Fresh Thinking, Fresh Approach - the full speaker line-up

In just 13-days’ time the first Care Home Catering Forum 2024, will take place at Farmers & Fletchers Hall in the city of London on Wednesday 5^th June. Designed to cover every aspect of nutrition for older and vulnerable people it will feature a series of inspiring speakers and a dedicated exhibition that will field some of the UK care sector’s leading suppliers. In addition, we will be naming the winners of the Care Home Catering Awards 2024.

Farmer & Fletchers Hall is a modern purpose-built conference venue that is easily accessible from the Barbican, St Paul’s, Moorgate and Farringdon undergound stations. And as well as the above-listed delights, delegates will be able to enjoy a delicious lunch as well as regular refreshment breaks throughout the day, which will offer plenty of useful networking opportunities.

The event will open at 9.30 for registration and refreshments, the first speaker will take to the podium at 10.30 and the day will end at approximately 3.30.

And now for a tantalising preview, we list the full speaker line-up for the first time:

Fraser Rickatson

Having completed a degree in (BA) Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading in 2022, Fraser joined Care England as a policy officer. He was promoted to the role of policy and public sector officer last July, where his mission is to ensure that workers in the adult social care sector are both appreciated and protected by the government.

Rachael Masters

A consultant dietitian, Rachael has a first-class honours degree in nutrition and dietetics from Surrey University and a MSc distinction in clinical leadership and research from Newcastle University. Throughout her 28-year long career she has specialised in the nutritional needs of the elderly.

Focus on Undernutrition has developed an online practical training course for care catering staff tasked with menu planning and special diets, which is endorsed by the British Dietetic Association. There are two sessions that adapt meals for dysphagia, which cover the key skills needed for all IDDSI food and drinks levels. They include practical catering videos on how to adapt meals for IDDSI, IDDSI testing, equipment and food thickeners, and provide over 35 recipes suitable for level 4 diets.

Paul Mannering

A long-standing lover of food, it was Paul’s mother and auntie who initially nurtured his passion for cuisine from an early age and inspired his culinary journey.

Paul launched HIT’s unique Chef Academy in 2016, establishing it as a world class training and development centre with a reputation for exploring different culinary concepts through food and its people.

In 2017, under Paul’s leadership, the Chef Academy was rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted and the following year, it won a highly acclaimed Catey award. The Academy now works with figureheads such as Marcus Wareing and Raymond Blanc to further its reputation as the best of the best.

For Paul, who has 25-years of experience in the catering hospitality sectors, it’s all about inspiring the next generation of chefs and leaving the industry in a better state than he found it.  Away from work he teaches martial arts Ninpo Taijutsu, enjoys cooking for family and friends, doing DIY and spending time in his garden. He also enjoys reading about military history.

Eva Humphries

Eva is a leading BANT registered nutritionist with a realistic approach to healthy eating, who urges her clients to forget everything they think they know about nutrition and the notion of calories, while instead considering a thought-provoking perspective that focuses on the addition of foods. Eva’s approach to nutrition is just that, a down-to-earth culmination of science-backed ideas that work to improve how we feel every day without worrying about ‘bad foods’ or restrictions. Her creative angle means she focuses less on avocado on toast and more on things that matter, such as how our nutritional needs change as we age, ‘what to eat for better sleep and shortcuts to having more energy. Day to day, Eva runs a thriving nutrition clinic, assists companies via consultancy, speaks at conferences and writes for magazines, all in the name of spreading the word that good nutrition is just about eating more whole foods, not about dieting.

Jo Bonser 

Jo is on a mission educate caregivers and care managers to help them to improve the dining experience and overcome eating difficulties for the people they support who are living with dementia.

Jo has worked in the care sector for over 34 years and has six years lived experience of providing care for her mother who lived at home with vascular dementia. Jo helped transform her mother from being severely malnourished, dehydrated, and refusing food, to eating and drinking independently, gaining weight and enjoying life for a further four years.

Having seen these results, Jo wanted to share her experiences with others facing similar challenges and thus founded her website, Dignified Dining and produced the Dignified Dining Solutions Guide, a free resource, filled with strategies and best practice tips to help people living with dementia to eat better with dignity.

Jo is passionate about everyone, regardless of their condition, having the right to enjoy a dignified and inclusive dining experience.

Professor Opinder Sahota

Opinder is consultant physician and honorary professor at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, where he is the lead for Ortho-Geriatric Medicine.  He specialises in providing holistic care and treatment for older people admitted to hospital with fragility fractures and trauma related injuries.

Opinder also led the research team that created Innovation-Nottingham High Protein Ice Cream (N-ICE Cream®) to support the nutritional needs of older people in hospital.

Neel Radia 

 The current chair of the National Association of Care Catering (NACC), Neel passionately believes that everyone should have access to good nutritional care, particularly the elderly and vulnerable in social care settings. The NACC supports care caterers with valuable guidance and support to uphold this belief and make a real difference. 

Notably, Neel has championed the protection of Meals on Wheels services that provide the elderly, vulnerable and disabled living in the community with a hot nutritious daily meal and a social lifeline. Services across the UK have been severely hit by spending cuts and Neel has led the call to Government to make the vital service statutory throughout the UK. 

David Titman

David is a registered nutritionist (RNutr) and food scientist with multinational experience in advising the food sector and the director and co-founder of RaisingNutrition  He takes creative, pragmatic approaches to collaborating with companies in developing their responsible food strategies, which has led to significant positive change in charitable, commercial and educational settings.

As a regular university lecturer, he also keeps up-to-date on the latest research in food and nutrition and, with a fourth-degree black belt in karate, he spends much of his downtime practicing and teaching martial arts.

For further information and to book your place, please click here

You may also be interested in…