. An assisted living resident, like, hey, I need you to come down to my room. And so I ended up going down. She's like, why? Why isn't there any pie? I said, well, one of the other residents requested jello because it was her birthday. She goes, well, I want her to have what she wants on her birthday, but you need to make sure there's pie. [00:30:12] Speaker C: So that's amazing. So crumble crust or a regular pie crust topping? [00:30:17] Speaker E: They like a regular pie crust. I tried the crumble and I got told, no, we don't have crumble. We want pie crust. [00:30:23] Speaker B: Interesting. Also, Craig, I'd like to offer my own suggestions, if you don't mind. I spent over 10 years living in Asia, and there's a couple habits over there that I feel like we do not adopt enough. And I'd like your comment on them, please. One is, like, at, like, hotel, you know, the hotel breakfast buffet when you're traveling and you got all the stuff, and one of the staples they have is, like, hot soup at breakfast. Like, and some people put, like, a very gentle noodle in there, some vegetables, and the soup at breakfast thing is a really interesting way to start the day. And why wouldn't it be? It feels good to have some hot broth and some healthy vegetables in the morning. And so that's one. The other one is salad at the end instead of salad before the main course. It's not actually dessert, but it's more. It's more cleansing and fresh kind of after you eat. I've come to like that as well. Your thoughts, please? [00:31:18] Speaker E: I like those ideas very much. One of the first chefs that I apprentice for was from Thailand, and I actually asked him one day, I said, what did you eat for breakfast? And he goes, we ate food. He goes, there was no breakfast food. He goes, what we ate. What we ate. There was no. Well, this is what you have for breakfast, and this is what you have for lunch. He goes, it was food. So. So I. [00:31:40] Speaker C: 100% agreement can also be very messy. I will just throw that out. When. When I make soup for my mom, there's usually a clothing change. So you have to consider whether or not you have the staff available for a soup at the beginning of the day, soup at the end of the day. You're going. You're going to change into pajamas anyway. [00:31:59] Speaker E: Yeah. I know that the nursing staff didn't always like when we had chili for [00:32:03] Speaker C: lunch, so, yes, I would imagine. Nor did they really like you the next day, probably. Yep, yep, yep. It's one of the ones that we've had to remove from my mom's repertoire. No chili. [00:32:15] Speaker B: Yeah, that one. [00:32:16] Speaker E: Soup and salad were both very direct result. [00:32:18] Speaker B: There was no mystery. No mystery there. [00:32:21] Speaker C: Sorry, Jeff, what'd you say? [00:32:22] Speaker D: Soup and salad are something that we. We had an always available menu as well, and those two items were something that were always in their refrigerators. So if they didn't like something that we were having, they did always have those options. Fresh fruit, things like that. [00:32:35] Speaker E: That's good. [00:32:36] Speaker B: That's good. Well, guys, thank you so much. I mean, this has been fascinating. It's just wonderful what you do. And just beyond the moment there that caused you to go viral, it's just fascinating to hear your experience and your dedication to. And your relationships with these. With these special people. And thank you for all that you do. And it was great having you on. [00:32:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:57] Speaker E: Thank you. [00:32:57] Speaker C: You are the unsung heroes of the senior care world. We do not pay enough attention to the people who are preparing these meals, but also that you really made it so deeply personal for these residents. I cannot even imagine the joy that that brings, and that's a really huge part of their day and their lives. So I'm with Andrew. Thank you for all that you do to make people who really are looking for just the most basic comforts feel comfortable. Good for you. [00:33:26] Speaker E: Thank you. And I'm hopefully. I was contacted by the Moving Forward Coalition. They help to push initiatives in different nursing homes and care facilities. And they said that they would like to adopt the model and help to bring it to other nursing homes. So I'm hoping that we can actually make this a standard. I'm a chef because I want to cook. And to say that you want to be a chef, but you just want to take it out of the box is not cooking. And so I would much rather that be brought to nursing homes because I [00:33:57] Speaker C: think I love it as a model for others. Wait till they see this. Wait till they see the movie. Just really quickly, have you decided who you'd like to have play you both in the movie? [00:34:07] Speaker E: No. [00:34:08] Speaker C: I mean, I think you might want to start thinking about that. [00:34:10] Speaker B: All right, we'll think on that. That's something we can work on for you. [00:34:14] Speaker C: Well, thank you for joining us. [00:34:16] Speaker E: Hopefully my cookbook will be out soon. That was the last thing I'll just kind of plug. I'm trying to put together a cookbook of all the recipes with the stories that I do have for the residents so that way I can continue giving. At the same time, I'm trying to get a nonprofit set up so that way the proceeds from the book go directly to my residents and they're taken care of so that they can kind of grow that food program a little bit more. