Islington care home chef steps up to the plate for national awards

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Nov 29, 2019

Islington care home chef steps up to the plate for national awards

A care home in Islington is celebrating after one of its team members was recognised at a national awards ceremony.

The Residential Care Services (RCS) Stars awards recognise individual and team excellence at more than 120 care homes nationwide across Care UK.

Alex Wendling, head chef at Lennox House, on Durham Road, walked away with the Chef of the Year award, one of 20 accolades handed out during the event.

Finalist for the second year in a row, Alex was praised by the judges for his in-depth knowledge of an array of cooking styles and culinary skills. However, it was his ability to create nutritional, delicious multi-cultural dishes, perfectly adapted to the residents’ needs and preferences, which judges felt set him apart from competitors in the category.

To impress the jury, Alex cooked stuffed chicken thighs with celeriac, dauphinoise potatoes and winter vegetables on the side, followed by a deliciously rich dark chocolate filo tart served with rum and vanilla mascarpone.

Sibusisiwe Moyo, home manager at Lennox House, said: “The award ceremony was a truly inspirational evening – it was brilliant to hear about the dedication of team members, as well as the positive impact this has had on residents, enabling them to lead fulfilling lives.

“Alex has an incredible wealth of experience, from the Swedish catering industry to the kitchens of London restaurants. The dishes he prepares are full of flavour, deliciously nutritious, and the residents just can’t get enough of them – I’m so pleased his talent and dedication have been rewarded.

“Lennox House wouldn’t be the same without Alex and his creativity in the kitchen, so I would like to thank him and the rest of the team for all their hard work in making the home a wonderful place to live for all residents – it often feels like a five-star restaurant!”

Lennox House has been designed to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives. The home provides full-time residential, nursing and specialist dementia care, as well as short-term respite care.

Notes to editors

Care UK is one of the largest providers of residential care for older people. With a talented team of over 10,000 colleagues, we operate 120 care homes with places for around 7,000 mostly older people.   

Our homes provide an impressive suite of care services for older people, ranging from short respite stays to high level nursing care. We are particularly skilled at providing specialist care and support for people living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

We are proud to be building so many brand new, carefully designed care homes - we have opened over 30 new homes since 2011 and expect to open around 15 new homes by the summer of 2021 in locations including Bristol, Bracknell, Chester and Maidstone.

The quality of our services, as rated by the CQC in England and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland, compares very favourably with other providers. More of Care UK’s homes are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ than those run by the other four largest UK care home providers.

To find out more about Care UK’s homes, see careuk.com/care-homes

Care UK also operates over 50 healthcare services on behalf of the NHS in various locations across England.