Food as Medicine in Mystic
“Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. We nourish all those things when we eat well.” — Michael Pollan
People who love to cook know something extraordinary happens with the right combination of ingredients, precise timing, the perfect touch with a whisk or a spoon. Ripe tomatoes, garlic, onions, salt, a confetti of minced parsley plus heat transform into sauce that elevates pasta. Shared by good company, this simple food can be magic. One might not expect exceptional dining from a retirement community’s food and beverage department, but StoneRidge Senior Living in Mystic, CT, has it. In the last few years, staff and residents together have melded the right ingredients, expert knowledge and passionate attention to elevate this community’s food to something special.
Executive Chef Robert Tripp, aka Chef Bob, has seen dining evolve over his nine years at StoneRidge. Chef Bob is a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef with 49 years of experience in fine dining at hotels, private restaurants, events, and wedding venues. Bob has cooked for Presidents, for stars like Tony Bennet and Mariah Carey and others. “Now I cook for our stars,” he says fondly of StoneRidge residents.
Bob suggests two things set StoneRidge apart. One is a mentality that they operate restaurants versus traditional institutional food service. The other is their commitment to using fresh, locally sourced ingredients to make most of their menu items from scratch. “We are essentially running two fullservice restaurants,” says Chef Bob, who manages a staff of 21 in the kitchen plus another 40 wait staff. StoneRidge has two dining rooms, private event dining options, plus grab-and-go and seasonal outdoor terrace dining. “We don’t have the same customer base every day, but we focus on putting out the same high-quality product every day,” he says. StoneRidge’s menu changes weekly. In planning, Chef Bob considers the season for what is available locally and what residents will enjoy. “We serve a lot of comfort food in the winter. In spring and summer, we do lighter fare, more grilled items, lighter sauces. My biggest consideration is what residents like. After nine years, if I haven’t learned what they like by now, I’d better go,” he says, laughing.
Bob loves that his profession always offers new things to learn and ways to be creative. “I like to instill passion into my cooking staff by introducing them to new techniques. We do our own sausage, make our own pasta, grown our own sprouts for salads.” His wish to offer more in-house desserts and bread from scratch might be granted soon, as StoneRidge is investing in a kitchen expansion for their growing community.
Chef Bob claims that he cooked “farm to table” long before the term existed. “Thirty-five years ago, I was at Inn at Mystic’s Floodtide restaurant, a premier fine dining destination. I’d have local fishermen come to the back door all the time and I’d buy their catch. I sourced locally way back when, before it was a thing.” At StoneRidge, Bob has developed a network to source fresh, local ingredients, including nationally award-winning cheese from Cato Corners in Colchester; organically grown produce from Apis Verde and several other eastern CT farms; organic lion’s mane and other unusual mushroom varieties from Seacoast Mushrooms in Mystic; fresh seafood from Bob Smith Seafood in Clinton; and more.
“Just because it’s locally prepared, organic or locally sourced, it doesn’t have to be over your budget,” says Bob. “We save money elsewhere, such as making things from scratch and cutting our own meat. Pre-cut steaks are three times as expensive. We make soup for pennies on the dollar that you’d buy a frozen soup for. Not using prepared food is much cheaper.” And healthier, as modern science has proved. “I’ve always shopped from the perimeter of the grocery store,” says Bob of nutritional advice to avoid prepared products with too much sugar, salt, fat and preservatives. StoneRidge menus offer gluten free, dairy free, and salt free options, in order to support the health of residents.
Food as medicine is more of a lived philosophy than a strategic plan for Bob, but he considers it in his cooking. In addition to antibiotic- and hormone- free meats and fresh, organic produce, Bob uses seasonings such as fresh ginger and turmeric. Four different antioxidant-rich berries are always available for residents. “Food is nourishment for body and soul,” he says. “We want to keep them as healthy and happy as long as we can; that’s our goal.”
StoneRidge leadership has invested in excellent dining by providing exceptional staff, a budget that supports fresh, local ingredients and kitchen infrastructure improvements. The facility’s focus on connection and community also plays a part. StoneRidge residents are encouraged to participate on many committees that influence decision making that affects their daily lives. “Here, residents have a choice and a voice in how they live,” the StoneRidge website reads. Four-year resident Penny Nelson, Chairman of the Culinary Committee, can attest to that. This no-nonsense 88-year-old is sharp as a chef ’s knife and committed to respect, good communication, positivity, and teamwork. “You have to make food fun and happy,” she declares.
Penny’s background as owner/operator of the Bee & Thistle Inn in Old Lyme during the award-winning country inn’s most successful years made her a sought-after choice to lead the StoneRidge Culinary Committee. Despite challenges of family illness, she accepted. “I come from a background in the restaurant business, but before that I taught kindergarten, which was a great preface for running a restaurant—you don’t sit down, you solve problems….” Penny quips. “StoneRidge staff were so wonderful to me. I said I must give back, even while I was losing my youngest child. It had to be my way; it had to fun and respectful of the kitchen.”
Every month the Culinary Committee sits down with food service leadership including Chef Bob, Culinary Director Matt Haut, Dining Room Manager Sydney Banks, Executive Sous Chef Antonio Burley and eight residents. Penny creates the agenda. “In the middle we deal with requests and problems, given a week ahead of time so the kitchen can bring a solution to the meeting. Then we can laugh, talk, and discuss issues. We make things work because we communicate.”
Penny realized communication with residents was also key. She started writing a “Did You Know” column in The Buzz, StoneRidge’s weekly paper. In her column, she introduced the culinary staff with bios; announced when the kitchen received top inspection marks; explained where Chef Bob sources ingredients; how the only things frozen are peas, shrimp and ice cream; and how the kitchen gets three or four fresh fish deliveries every week. She did a cost analysis of local Mystic restaurants to show residents they were getting a great deal on fine dining. “People know who I am and tell me what they think,” she says. “I listen and listen, and I try to be a diplomat.”
Penny sees the kitchen staff stretching themselves, being creative. “We had two fireside dinners this week with wine pairings limited to 20 people. It was gorgeous.” The February 19th five-course meal paired with Stonington’s Saltwater Farm Vineyard wine started with handmade tortellini, the main entrée was roasted lamb with pomegranate reduction and the meal finished with panna cotta with espresso sauce and hazelnut dust. Two different residents who don’t know each other approached Penny recently. One had been on the QE2 and the other on Holland America, both cruise lines noted for good food. They told Penny, “Our food is better!”
Over four years heading the Culinary Committee, Penny has seen change. She’s noticed fewer problems to discuss for her agenda. In 2024, she wrote a progress report for the year. “It was 20 items, single spaced, and not picky things like more mashed potatoes,” she said. “We work well together and make a difference. The committee is not a complaint desk; it’s a learning desk, a sharing desk. Dining is a social event, the highlight of your day. We want to make it special.”
- StoneRidge Senior Living is located at 186 Jerry Browne Road in Mystic. www.stoneridgelcs.com
