The NACC Podcast | National Association of Care Catering

Food Is So Much More Than the Nutrition It Contains: Alison Smith on Judging Nutrition in a Competition KitchenWhat does the nutrition judge actually look for when a care chef's dish lands in front of her? In this episode, Rob Spence sits down with Alison Smith, dietitian and nutritional judge for the NACC Care Chef of the Year. Alison pulls back the curtain on the judging process — what gets competitors marked down, what makes a dish genuinely stand out, and why the dessert might be the most nutritionally important element on the plate.SHOW NOTESAlison Smith never set out to be a dietitian. At eleven she wanted to be a vet, and she held onto that plan right up until her A-level grades made it impossible. What followed was a biology degree, a postgraduate diploma in dietetics, and a career spent almost entirely in the community rather than in hospitals — much of it focused on the nutritional needs of older adults living in care homes. It's an area that most dietitians, she admits, would run away from rather than towards. Alison ran towards it. It shows.In this episode, host Rob Spence asks Alison to answer a question she's never been asked before: how do you make nutrition sexy? Her answer gets to the heart of what she believes — that food isn't just fuel, it's memory, comfort, celebration and identity, and that enjoyment is not a guilty indulgence but an essential component of good nutrition. "You can be terribly worthy and eat all the right things, but not enjoy it at all," she says. "Our psychological health is just as important as our physical health." In a care setting, where a resident might eat only a few mouthfuls of main course but clear their dessert, that philosophy has very real consequences for how a chef designs a dish.On the judging side, Alison is refreshingly direct about what she's looking for — and what competitors get wrong. She's not scanning for individual micronutrients; she's looking at the whole picture. Are all the food groups represented? Is the protein actually there — not just assumed to be there? She recounts more than one occasion where a chef has cited vegan cheese as their protein source, only for the packet to reveal almost none. She's also watching for whether chefs are aware of the BDA's Care Home Digest, the first national food-based guidelines for care home caterers, produced jointly with NACC in 2024, and how they've used it.What she finds encouraging is the direction of travel. The old advice — add butter and cream to boost nutrition — is giving way to a more nuanced understanding of nutrient density. Skimmed milk powder, Greek yogurt, eggs, nuts, cheese: ingredients that add multiple nutrients, not just calories. And increasingly, chefs who genuinely think about modified texture — not as an afterthought, but as something that can still be beautiful, still be flavourful, still mean something to the person eating it.Her advice to anyone wavering about entering is to come with an open mind and ask for the feedback. "It's very rare to find people who only come once," she says. "Mostly chefs get the bug." The ones who eventually win have usually been through it two or three times — and you can see the difference each time they return.Subscribe wherever you listen — and share with anyone who thinks nutrition is the dull bit of cooking. Alison will change your mind.To learn about The National Association of Care Catering, please visit: https://www.thenacc.co.uk/A massive thank you to the Sponsors of the Care Chef of the Year:Unilever Food SolutionsLockhart Catering EquipmentRationalProcurement for CareThe Worshipful Company of CooksPowered by Paragon Creative Studios

"If a Judge Comes Back for a Second Mouthful, He Liked It: Steve Munkley MBE on Judging, Mentoring, and the Future of Care Catering"What do the judges actually look for — and what sends them walking away after one bite?In this episode, Rob Spence sits down with Steve Munkley MBE, Head Judge of the NACC Care Chef of the Year and Vice President of the Craft Guild of Chefs. Steve shares the inside track on the competition, the common mistakes that cost competitors marks, and why the first fifteen minutes of the final tell him almost everything he needs to know.SHOW NOTESSteve Munkley has been a chef since he was sixteen. He's cooked on the QE2, worked in Switzerland when it was the gastronomic capital of the world, and spent twenty-five years as Head Chef at the five-star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington. Earlier this year, he was awarded an MBE in the King's Honours List — not for the cooking, but for everything he's done around it: founding the Craft Guild Graduate Awards (now in its twenty-fourth year), running apprenticeship programmes, mentoring young chefs, and helping students through the Grand Cuisine Academy's online training platform. His wife says he's busier now than when he was at work.In this episode, host Rob Spence gets Steve talking about what it's like to sit on the other side of the pass. As Head Judge of the NACC Care Chef of the Year, he's candid about the mistakes he sees year after year — under-seasoned food, cold plates, dishes that try too hard — and equally candid about what makes something memorable. "If a judge comes back for a second mouthful, he liked it," he says."If he only takes one and walks away, you haven't quite hit the back of his palate." He still talks about a Persian curry from the 2025 final, and a plate of food that could have sat in a four-rosette restaurant — both stick in the memory not because he's been reviewing notes, but because the food genuinely landed.What Steve has also brought to the competition is honesty. When he arrived five years ago, entries had dropped. He spent a year watching before making changes — introducing one-to-one feedback sessions after each round, raising the spend allowance, and removing some of the pressure around logistics. The result: entry numbers are back to where they were a decade ago. Competitors, he says, don't mind not winning — as long as they understand why, and leave with something to build on. That philosophy runs through everything he does.His advice to anyone sitting on the fence about entering is straightforward: "If you're not in it, you can't win it. Cook what you're comfortable with, cook what you enjoy, and don't put something on your entry that you're not happy with yourself — because then we won't be happy with it either."Subscribe wherever you listen — and share with a chef who needs to hear this.The National Association of Care Catering (NACC) unites, supports and represents everyone working in and associated with catering in the UK care sector. It is recognised as a respected source of information and opinion for the dynamic and growing area of care catering. For more than 30 years, it has been committed to raising standards of care catering and championing the positive impact nutrition, hydration and mealtimes have on the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of the elderly and vulnerable in care settings.To learn about The National Association of Care Catering, please visit: https://www.thenacc.co.uk/A massive thank you to the Sponsors of the Care Chef of the Year:Unilever Food SolutionsLockhart Catering EquipmentRationalProcurement for CareThe Worshipful Company of CooksPowered by Paragon Creative Studios