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Fantastic. Yeah, we'll include all this information. Any and all plugs will be included in our show notes when we publish. So the more the merrier. Absolutely. All that sounds fantastic. [00:34:49] Speaker C: Craig and Jessica, we are grateful for your time and grateful for everything you do. And we appreciate you joining us today. [00:34:55] Speaker D: Thank you so much. [00:34:55] Speaker E: Thank you. [00:34:58] Speaker A: Drops on roses and always to be Always on me Always could be and when we're here in a far from the pea we always will be tonight. [00:35:17] Speaker E: Great one mom. [00:35:21] Speaker B: And we are back. Hope you enjoyed that ditty from Mom Takeaways. Can I start, Karen? Because I just want to say that [00:35:31] Speaker C: I think you are starting. [00:35:33] Speaker B: Yeah. That's an order, by the way, not a statement. [00:35:38] Speaker C: I think having us fight over who's going to start would really be dramatic for our audience. [00:35:42] Speaker B: We can do that next time. I find it interesting just from mom's situation that she was mostly vegetarian. She would love to say vegan, maybe not completely vegan. She did. [00:35:54] Speaker C: She would tell everybody she was a plant based vegan and then she would have like tuna fish for every day. [00:36:02] Speaker B: Vegan esque, but vegan adjacent. Yeah, exactly. But she was, she was really generally plant based and vegetarian for the latter part of her life up until she started to decline. And we kind of honored that into the decline a little bit. And it's just interesting how it's kind of now gotten to the point that there's absolutely no restrictions whatsoever. Well, she's eating meat. I mean she's generally healthy but like certainly eating chicken a lot and meat every once in a while types. And we're like, we've completely released ourselves from feeling the need to maintain her plant based diet. And I did Some research, and it seemed that it's actually better. Again, no judgments to anyone. Like, I'm not saying that this is a gospel, but there are some benefits for a non vegetarian diet for somebody who's 90 in decline to get some extra fuel and whatnot. And so I find that interesting that we don't, we don't care about how much sugar she has or all that stuff anymore. [00:37:02] Speaker C: Well, it was funny because, you know, for a long time I really tried to keep up with the whole vegetarian piece. And I remember even when she was living in assisted living and she was adamant that she was a vegan, and then they'd say, you know, your mom really seems to like a tuna fish sandwich almost every day, but we don't really have a way to make vegan tuna. It's because she's not a vegan. And also give her the tuna. But when she came home, I did spend a long time trying to figure out, all right, well, are there different pasta dishes we could be doing? And it was constantly battling it out. And the caregivers were so lovely in trying to prepare meals for her, but it just became really tricky. And finally I was like, I'm making chicken. I'm just gonna bring her some chicken. And at first I didn't even call it chicken. I think I called it vegan chicken chick apostrophe end. Yes, exactly. But now, I mean, I'm making her, like, meatloaf with red meat. Not even, like the leanest version of the red meat. [00:37:57] Speaker B: Your meatloaf is real good, by the way. [00:38:00] Speaker C: I mean, I don't even like meatloaf. I think anything relating to a loaf with food is not my favorite, but she really likes it. And it's sort of funny that I feel like I remember this with dad as well, that toward the end of his life, dad was so skinny, but he was diagnosed with early stage diabetes, and they gave him this huge restrictive diet. And, you know, finally I said, oh, my gosh. I mean, he's so. His health is just declining so rapidly and his dementia is increasing and he just wants a Saunders hot fudge sundae. And so finally, every week I would take him out for a Saunders hot fudge sundae. And it brought him great joy. And my thought was, you know, the diabetes is not going to be the be all and end all. The joy of the food was what really mattered. I just think that when my time comes, I just want to eat, like, I don't know, ice cream and caramels. That's all I want. So let's just like keep everybody happy. And I love. [00:38:57] Speaker B: And by the way, I've also, myself, I've also hopped onto that a little bit. I'm not that