Over his 34 years in the business, Chef Bill Rodimon has honed his cooking skills in a surprisingly vast breadth. A New Orleans native, he loves Creole food, but he also spent a few years of his youth in Asia, “where he again tasted his way around and loved it.”
He has worked in the Southeast, Colorado and even Nicaragua at one point, as a chef, owner and more. Before moving into the senior-community sector, he worked for a 4-diamond, 1-star chef with “all the accolades,” but felt it was too hectic for what he was looking for.
“This senior community wanted to get into a higher level of dining, and I have good restaurant experience,” he said. “Now here I am making fun, wonderful menus for the seniors here. I feel like I’m working in a 5-star restaurant – I get to work with great food and great people.”
Rodimon stressed the importance of making the seniors and their guests and families feel like they are at home.
“We listen and cook accordingly, trying to meet everyone’s needs. People love to bring their families and eat here,” he said. “We have a wonderful wine menu and bar menu. After all, everyone should be able to eat with dignity and feel at home, because this is their home.”
The talented chef plans daily and nightly meals, buffets, Sunday brunches, Easter brunches, Mother’s Day brunches and even birthday parties. As South Bay at Mount Pleasant continues to grow, so will the festivities.
Rodimon enjoys the challenge of combining an elegant menu with a proper diet for both active seniors and seniors in the assisted-living area.
“Whether it’s a diabetic diet or low-salt or even puréed, chopped up or thickened, it’s all homemade to their specifications and handmade to order,” he said.
“What we do is different than what I thought about senior dining; it’s not slop-and-drop dried scrambled eggs and oatmeal. We have a lot of freedom to make the menus and work with the concepts,” he said. “It’s a challenge feeding people 365 days a year. They’re all regulars, so we work with the senior residents to decide what they like and how we can make it.”
