Unlike some Dining Directors who might spend all of their time on managerial duties, the Dining Director at Artman Senior Living Community in Ambler, PA, Darryl Gruber, likes to get out of his office to do cooking demonstrations for residents. Darryl joined Artman last January after working for many years in academic settings, Continuing Care Residential Communities (CCRCs), and Rehabilitation facilities for twenty-eight years with Sodexo.

“I learned to cook while I was young by watching others. I would go to the home of one of my lead cooks on the weekends, with whom I worked during the week. She was an older Italian woman who taught me many of her culinary secrets, which I still use today.”

Engaging with Residents

Some of those “secrets” were shared recently in the Forrest Household at Artman when Darryl did a cooking demonstration. He showed residents how to make fresh pasta from scratch, then cooked it al dente, and served it with a smooth, fresh Vodka sauce he whipped up while chatting with the attentive audience.

During the demo he asked a resident, “Nancy, do you put sugar in your tomato sauce when you make it?”

She shook her head emphatically, “No way.”

Darryl responded, “Well, I know a lot of people don’t believe in putting sugar in their sauce, but that’s how I was taught to do it to balance the other flavors.”

He turned to another resident and asked, “Betty, what is your favorite kind of pasta?”

Before she responded, a gentleman in the group called out, “Linguine!” A chorus of residents named other preferred pasta: “Orechette”, “Penne”, “Spagatini”, “Rotini”, “Tortellini”… Darryl smiled and said, “Well, I hope you like the one I am making for you today. This one is Spaghetti,” he added, as he cut it into long strips as it came out of the pasta maker.

While talking with residents and tending to the pasta maker, he added tomatoes, salt, sugar, oregano, and a few other ingredients to the sauce. “We’ll add a bit of cream, now, to make it a soft blush color,” he said, as if he explaining how to paint a colorful masterpiece.

After everyone was served, he continued exchanges with the group, mentioning residents by name. “Ruth, was this sauce as good as your mother used to make?”

Delighted Residents

The residents were delighted by this delicious mid-afternoon treat, and they were charmed by Darryl’s attentiveness, caring and compassion. He didn’t seem like a man at work, but rather like a host, entertaining dear friends at home.

Darryl explained, “For many older adults, food is one of the highlights of their day. By talking about recipes, they recall learning to cook with their parents, or with a spouse, or they remember happy holidays and meal times, spent cooking with family and friends. Here, they have come together to share social experiences and friendship, and to swap stories about our mutual interests in food.”