ACTIVE AGE
Food is a necessity, of course, but a good meal can also be so much more.
A warm dinner can provide comfort on a cold, rainy day while a slice of the perfect dessert can make an ordinary day seem like a celebration.
“It (good food) can turn someone’s whole day around,” said Jackie Miller, the director of dining services at Cornerstone Retirement Community.
Miller and Tyrece Higdon, executive chef at Cornerstone, have combined their cooking talents and food service experience into something special for residents of Cornerstone’s Independent Living Community.
They prepare food that uses many of the trends found in fine restaurants and garnish it to be appealing to the clientele.
“Older people on a special diet may lose weight. It helps if you can prepare the food and present it in a way that makes it more palatable,” Miller said.
Miller started at Cornerstone in June. “I love it. It’s a breath of fresh air,” she said.
Both Miller and Higdon work for Unidine, a company that contracts with Cornerstone. Unidine provides alternative dining experiences to senior facilities and hospitals by creating a restaurant-like atmosphere with healthy, fresh foods.
“They really wanted to raise the bar on dining,” Miller said.
Miller is familiar to many in the Texarkana area as the former owner of Jackie OH’S, a downtown restaurant that served steaks, hamburgers and Miller’s famous cheesecake for several years. When the building changed hands in 2011, Miller lost the lease and moved on to other restaurant jobs in different places.
She opened a restaurant in New Hampshire and then operated a takeout restaurant on the water in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, for about a year.
“I just wanted to go to different places and improve my culinary styles for myself,” she said.
A Texarkana native, she returned home to be closer to family.
She enjoys making specialty desserts for independent living residents.
“I’ve always enjoyed making people happy through food,” she said.
Prior to opening Jackie Oh’s, she lived in Boston for 20 years. She was not in the food industry then, but cooking was always a passion.
“People would always show up to
eat and that’s how Jackie Oh’s came about,” she said.
Higdon is originally from Long Beach, N.Y. His path to being an executive chef began in Memphis where he owned a bread delivery route. Each morning, he rose at 2:30 a.m. and delivered bread to institutional customers. That ended when he ruptured his Achilles tendon and had to sell his route.
“I couldn’t get up and out of the truck anymore,” he said.
He had always enjoyed cooking and “putting things together,” so he made a huge life-change and with no prior restaurant knowledge, he enrolled in L’École Culinaire, a culinary arts college with three locations nationwide, one of which is in Memphis.
He said he saw the temporary disability as a time to study and learn something new. He graduated valedictorian of his class.
“I walked in (culinary school) on crutches and walked out as Valedictorian,” said Higdon.
Upon graduation, Higdon spent the next three years as a Sous chef before accepting a position as head chef over residential dining at the University of Memphis, ensuring more than 1,200 people were fed daily.
He also learned Southern cooking during his years in Memphis and is famous for his Shrimp Alfredo and pecan cobbler. A new showcasing station allows residents to view the specialties of the house before ordering.
The two have also opened a bistro dining area within the community that offers fresh salads, sandwiches, desserts, fruit cups and parfaits, along with custom-made scratch pizzas.
Making people happy through food is a job they both love and are seeing the rewards for it.
“We are seeing an increase in residents who dine here in the dining room. And there are times Tyrece receives a standing ovation for his cooking,” Miller said.