Cosmin has worked extremely hard and received several promotions during his time at Princess Christian Care Home:

“My name is Cosmin and I work as a the Head Chef here at Princess Christian. Having started working at the Home in 2015, I first began working as a Kitchen Assistant, and progressed to Chef Assistant, then Chef, before being promoted to Head Chef.

I have completed many training programmes over the years including an NVG Intermediate Level Apprenticeship in Food Production and Cooking, Level 3 Supervising Food Safety in Catering, and all the required in-house training courses for my catering roles. I started a Level 5 Management course and I look forward to resuming the training soon, having been interrupted as a result of the pandemic.

What I most enjoy about my job as Head Chef is having the opportunity to cook for our residents and guests; seeing the satisfaction on everyone’s faces really makes me happy. Cooking and baking has become my number one passion which encourages me to carry on and develop and learn new flavours and recipes.

Working very closely with my team, I have seen many positive changes take place over the years. Many members of the Catering Team have started to develop, including enrolling onto NVQ and Nutrition Courses. The knowledge we have now, working as a team, is reflected in the quality of our residents’ meals. We’ve achieved a five-star food hygiene rating, we consistently create new menus, and we are proficient at creating menus for residents with special dietary requirements.

Our Head of Catering, Adrian Silaghi, has been a great support to me since I began working at Princess Christian back in 2015. He has always believed in me and has been a great help. Our Registered General Manager, Mario Taherian, has also consistently encouraged and supported myself and the Catering Team in new ideas and projects.

I am very proud of myself for having achieved so much in my time at Princess Christian – my professional qualifications and the recognition from our residents that they enjoy the food we prepare for them. I am also proud of my “Cooking with Chef Cosmin Club” where, together with residents, we cook together every Friday. They love to share stories and memories about cooking at home, and they enjoy sharing recipes with me. Working closely with our Activities Team, “Cooking with Cosmin” has become something we all look forward to and that brings me great joy.

Working with my wonderful Kitchen Team is a privilege. They are very keen and open to learning new skills; they trust and follow me with an open mind, whilst also developing their knowledge.

My future aspirations include restarting my Management NVQ, and elevating our catering provision to a whole new level with new menus, and new puréed, minced and moist options for our residents with special requirements.

The best aspect of working as part of such a great team at Princess Christian is having the opportunity to make a difference to a person’s life. Being able to bring a smile to someone’s face, and to work in a collective with so many different cultures, traditions backgrounds, makes for a very interesting work life. There is a lot to discover and learn from each other if we are open to listening and sharing our knowledge.”