National Chef Appreciation Week: Chef Darrell Cooling 
September 10, 2024
Meet Chef Darrell Cooling
The current executive chef at Caritas Residence where he’s been for 7 years, recently challenged his culinary creativity with creative Buffets, providing the residents with an enriched culinary experience. ”We started doing buffets in the spring. Figured it was a good way to get the whole Caritas population together. Assisted living comes down, and we feed the staff after residents are done. The buffets provide a stimulating exercise for both residents and staff. Chef Darrell has used these Buffets to experiment with the menus, ”Because having around six entrée options we can take a chance on a couple of them and see what the feedback is. Some of the items from past buffets have made it to menus.”
”It’s great to try dishes that we have not cooked before, all of the recipes were suggested by our very own staff and are favourites from their backgrounds”, said Chef Darrell. ”Some unique ingredients, residents will see certain vegetables, fruits, and preparations that they have never seen before. Especially the Nigerian and Bosnian dishes. A couple of the staff members are bringing traditional hard-to-get ingredients to add to the authenticity of the dishes.”
Chef Darrell denotes how this event will impact the sense of community and cultural appreciation among our team members and residents, ”It’s good to see anything from other cultures other than ours. Since we started these buffets, our residents have been very adventurous in trying foods other than our normal meat and potato meals. In our most recent Buffet, our menu consisted of: Nigerian Jollof Rice, Iya Basira Buka Stew (beef, tomatoes, and peppers), Fried Plantain, Feijao Tropeiro (Brazilian beans, with sausage and greens with rice), Chicken Shawarma, Krompirusa (Bosnian potato filled phyllo), Cevapi (roasted beef and lamb sausage), Ajvar (roasted red pepper sauce), Pita, Banana with Dulce de Leche sauce.
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