How Chef Andrew Dunne’s accidental career as a healthcare chef sparked a passion and a mission.
Andrew Dunne chats to us about his part in changing the food served in care home settings, his rich cheffing career, and his work with Robot Coupe commercial machinery.
Chef Andrew Dunne is on a mission to improve the quality of food provided to clients in healthcare settings. He is leading the charge in training and managing chefs in this area, as well as working tirelessly to change the perception of food and cheffing for healthcare, nationally and internationally.
“Healthcare has made my career,” Andrew tells us. “I had the mindset I was a restaurant chef and would never work in another setting, but as a healthcare chef my ethos on cuisine hasn’t changed, in fact, it’s better. Food in care homes is rapidly improving, and as a chef, there’s so much scope for creativity and innovation, particularly as clients have so many different needs. I love to share my skills with older people who have given us so much – they deserve to be treated well and with dignity. I would say to young chefs getting into the business, yes go into restaurants, learn your trade, but open your mind and look at healthcare. There is great pride to be found in the work, a better life balance, and you’re still a chef.”
From Ferries to Fine Food: Andrew’s Early Journey
Andrew, originally from Blanchardstown, currently oversees the kitchens of 14 care homes across the country, and is Health Care Chef in Ferns Nursing Home in Foxrock, Dublin, described as luxurious non-clinical accommodation. We ask him, what led you to this rewarding career?
“I was never academic; it just didn’t do it for me,” he says on his beginnings. “My father was a seaman, so he tried to get me in to work my way up to becoming an officer, but I wanted to do something creative so instead went into the galley. I spent several years doing that with Irish Ferries. It was a great life for a young lad, but seven-day, 13-hour shifts, two weeks on and one week off just wasn’t compatible with having a family. When I left, I had enough experience behind me to start working, so I did a stint in Gallagher’s Boxty House in Temple Bar, and from there went into pubs and restaurants, really finding a love for the work.”
At that stage, Andrew says he hadn’t yet done formal training, but that changed when he bumped into an old teacher from Blanchardstown. “Fair play to him, he got me into Cathal Brugha Street for that year’s intake,” Andrew recalls. “I only met him recently and thanked him. Sean Sheehan was his name; I’ll never forget him.” From there, Andrew continued to work as a chef across a range of establishments, but his interest in healthcare was piqued when an opportunity came up to invest in a new care home. “In the end, that didn’t happen, but it opened me up to that world, and later, when I started a job as a chef in a care home, I thought, I can make some massive changes here, particularly for people with dysphagia, a swallowing difficulty brought on by many medical conditions.”
Discovering Purpose in Care Home Kitchens
This turned out to be exactly the case: Andrew has been instrumental in changing the food in the care homes he has worked in, and on a wider scale, has successfully inspired chefs in Ireland and across the globe to not only work in healthcare settings but excel within them.
“I have learned that as a chef in healthcare, the two ingredients you need are imagination and empathy,” he tells us. “If we can’t offer every person a decent meal, we have failed on every level. Dysphagia clients need food that is easy to swallow, and I realised chefs can use creativity to make food safe, but also appetising. If you can make modified foods like soups, mousses, or puddings, why not a fillet steak? You start by deconstructing your solid and then reconstruct it to look as close as possible to the original. Food must be nutritional, but also visual, and if food looks good, people will eat more, and their health will benefit.”
Andrew tells us from 2010 onwards a movement of chefs has grown across LinkedIn with the aim of improving the offering in healthcare. “The community is really gathering momentum,” he says. ‘What’s great is because of the ego of chefs, we’re all trying to outdo each other, which leads to a better outcome for the client.”
A Game Changing Partnership
It was through Andrew’s efforts on social media that a chance connection with Robot Coupe, the premium French-made commercial food preparation equipment, became a longstanding and mutually beneficial relationship. “When I started playing around with social media I was showing off – like look at what can be done in healthcare,” Andrew tells us. “Around eight years ago Robot Coupe saw what I was doing, and David Coyne contacted me and asked if he could give me some machinery. The machines are not purpose-built for health care, but they are the perfect fit. It’s the robustness of the machine, and how they reach the texture you need.”
Andrew still works with Robot Coupe today, showcasing the capability of the machines and training other chefs on their application for healthcare.
“I call Robot Coupe the Bentley of machinery, and I’m lucky the company I work for recognise they are an investment. Yes, they’re expensive, but they are strong and long-lasting, and that ends up paying for itself. You can’t have a domestic appliance in an industrial unit; you could have breakages, for example, which could lead to a serious issue with a client. If you want to give a good service you must have the right equipment, and Robot Coupe has been instrumental in helping me on my journey.”
Shaping the Future of Healthcare Cuisine
So, what’s next for Andrew? He tells us his passion for what he does continues to spur him on, particularly around training and education. He has written a book on cooking for people with dysphagia, which he has released for free, and is liaising with hospitality lecturers in Ireland to potentially add a module on cheffing for healthcare to their course curricula. “Even a small piece around healthcare could get rid of the way of thinking that it’s the end for chefs,” he says.
Andrew also aims to gather recipes and stories from care home clients to create a book. This idea came from one of the many events he puts on for the benefit of staff and residents. “The goal is to get staff to think of food as not just fuel, but a social activity,” he says. “We hosted 17 events over the 14 care homes last year, which is huge, and for the last three years we’ve had a MasterChef competition, where contestants create a dish based on a client’s recipe, putting their own spin on it. It’s great fun and a powerful way to connect with clients and learn their stories.”
This human element, Andrew, tells us, is at the core of his love for what he does. “This work is meaningful. We are cooking for our elders in their home, on their patch, and it’s truly a privilege.”
