Confidence 'boosted' for Uxbridge care home chef after cooking masterclass at Billingsgate Market

A chef at HC-One’s The Harefield Care Home, in Uxbridge, Middlesex, has revealed his confidence has been 'boosted' after recently being selected to take part in a specialist masterclass with renowned chef CJ Jackson in London’s historic Billingsgate Fish Market.

Tatenda Donjailos, chef at HC-One’s The Harefield Care Home, in Uxbridge, was selected in recognition of their outstanding commitment to providing great food and kind care. Tatenda was nominated for the prestigious opportunity by their Group Development Chef, who was blown away by the chef.

Tatenda has shown outstanding passion and dedication to developing their skills in providing nutritious food and kind care to residents. Along with seven other HC-One colleagues from across the UK, Tatenda enjoyed a private masterclass from CJ Jackson, the Principal and Chief Executive of the prestigious Billingsgate Seafood School.

The specialist culinary staff also toured the market and discussed the health benefits of fish for older people, from reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease to slowing the development of dementia. Tatendawill bring the five-star flare back to Uxbridge, where they will apply the lessons from the masterclass to develop nutritious and imaginative meals for local residents.

This was the second consecutive year HC-One has run this masterclass experience which was developed as part of HC-One’s programme of progression for catering colleagues across almost 300 care homes, including through its Group Development Chef scheme. The scheme supports catering colleagues of any level to progress to senior roles with additional leadership, strategy and innovation responsibilities.

Tatenda Donjailos, The Harefield Care Home chef, said: “I was overjoyed to be selected to attend the masterclass from hundreds of professionals across the country. Learning from a chef as renowned as CJ Jackson was a real pinch-me moment, and I picked up lots of new ideas that I am excited to put into practice at The Harefield Care Home.

“I am hugely grateful to Group Development Chef for nominating me for this opportunity – I had a wonderful experience and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The training day and experience has really boosted my confidence in diving into the unknown: it was an absolute pleasure to meet, and learn from, CJ Jackson.”

Mark Meacham, Head of Catering and Housekeeping Support Services at HC-One, commented: “The training and development day at Billingsgate Market was another great success. Thank you to everyone involved including Robot Coupe for sponsoring the day and to CJ Jackson for providing such excellent and informative sessions. The day has provided an opportunity to recognise the hard work and dedication of Tatendaand some of our other HC-One colleagues who are such vital parts of our care homes.

“It was a joy to be able to provide them with the chance to learn and expand their knowledge as we support them to go from strength-to-strength in care home catering careers.”