A healthy diet is good for everyone. But as people get older, cooking nutritious food can become difficult and sometimes physically impossible. A pot of soup can be too heavy to lift. And there’s all that time standing on your feet. It’s one of the reasons that people move into assisted living facilities.

But a company called Chefs for Seniors has an alternative: They send professional cooks into seniors’ homes. In a couple of hours they can whip up meals for the week.

Chef Sina Sundby cooks delicious, nutritious meals in Jim Schulz’s home in a suburb of Madison, Wis.Ina Jaffe/NPR

For more than a year, Chef Sina Sundby’s been doing just that for 85-year-old client Jim Schulz, who lives in a suburb of Madison, Wis. Her starched white chef’s jacket tops a pair of blue jeans, while her strawberry blond hair is tucked under the traditional floppy chef’s hat. She’s a blur, chopping and mixing while pans sizzle on the stove.

Schulz watches, but doesn’t interfere.

“We chatter a lot when it’s just the two of us,” says Schulz. “And even if I don’t say anything, she just keeps talking.”

Schulz and Sundby both laugh. They know this story.

“I stepped out of the room once and I heard her talking and I said, ‘Who are you talking to?’ ” Schulz says. “And she said, ‘I’m talking to the food.’ “

“I do talk to the food,” says Sundby, proudly.

Schulz says his diet was “lousy” before Sundby started cooking for him.Ina Jaffe/NPR

Schulz’s conclusion: “That’s what makes it so good, it listens to her.”

The food is also good because Sundby knows what Schulz likes.

So this week’s dinners will be Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy, crab cakes with remoulade sauce and asparagus, chicken divan with fresh spinach and chicken pot pie with vegetables. And a twist.

“Jim likes biscuits,” explains Sundby. “So instead of the pie dough, we’re gonna do biscuits.”

Schulz never made this kind of stuff for himself. When it comes to the kitchen, he’s mastered the art of boiling water. His wife…

This article was sourced from NPR.

8 Replies to “A Drop-In Chef for Your Home”

  1. I would love this for my elderly parents but what is the cost? Can you email me plans, details and cost?

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