I was ever a bit pure vegetarian, but I try to, you know, generally do a lot of plant based stuff. And now I feel like I've worked out the balance where I'm kind of 2/3 vegetarian and 1/3 not. And I really enjoy that one third. And I think one of the takeaways of our discussion with Craig and his experience and this amazing project that he undertook to get all those old recipes, you do have to feed seniors what they want to eat and what they will eat. Isn't that job number one? And especially if someone's like in their 80s and 90s, are we really trying to preserve their life so that they can live to 100 or 110? And is restricting their diet even the answer to do that? Even if he wanted to? I don't think so. And so it's just so wonderful how he naturally came to this discovery. And I'm still just blown away how they were able to remember so much. And it just shows you how with dementia, like little snippets here and there, like a story from 40 years ago, they might remember every moment of it and not remember what they had for dinner yesterday. So that's just the thing. [00:40:09] Speaker C: Well, and the care with which he approaches this experience, understanding. I mean, listen, you're a chef, you've got to really understand the value of food and the deep meaning that it has. But the idea that he is specifically saying, well, tell me what you used to make and how did you make, just resonates with so many people. That nostalgia that comes with food, and not just the food, but the meals, the act of eating it, I just feel like that's such a beautiful way to honor in many ways who they used to be. I mean, for so many of these people, especially these women, not to say that the men don't do it, but certainly the women, they were making family meals probably five plus nights a week. That was a really big part of their identity. And to suddenly, I mean, there are many people I know who, myself included, I would say if you told me I never had to make a meal again, I'd be thrilled. But there are so many people who. The very essence of who they were as a caretaker for their own families was tied around the meals and the meal prep. And to be able to bring that piece back to people who are, you know, in a different stage of Life is just delightful. What a wonderful concept. What great people they are. [00:41:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's no wonder that other people are catching on and that his video went viral and a lot of people are interested in talking to him about his story. You may notice that we blurred out some things of companies that he might be talking to, which of course we're not going to reveal because that's up to him to reveal if and when something happens. But that's why you might have heard some. Some blurring out of some things earlier. So stay tuned for further information from Craig. And why don't you give your your salutations on the way out to mom playing us out. [00:42:06] Speaker C: Nice deal. We mentioned in the pre that we are receiving such great feedback from family, from friends, from people we've known long ago, from complete strangers who are saying, hey, this is a good idea. You might want to talk about this, or I'd like to know about that. That feedback means the world to us. One, it means people are listening, and that's our goal. We really want people to listen. And two, people have questions, queries. The whole purpose of this podcast is to create this community of caregivers, people who are currently caregivers, who may become caregivers and offer advice, suggestions, input into how they can make their lives better and easier. So please know that you can share with [email protected] you can use the word one or the number one either will get to us. You can follow us on social media, on either Facebook or Instagram at if it's not one thing, it's Joanna. And of course, we would appreciate it if you would like listen and share, share, share. Everyone knows someone who can benefit from the information that we're sharing in our podcast, so please do so. And we look forward to hearing from. We look forward to you hearing from us. Hold on, let me say it again. We look forward to hearing from you and we look forward to you hearing from us in our next episode. [00:43:30] Speaker B: And I have mentioned this before, but I also, not to step on your toes, but like, want to remind everybody, even if you're just thinking about us, that helps. That helps too. So keep us in your mind. We feel the aura silently, without action, or not silently. [00:43:48] Speaker C: You could just say, hey, I'm thinking about if it's not one thing, it's Joanna. It just popped into my head. I want to share it. [00:43:53] Speaker B: I like that. I like that a lot. Do that. [00:43:55] Speaker A: All right. [00:43:56] Speaker B: And now here's mom to play us out. Have a nice day. [00:44:10] Speaker A: When you wish upon a star Beautiful things will be after your heart. And when you feel it about the stat always make it in a wonderful standard.