Graham is Group Senior Chef, covering six Hillcroft Nursing Homes in Lancashire, devising fresh and nutritional menus for 260 care home residents.

With 30 years’ experience of everything from hotel fine dining to award-winning pie-making at Morecambe Football Club, the audience has never been more important than it is in the care sector role he joined three years ago. Follow his tips for a fabulous Father’s Day…

Do your homework

“Although most men are simple creatures and easy to please food-wise, you must know your audience to make it an extra special day,” insists Graham.

Start working with the care team from the start of May to plan your menus and ensure dads with Alzheimer’s and dementia are included in the celebration.

He adds: “It might mean creating a menu with bright, colourful dishes from their younger years like prawn cocktail. We made liver and bacon at one home and it went down a storm but in another it wasn’t popular at all, so do your research in advance.”

Keep it traditional

Graham says: “You can’t go wrong with the strong, savoury flavours of steak pie, sausages and mash with gravy, roast beef or the crunch of fish and chips. It can be in its natural form or texture modified for dads struggling to swallow – these days our blended meals are incredible.

“The same goes for puddings. Our rice pudding is baked all day in the oven

with nutmeg and our guests grin from ear to ear as they eat it. Bread and butter pudding and sticky toffee are also winners because they’re wonderfully stodgy, full of nutrients and calories and a reminder of times past.”