2 How Great Food Happens at Senior Living

Discover why residents can’t stop raving about the food at Chateau Retirement Communities in Washington—a rare distinction in senior living! In this episode of the Answers for Elders podcast, host Suzanne Newman sits down with Sherrelle Collingridge, Culinary Service Director at Chateau Bothell Landing. She shares how passion, creativity, and genuine care for residents have transformed dining into an experience that feels more like fine dining than a cafeteria meal.

Sherrelle attributes their great food to the employees and a wonderful team, whose dedication to the resident culinary experience is a big piece of that. Sherrelle runs three full-service restaurant-style dining rooms at Chateau Bothell Landing, which creates a lot more cross-training opportunities and options for growth, change of scenery, and so forth. The front of house staff in particular form very strong bonds with residents, and those relationships are why staff tend to stick around. The majority of front of house staff in particular are hired-in as high schoolers, often with no prior work experience. It is rewarding and satisfying to watch these kids as they learn and develop, a unique experience for them, and one of the more rewarding aspects of the job for her and her leadership team. 

Sherrelle has always worked in the industry, first having been hired as a server at Cristwood (now Cristwood Park) in junior high, and ended up getting a culinary degree at Edmonds Comm. College. Crista paid a management company to run the culinary program at Cristwood, and Sherrelle was fortunate to get a lot of training and development opportunities as a young manager. She joined Chateau Pacific in 2000, and over the years held several roles in the culinary program, including a three-year run as Executive Director at Chateau Pacific. She has been at Chateau Bothell Landing since 2013, and opened all three of the dining rooms on that campus.

Chateau Retirement provides independent living, assisted living, and memory care services. They have been locally owned and family operated for more than 25 years. Chateau Retirement has three communities in Washington's Seattle/Puget Sound area: Chateau Pacific in Lynnwood, Bothell Landing in Bothell, and Chateau Valley Center in Renton. Visit them online or call 800.960.1944. Visit Chateau's specialist page on Answers for Elders.

Mentioned in this episode:

Chateau Retirement

Chateau Retirement

Walk to End Alzheimer's

Learn more about the Walk to End Alzheimer's at https://www.alz.org/walk.