Baltimore Sun ‘Bits & Bites’: Columbia organization to give Baltimore a ‘Taste of Senior Living’
March 9, 2026
By Jane Godiner: Later in March, a senior care provider association based in Columbia will head to Baltimore to showcase the culinary prowess of senior living centers.
LifeSpan Network is preparing to host its 11th Annual Taste of Senior Living event on Wednesday, March 25 at Martin’s West, a banquet hall at 6817 Dogwood Road. The program will welcome up to 30 chef competitor teams at different senior living facilities across the state to cook for a panel of judges — and to serve samples of their creations to attendees.
While, in previous years, LifeSpan Director of Membership and Business Development Jamie Stewart said the event was geared toward members of the senior living industry, her team has made the choice to “promote it a little more publicly” this year in the wake of the event’s continuous sellouts.
“We’re hoping that not only senior living providers and their teams come out to participate, but we hope that the community, and perspective residents of senior centers … will come as well to see some of the really cool, creative dishes that these chefs’ teams have come up with,” she said.
In this competition, chefs are encouraged to create meals that showcase their skills in the kitchen, but are also representative of what senior citizens in their care might eat. In previous years, dishes have ranged from teriyaki bowls to arancini. One of Stewart’s and LifeSpan Director of Marketing and Communications Cierra Derato’s favorite categories is therapeutic food, for which chefs must create dishes that adhere to dietary restrictions, and, in some cases, are conducive to eating without chewing.
Derato said that this category is all about “dignity,” with dishes of pureed chicken and cauliflower featuring grill marks to imitate a restaurant sear.
“They are living in our home; they deserve to eat a home-cooked meal and not just drink something out of a straw,” she said.
Attendee tickets for the Taste of Senior Living event can be purchased for $60 each via Cvent.