Australia’s premier retirement community is leading the way in food service delivery
Aveo Newstead is Australia’s first integrated retirement community. As the only retirement village within 3km of the Brisbane CBD, the remarkable 19 story tower is designed for those people who are looking to transition into a retirement community but don’t want to compromise the premium lifestyle they’ve enjoyed over the years.
Comprising of 144 – 1,2 and 3 bedroom apartments and 154 aged care beds Aveo Newstead definitely has the quality of life as the number 1 priority with 2 entire levels dedicated purely for residents leisure activities including virtual golf room, bocce green, gymnasium, cinema, beauty salon, day spa and the list goes on and on.
The jewel in the crown is the amazing food offers with a fine dining restaurant and private dining facilities that one would expect to find in a 5-star hotel rather than a retirement community.
We caught up with John Casey, Aveo National Food Service Manager to discuss how Australia’s premier retirement community is leading the way in foodservice delivery.
As the National Food Service Manager, John Casey oversees the food service across Australia taking in 94 sites, 70 kitchens and feeding over 13,000 residents. “It’s a great role and I feel privileged to be able to change the perceptions of what people think about food in retirement and aged care. It’s a very big department and Aveo is extremely focused on the food we deliver.”
The team at Aveo are passionate about redefining retirement and aged care through better food and nutrition and understand that aging residents have different nutritional needs and work very closely with the Nutrition Professionals Australia (NPA) to ensure that they deliver this.
The kitchen at Aveo Newstead is equipped with both RATIONAL SelfCookingCenter® and VarioCookingCenter® units along with Garland Master Series. “Demands on the kitchen are high and it’s important that we deliver the high-quality service that our residents expect and we need to have the right equipment for this,” says John. “The Garland range is heavy-duty, it contains cast iron burners, it’s solid reliable.”
“RATIONAL combi oven has helped solve a lot of issues. With the SelfCookingCenter® we are able to pre-plate and regenerate food and prepare texture modified meals. The VarioCookingCenter® is fantastic too, this multifunctional unit is so much more than a bratt pan. We are able to use it as a deep fryer on Friday’s and then use it for casseroles and pasta throughout the week”.
“I have been using RATIONAL combi ovens for quite some time and I know the capabilities of the equipment and really understand what they can deliver, especially in an environment like this so I ensured that RATIONAL was specified into this kitchen very early in the planning stages,’ John Casey, National Food Services Manager