Food Is Feeling: Ilona Tomza on Winning NACC Care Chef of the Year 2025What does it really mean to cook for someone in the last chapter of their life? In the first episode of the NACC podcast, Care Chef of the Year 2025 Ilona Tomza shares the philosophy, the competition dish, and the resident moment that changed how she sees every plate she serves — plus what winning really opens up for a care chef's career.About our GuestIlona Tomza didn't take the conventional route to becoming NACC Care Chef of the Year 2025. She arrived in England at 17 as a waitress, challenged the quality of the food being served, and was cooking professionally within six months. Years of gastropub work followed before she made the move into care catering — and everything changed.In this inaugural episode, host Rob Spence talks to Ilona about the philosophy that drives her: that in care settings, food becomes one of the last remaining sources of joy for residents."We cook people's last meals," she says — and she means it in the most profound way.The episode covers Ilona's winning dish — a coq au vin without the wine, plated with dementia in mind so every ingredient is visible and residents can make their own choices.It covers the nerves, the waiting, and the moment the result was announced. And it covers what happened next: ITV with Kate Garraway, a Windsor Castle reception with the King and Queen, and a growing list of opportunities she's grabbed with both hands.Now confirmed as a judge and live demo chef at the 2026 NACC awards, Ilona's advice to anyone thinking of entering is simple: "Just apply. What's the worst that could happen?"Subscribe and leave a review — it helps more people in care catering find the show.The National Association of Care Catering (NACC) unites, supports and represents everyone working in and associated with catering in the UK care sector. It is recognised as a respected source of information and opinion for the dynamic and growing area of care catering. For more than 30 years, it has been committed to raising standards of care catering and championing the positive impact nutrition, hydration and mealtimes have on the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of the elderly and vulnerable in care settings.To learn about The National Association of Care Catering, please visit: https://www.thenacc.co.uk/A massive thank you to the Sponsors of the Care Chef of the Year:Unilever Food SolutionsLockhart Catering EquipmentRationalProcurement for CareThe Worshipful Company of CooksPowered by Paragon Creative Studios

Welcome to the NACC Podcast, the official podcast of The National Association of Care Catering.Thank you for joining us for The Official NACC Podcast; the audio home of The National Association of Catering. We have a whole host of episodes due to be released over the coming weeks, and we cannot wait to share these episodes with you!Please don't forget to follow, subscribe, and share with your colleagues and peers!In this pilot episode, your host, Rob Spence introduces the podcast, what we aim to achieve, and explains what you can expect over the coming weeks. Our first official episode comes out on Tuesday 21st April, and from there, our episodes will be published every fortnight!Each episode, we will be interviewing leading experts in the Care Catering sector, and we will not only get to learn about them, but we will also dive deep into the sector, the industry, and have open, honest and raw conversations that matter those working in this incredible industry.You will not want to miss an episode!Hosted and presented by, Rob Spence.The National Association of Care Catering (NACC) unites, supports and represents everyone working in and associated with catering in the UK care sector. It is recognised as a respected source of information and opinion for the dynamic and growing area of care catering. For more than 30 years, it has been committed to raising standards of care catering and championing the positive impact nutrition, hydration and mealtimes have on the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of the elderly and vulnerable in care settings.To learn about The National Association of Care Catering, please visit: https://www.thenacc.co.uk/Thank you to our sponsors: Allmanhall and Unilever Food Solutions. Powered by Paragon Creative Studios

Welcome to the NACC Podcast, the official podcast of The National Association of Care Catering.With episodes coming out fortnightly, we interview guests every episode to learn more about care catering, changes that are happening in the sector, latest news, events and much more.We will cover everything surrounding the dynamic and growing area of care catering.If you are looking to learn more about the positive impact nutrition, hydration and mealtimes have on the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of the elderly and vulnerable in care settings, then you have found the right podcast!Hosted and presented by, Rob Spence.The National Association of Care Catering (NACC) unites, supports and represents everyone working in and associated with catering in the UK care sector. It is recognised as a respected source of information and opinion for the dynamic and growing area of care catering. For more than 30 years, it has been committed to raising standards of care catering and championing the positive impact nutrition, hydration and mealtimes have on the physical and emotional health and wellbeing of the elderly and vulnerable in care settings.To learn about The National Association of Care Catering, please visit: https://www.thenacc.co.uk/Powered by Paragon Creative Studios