Dignity and Flavor Served with Every Gourmet Bite

Food is central to community, at any age. When we are preschoolers, we gather over apple slices and string cheese at snack time. As teenagers, we hang out and nibble french fries together. In our young adulthood, we have our first dinner parties, re-creating family recipes to impress new friends. And in our golden years, we enjoy restaurants and those family recipes that our kids can make for us now.

Food an community are important in our final years as well, and The Watermark San Jose, which opened on South Bascom Avenue in May 2025, has developed special meal programs to uphold flavor and integrity for everyone.

Walking into the lobby space feels like entering a grand hotel. Plush carpet, modern furnishings, artwork and varied lounge-like common areas create a feeling that is far from “old-folks’ home.” Residents of the resort-style senior living facility populate six floors, with a special memory care unit on the second level. Throughout, there are spacious balconies and large windows that offer a feeling of openness.

Similarly, meals are offered in a space that feels like an upscale restaurant, with large round tables for communal dining, smaller-format seating as well as a private dining space for entire families to gather. Director of Dining Services Chef Tony Crane, with an extensive culinary career including executive chef for Ritz-Carlton, has a deep desire to create menus and dishes to please all of the residents and keep things interesting and enticing.

He and his Executive Chef Cindy Padilla, as well as the entire kitchen team, do this through frequent menu changes and specials. They also have examples of special dishes on display, especially helpful for folks to point at if they aren’t reading easily or if any of the words are hard to pronounce. They might not know what it means or how to say it, so a visual example can be a teaching moment. “They look forward to looking at those plates,” says Padilla.

The residents also have input, and the opportunity to be a part of the menu planning. In fact, there’s a whole program just for this. The Food for Thought event happens every month, a time and place for residents to meet with the kitchen team to talk about the menu.

During these meetings Crane a list of requests, he presents the menus and gets feedback, not just for themselves but also so residents can invite family and friends to come join them for a meal. For example, on New Year’s Eve, they all decided on a prime rib dinner with all the fixings plus wind and dessert
—a steal for $35. Residents got copies of the menu to share with their guests.

All kinds of things happen in these sessions. “One of the ladies here has gifted me all of her cookbooks … I have an entire library now!” says Crane. Sometimes they present him with recipes as well. “I love when they say ‘This was my grandma’s recipe.’ And then I put their grandma’s name on the dish when it goes on the menu,” he says.

Another opportunity is in the Resident’s Choice section of the menu, appearing as a special based on what people are asking for. “I don’t even have to ask, it’s always the shrimp … by far, the most popular dish they all love is the honey walnut shrimp,” says Crane. Similarly, there are Chef’s Choice specials too, which becomes a way for the chefs to play around and feature recipes they think people will enjoy. “They love my chile rellenos!” says Padilla.

The involvement is touching, and also keeps the residents engaged. Crane explained that one woman let him know that she is really into gardening. So the staff let her plant an herb garden in a side bed near the parking lot. And now they use her herbs and edible flowers to garnish the plates.

“We have a sign in the kitchen that says, ‘This Food is Seasoned with Love’ and we cook from that mind set, ” says Crane. “It’s not just pulling something out of the freezer.”

This inclusivity and recognition really sets things apart at Watermark, especially in their trademarked Gourmet Bites Cuisine program. This is a method of reimagining meals to create a dignified way for residents to eat without utensils if they are experiencing limitations, especially for persons in memory care, coping with Parkinson’s or facing any type of cognitive or neuromuscular conditions.

“I love when they say ‘This was my
grandma’s recipe.’ And then I put their
grandma’s name on the dish when it goes on the menu.”
—Chef Tony Crane

Josh Swanson is regional director of dining services and has dedicated the last 25 years to senior dining, combining his culinary background and love of cooking with a strong desire to make a meaningful impact in his work. The Gourmet Bites program was in fact a key reason he chose to join Watermark in the first place.

“I was immediately impressed by the program and the positive difference it has made for so many individuals,” he says, explaining that what distinguishes the program “is its commitment to dignity and inclusion. Traditional finger-food diets are often limited to basic items. Gourmet Bites Cuisine reimagines this approach by transforming virtually any menu item into a thoughtfully prepared, handheld, easy-to-chew option.”

Some examples of dishes that fall into this program are butter-crusted empanadas, with seasonal fillings, like a turkey-dinner-inspired mixture of potatoes, turkey and cranberry in the fall. The empanadas are easy to hold, and the fillings are nostalgic. For some residents, silverware can become very heavy and difficult to maneuver, or even to remember what it is supposed to be for.

One thing that many people do remember is french fries—a dish so elemental that it becomes a memory most everyone can retain. So the kitchen has learned to cut veggies and fruit into crinkle-cut sticks. The residents intuitively know how to pick them up because they remember french fries, and no utensils are needed.

Another very popular example is the “Chef Salad.” The cooked protein ingredients found in this typical entree salad are ground up and made into cute, golf-ball-sized rounds, then placed on a bed of lettuce and served with a dipping sauce. This version of the classic is easier to pick up and eat, without losing the nutritional value of all those proteins and veggies.

“The program gives you the principle on how to do each technique, but then it’s up to the chef and the team to follow one of the principles and turn it into a meal,” explains Crane.

“It’s pretty cool, because you get to learn many different ways to make something into a bite,” says Padilla. “Out of all the other senior living spots I’ve worked at, it’s just very different here … There’s creativity,’” says Padilla, who always pays attention to garnish and making things look nice, which is another aspect of the Gourmet Bites concept.

Swanson says, “What we hear most often is how meaningful this program is on a very human level. Families tell us it’s deeply moving to see their loved ones enjoy food again—without frustration, embarrassment or needing constant assistance—and residents often show more confidence, engagement and joy at the table.”

And for Crane, this element of the job gets very personal. “My grandmother passed from Alzheimer’s, and my love of cooking came from her,” he says. “I was born into a restaurant family. In high school I would go down to the restaurant with my grandma at 4:30am and we would crank out homemade biscuits,” he recalls.

“As a high schooler I complained, but now looking back I think those were the best days. All of my grandma’s recipes come with me, like those biscuits. I have a picture of her in my office, and on the days I’m feeling frustrated I look at her and somewhere in my brain I feel I’m paying it forward. And I’m taking care of her.”

He continues, “That is what this means to me, and I try to teach the team that sometimes our residents pass. We sometimes have to have a cry moment in the kitchen. You just never know. I try to make sure we are leaving the best memories for them and their families and that when they do decide to leave us we gave them the very best.”