A new age for golden oldies Janni Kyritsis and Peter Morgan-Jones cook for the aged at HammondCare dementia care home in Miranda, NSW. IT'S not often a celebrity chef is found in the kitchen at an aged-care home, nor is it common for the residents to be tucking into Heston Blumenthal-style molecular creations. But Peter Morgan-Jones, who swapped a career cooking for the royal family and in some of Australia's leading restaurants to help improve the lot of the elderly, is changing all that. In his role as food ambassador and executive chef for HammondCare, Morgan-Jones has spent the past year overhauling the menus for the aged-care provider and dreaming up innovative ways to deliver appealing, healthy meals to this often forgotten sector of society. The former Bennelong and MG Garage chef is also using his background in molecular gastronomy to create revolutionary new dishes, and has drafted in his high-profile mates to host dinners, such as a recent Greek gourmet night with celebrity chef Janni Kyritsis. "I've been playing around using xanthan gums to soak scones, madeira cake and sandwiches, which allows residents suffering dysphagia [swallowing difficulties] to have some dignity and eat the same food as their family," Morgan-Jones tells Food Detective. I've also been using agar agar to make healthy jellies - most residents on a pureed diet can't have jelly as the gelatine [can be problematic]. The chef tells Detective his dream is to expand the molecular concept to palliative care, where tube feeding means patients miss out on any sense of a dining experience. "It would be great to offer them molecular air, which does have a taste but dissolves on the tongue," he says. Industry veteran Maggie Beer has praised Morgan-Jones's efforts. "It is so important, so exciting what Peter is achieving," she tells Detective. He is a catalyst for change. We have got to lift the culture of the way we look after people trapped in aged care. The easiest way to give joy is through beautiful food. Beer despairs that as little as $2.50 a day is spent on food for each person at many nursing homes and is working on a nationwide project to ensure those facilities lagging behind are forced to lift their game. Morgan-Jones's former boss, Kyritsis, whose Greek night at a HammondCare facility in Sydney a couple of weeks ago had residents tucking into slow-braised lamb with roasted carrots and orzo and a Greek custard pie with poached figs and pears, promises to devote more time to the cause. "We must acknowledge the need to give a hand and some love to people older than us," he says. It is sad to see affluent countries like Australia not care as much as they should for their elders. Detective has seen the depressing offerings served up in some aged-care homes and applauds Morgan-Jones on his effort to bring some brightness to those in their twilight years. Hammond.com.au. MOVE over, quinoa. The next big superfood is freekeh. This early harvest green wheat, burned to remove the chaff and straw, has been used for centuries in the Middle East in the likes of pilafs and salads, or as an accompaniment to lamb or chicken, and is said to offer more nutritional benefits than many other grains and rices. Mr Detective recently set about experimenting with his newly purchased box of the grain, incorporating it into the poached chicken with sweet spiced freekeh recipe from the excellent Jerusalem cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. The smoky, nutty wheat, imbued with the flavours of the poaching broth, herbs and spices, was crowned with the sliced whole bird, garnished with sauteed flaked almonds and served with a dollop of yoghurt and cucumber. Detective can happily report that Freekeh Friday was a stunning success. FIRST World problem No 586: "We've had so many great WA truffles through the kitchen recently that all the shaving and grating has just about given me truffle RSI," chef Teage Ezard told a bemused Detective on a recent visit to his BLACK by ezard restaurant at Sydney's The Star. blackbyezard.com.au. DETECTIVE has tucked into many exceptional desserts this year. A perfectly crafted chocolate sphere at BLACK, which disintegrated into an exquisite chocolate mush when a hot chocolate sauce was poured over the top; "Popcorn," a confection of grilled sweetcorn parfait, frozen popcorn dust, corn, salt and cream at Brisbane's Esquire; and an unforgettable cheesecake made of shredded kadaif pastry and a dollop of creamy feta mixed with Greek pine and fir honey at London's Honey & Co. But, call it nostalgia, nothing beats her favourite childhood dessert, a rich self-saucing chocolate pudding of the kind to be found in most CWA cookbooks. It would be the first recipe Detective would include in My Recipe Jar, a new social network that lets participants share with friends their favourite dishes. Users can store their 50 best recipes in the online "jar," including snapshots of recipe clippings or grandma's handwritten gems, and connect to friends' jars to swap recipes that take their fancy. "What sets My Recipe Jar apart is that it is about your recipes and your friends," says co-creator Emma Laurence. It's not about having access to 100 recipes for a chocolate cake but having access to your own tried-and-tested recipes for the best chocolate cake or a trusted recipe from your family and friends. Detective is convinced her chocolate pud would be a hot commodity. Myrecipejarapp.com. rowemi@theaustralian. com.au