High Wycombe care home residents team up with local nursery to bring back favourite recipes

A care home in High Wycombe has teamed up with a local nursery and joined a nationwide campaign to save traditional recipes from being forgotten.  

A poll of 2,000 adults carried out by Care UK, which operates Ridley Manor, in Lane End, found almost two-thirds (65%) of the nation no longer use family recipes that have been handed down through the generations, however, 43% of people surveyed are keen to save them. 

In a bid to prevent family recipes passed down through the generations from being lost forever, Care UK has launched a free downloadable recipe book – Recipes to Remember, which features recipes shared by care home residents across the UK. From food enjoyed during World War Two to quirky desserts from the 1970s, the book includes residents’ favourite foods, alongside recipes tailored to support older people by Care UK’s award-winning chefs. 

Keen to keep their recipes bubbling away in High Wycombe for many years to come, residents from Ridley Manor have rolled up their sleeves and donned their aprons, to team up with children from Sunshine Montessori Nursery to show just how tasty their food favourites from the past are.  

On the day, the children joined residents for a special cooking class, where together they made resident Joan’s favourite family recipe, bread and butter pudding, which is over 100 years old and was handed down to her by her mother.

The next day the children returned for a blind tasting session, tasting the bread and butter pudding they had made together, as well as other family recipes which had been handed down to residents. Later, the residents and children enjoyed trying to guess freshly cut herbs from the garden through smell and touch.

Joan commented: “It was a wonderful afternoon spent laughing and reminiscing about the times spent cooking with my mother when I was younger.

“It was also lovely to be able to share and experience some of our favourite recipes with the young children and we had so much fun the following day trying to guess a variety of food items through taste and smell.”

Estelle Adriaans, General Manager at Ridley Manor, said: “Spring is in the air – and so too are the smells of some incredibly tasty home-cooked recipes adored by residents and their families for generations.   

“Just like a photograph, a family recipe can be a way to revisit the past and reminisce on a cherished memory or loved ones. How something tastes or smells can be a powerful tool for triggering memories and positive feelings, especially for those living with dementia, which is why we’re delighted to be taking part in Care UK’s Recipes to Remember campaign.

“From jam roly-poly to bread and butter pudding, it’s been wonderful seeing the residents revisit some of their favourite foods from across the decades with pupils from Sunshine Montessori Nursery. Arctic rolls might be out of favour but it’s clear from how well the resident’s recipes were enjoyed that there’s still a hunger for foods from the past today – so donut give up on them!”

To find out more about Care UK’s Recipes to remember initiative or to download your copy of the recipe book, please visit: careuk.com/recipes-to-remember

Designed to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives, while also promoting independence, Ridley Manor incorporates space for hobby and leisure activities. The home provides full-time residential, nursing, dementia and respite care. The layout of the building is configured into a series of individual suites each having a dedicated lounge/dining room to help facilitate the creation of close-knit communities.