This chicken Romano proves cooking for seniors need not be bland

By Gretchen McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH — Adam Sweetland has cooked for many different types of diners since graduating from IUP Academy of Culinary Arts, the nationally recognized culinary program offered by Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Punxsutawney, in 1998.

It didn’t take him long to realize he wasn’t cut out to follow the traditional path of a culinary student, and work his way up the ladder from line cook to sous chef to executive chef of a fancy restaurant.

Just two years after graduating, while working at Brackenridge Heights Country Club following a couple early jobs in Pittsburgh restaurants, he got engaged to wife, Nikki. Of his career trajectory, he thought: This is not where I want to be.

“I needed insurance,” Sweetland, 51, admits.

So he left his chef job and took a less prestigious position as a cook for the Presbyterian Senior Care Network at its campus in Oakmont.

Turns out, you can’t keep a good chef down.

Within nine months, the New Kensington native was promoted to a supervisory position overseeing the facility’s evening staff of eight dietary aides, a cook and a cook’s helper. Three years after that, he moved on to an even bigger job at Elmcroft of Allison Park, a senior assisted living community in Hampton.

As its director of dining for the next 15 years, Sweetland was responsible for both daily and long-term operations — everything from menu planning to purchasing and making sure his employees adhered to food safety and dietary regulations. He also was tasked with assuring the meals served in its restaurant-style dining room made residents happy.

Other chefs may find such institutionalized cooking boring, but Sweetland — who was a food service specialist in the Army National Guard at Fort Lee in Prince George County, Virginia, after high school — loves the challenge of figuring out how to make the specialized diets often found in assisting living facilities taste good.

“You do what you have to to be successful,” he says.

For instance, to keep food from tasting too bland when salt is restricted, he adds herbs like tarragon to give dishes a minty, peppery taste. For those who have to restrict their intake of potassium, he swaps low-potassium items like cauliflower and rice for potatoes and tomatoes.

“It’s just about adapting to the culture and the environment, which I learned in the Army.”

Generations of Sweetlands have served in the military — his father, Arthur, was in the Navy — so it’s not surprising that he chose to enlist after graduating from Valley High School in 1994. He served for nine years, earning the distinction of becoming the youngest mess sergeant in Pennsylvania Army National Guard history.

In his new position as director of dining at Juniper Village at Forest Hills, a personal care and memory care community, Sweetland cooks for around 70 residents instead of overseeing 1,000 or more meals a day like he did in the Army. But he’s still pushing the boundaries.

In addition to reintroducing crowd-pleasing favorites like fantail shrimp, fish Florentine, Swiss steak and pork-stuffed portobello mushrooms, he is planning cooking demonstrations in the upstairs bistro, family-style Thanksgiving dinners and a festive holiday party to strengthen relationships between residents, families and associates.

Contrary to what some may believe, Sweetland says you can make enjoyable, tasty meals in a health care environment — even when you’re working around specialized diets, food allergies and the loss of taste and appetite that come naturally with aging.

What makes his job easier, he says, is a “pretty good budget” and 35 years of experience. Residents can select from a daily menu and be served at a table. Or they can choose something different, he says.

“If someone comes down and says, ‘I want a burger and fries [instead of what’s on the menu]’ we can do that for them,” he says.

The key is making what’s on the plate as appealing as possible, he says, and responding to customer complaints if there are any.

“It takes a heart to do what we do, because this is their home,” he says. That’s especially true when a resident has dementia. “It’s not just about cooking. It’s about taking care of someone’s life.’”

When he sees a resident light up or someone tells him the food is great, “you see you’ve touched their lives and their voice was heard.”

One of Sweetland’s first cooking memories is of helping his dad make sauce when he was 12 for a spaghetti dinner at his church. He also often helped out his sister, Christie, at pancake dinners for Girl Scouts. So when asked to share a favorite recipe, he chose the chicken Romano that was a favorite of his mother, Sandra.

He first made it for her early in his career for Mother’s Day, when he was “trying to do something a little different” while working at Romans Ups and Downs in Harmarville.

“She couldn’t believe how great it was,” he recalls.

Because his mother’s cancer caused swelling in her mouth, he cut the chicken and other ingredients into smaller pieces than he might have for a restaurant guest. It’s a trick that now serves him well when cooking for an elderly population.

His is a traditional recipe that calls for dipping the chicken in seasoned flour before bathing it in a cheesy egg batter and then giving it a quick fry in oil, followed by a short bake in the oven.

“Then I use the residual in the pan to glaze it,” he says.

The rich lemon-butter sauce compliments both the texture of the chicken and the cheesiness of the fried coating, Sweetland notes.

While the dish is not yet served at Juniper Village, he’d love to put it on the menu to see if residents love it just as much as his family, which includes son, Austin, and daughter, Haley.

“They do like piccata,” he says of his clients with a laugh, adding, “but there are only so many things you can do.”

Chicken Romano with Lemon Butter

PG tested

This crispy Italian-American chicken dish can be prepared in about a half-hour and is often served over pasta with a light lemon-butter sauce. Adam Sweetland, the new director of dining at Juniper Village at Forest Hills, learned to make it for his mother, Sandra. “It was one of her favorites,” he says.

For chicken

2 boneless chicken breasts, cut in half and flattened

1/4 cup vegetable oil

For egg batter

4 eggs

1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped

1/2 cup Romano cheese, plus more for serving

Pinch of salt and pepper

For seasoned flour

1/2 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon each salt, granulated garlic and onion powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

For sauce

1/4 cup lemon juice

6 ounces butter, cubed

Chopped parsley, for garnish

Cooked carrots and roasted red-skin potatoes, for serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare egg batter by mixing all the ingredients in a medium-size bowl.

Stir together flour seasoning by mixing all the ingredients in a second medium-size bowl. Set aside an oven-proof baking pan.

In a sauté pan over medium heat add 1/4 cup of vegetable oil; bring up to temperature.

Coat chicken in flour mixture and shake off excess. Use tongs to dip chicken in batter and place in pan with hot oil.

Cook each side for 3 minutes, or until brown and crispy. (Once batter starts to set, you will be able to loosen from pan and turn over to other side.) Place chicken in baking dish and place in pre-heated oven. Continue cooking until chicken reaches 165 degrees.

While chicken is cooking, deglaze the pan with lemon juice. Turn off heat and add butter cubes. Swirl around till it is melted and keep warm until chicken is done.

Plate chicken and pour the sauce over top of chicken.

Garnish with fresh chopped parsley and more Romano cheese. Can serve with dill buttered baby carrots and roasted red skinned potatoes.

Serves 2.

— Adam Sweetland, Juniper Communities

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