More Than a Cook: Why Aged Care Head Chefs Belong at the Leadership Table
- Jun 26
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 27
Chefs are one of the only people in an #AgedCare environment that has a touch point with every resident, every day, several times a day. Few roles have that reach, yet in many organisations the chef is still filed under "kitchen" - an operational cost to be managed rather than a leader to be developed. In 2026, that's not just outdated. It's a missed opportunity. The hardest catering job in the country should not be relegated to a secondary role!
Cooking in aged care is not cooking in a café or a pub. A Head Chef in residential care produces three meals plus mid-meals, 365 days a year, to a tight per-resident budget, for a frail population, across multiple #IDDSI texture levels, allergens, #diabetic and renal needs, and #cultural and #religious requirements, often all in a single service. Get it wrong and it isn't a complaint that comes back; it can be a choking risk or a hospital admission.
RiseUp's COO, Phil Boss is an Executive Chef and has spent 35 years working in Foodservice and Hospitality as a cook and a supplier and specialises in aged care.
"A chef in Aged Care is the hardest cooking role in the country and one of the most important catering jobs. This is culinary craft, clinical awareness and high-volume logistics rolled into one.” Says Phil. “…the role is performed quietly, every day, by people the sector has historically under-valued, and guess what, we get turned inside out every year by Food Authorities nationally to ensure we are doing the right thing..."
Chefs are Specialists, Not a Generalists!
Here's what often gets missed: the skills aged care demands aren't taught in standard hospitality training. A 2025 workforce review by TAFE SA found that current commercial cookery qualifications don't cover the things an aged care kitchen lives or dies on. These include IDDSI, nutritional needs of older people, and texture modification. Many aged care chefs learned these on the job, or arrived from other sectors and worked it out the hard way.
That's now changing. Service and Creative Skills Australia, the Jobs and Skills Council for the sector, is developing dedicated units of competency for aged care food service recognition, at last, that this is a specialisation with its own body of knowledge. The lesson for operators is simple: if the role is specialist, the development of the people in it has to be too.
Since November 2025, food and nutrition has had its own dedicated Aged Care Quality Standard. Menus must be developed with the input of #chefs and #cooks, and what lands on the plate now feeds directly into the Quality Indicators and Star Ratings published on My Aged Care for every prospective family to see.
Read that again: your chef's craft is now tied to your compliance position and your public reputation. The Head Chef is not a back-of-house cost. They are one of the people most directly responsible for how your group performs against the standard families are actually shopping on.
A Head Chef is a People Leader
And this is the part the org chart usually gets wrong. A Head Chef runs a team. They roster, recruit, train and mentor. They own food safety and #HACCP compliance. They manage a budget and supplier relationships. They hold culture together in one of the highest-turnover environments in the building. They have earned seniority that's what the title means.
In almost any other industry, a person who leads a team, owns a budget line and carries a compliance-critical function sits in management. In aged care, the chef too often reports several layers down and is treated as purely operational. That's a category error. Head Chefs are not just cooks. They are people leaders who happen to lead through food.
Invest and Elevate!
Developing and elevating chefs isn't charity. It pays:
Resident satisfaction - The food question on the residents' experience survey is answered in the kitchen.
Better outcomes - Skilled chefs reduce unplanned weight loss through better, more nourishing food.
Star Ratings & Reputation - Directly, through the food standard and quality indicators.
Cost Control - Strong chefs run tighter procurement, less waste and smarter menus.
Retention - A skilled aged care chef is hard to replace, and every departure resets quality and consistency across the home.
Make chefs accountable for their leadership and operations in meetings and don't just make decisions and then advise them on what to do. If we want change in Aged Care, we need to embrace our leaders and that includes chefs!
About RiseUp
We're specialists in Foodservice & Hospitality with a focus in Aged Care. We develop kitchen leaders, we build, culinary experience, compliance and people-leadership skills that turn a good cook into a Head Chef your group can build around. Its about Dining with Dignity!
