13 chefs from various Cygnet services were joined by service users from Cygnet Hospital Woking and Experts by Experience at Brakes Innovation Kitchen in Reading.
The theme for the day was ‘Fakeaways’. Recognising recipe preferences and acting on feedback from the Young People’s Council and Experts by Experience, the chefs were tasked with creating healthy, meat and meat-free versions of takeaway favourites and putting their own healthy spin on a typical recipe you’d usually order from a takeaway.
The Experts by Experience and service users worked alongside our chefs to create the ‘Fakeaway’ recipes and gained a valuable insight into the role of a chef. They also gave feedback on what mealtimes mean to them and what our chefs can do to support them with tasty and nutritious food.
The cooking session was led by one of Brakes’ in-house specialist chefs who explained different techniques and methods of presentation, budgeting, waste management, and how to make subtle changes to improve food quality.
The chefs also gained an insight into Nutritics, our recipe-building management system, that supports nutritional guidance, portion control, allergens, and product costs. The chefs also met with our wider Brakes’ account management team, to broaden their understanding of the logistics that go on behind the scenes.
A representative from Quorn presented and demonstrated the versatility of different meat-free recipe concepts. Quorn presented and demonstrated different recipe concepts such as using either a Vegan Chilli, Meat Halfway, or Quorn Mince, demonstrating the versatility of their products to meet service users and staff dietary requirements.
Jack Mills, our Strategic Buyer, said: “By using Quorn products, we’ll not only see a price difference but also environmental savings on CO2 emissions. For example, by serving 12 portions of spaghetti bolognese with 100% meat, we’d be contributing 3.7kg of CO2 emissions into the environment. By using only Quorn, this reduces to only 0.4kg of C02 emissions for the same amount of servings. This makes a huge difference.”
The day ended with awards and prizes, including for the best dishes and a Cygnet Expert by Experience Recognition Award for the Procurement team, in acknowledgment of the support they have provided by acting on feedback from the People’s Council and Experts by Experience.
A service user who attended the event said: “Thank you so much for all that you are doing. Coming down and seeing all the work that goes into all of this has been a really good and informative experience.”