Lynda Boothroyd

In trying to come up with innovative ways to engage residents of our retirement community with a special food event, I had the thought to having a competition between chefs from three communities.

We also decided to further engage residents by having each Sodexo chef partner with a resident who had a passion for culinary from their community.

In this way the residents were given the opportunity to work with a professional chef, use ingredients they had never worked with before, in a competition style atmosphere.

Hosted at Carroll Lutheran Village, we put our chef and resident team up against two other retirement communities — Washington, D.C.’s Knollwood and Roanoke, Virginia’s Brandon Oaks.

Residents from those communities also made the trip, to cheer on their teams and enjoy the tasting plates and wine served afterwards.

Prepping the Rock Bass

Gold, Silver and Bronze awards were presented based on the tasting panel of five judges. In the end, it was Spear and Chase’s creations, including tete de cochon, seared sea scallops with smoked Gouda and powdered bacon and crostini with braised pig cheeks, that won the judges over leading the team to victory.

Many of the ingredients for the meals were either sustainable, sourced locally or organic, which is part of our Better Tomorrow plan - a roadmap to help ensure affordable, healthy and abundant food well into the future.

100 tickets were sold and all the proceeds were donated to Carroll Food Sunday, a local food bank.

Lynda Boothroyd is a senior manager for Sodexo Dining and Culinary Services.