No Age Limit
Senior gourmets savor healthy, local foods
By Gabrielle Myers
October 2026
“Chef Vo and I were both brought in to get rid of that narrative of senior living that everything’s frozen and mass-produced,” Middleton says. “I’ve been in the restaurant industry for most of my career and it’s the farm-to-fork movement that made Sacramento what it is.
“We wanted to bring that to senior living because they deserve fresh food, fresh produce and meats just as much as anybody else.”
Middletown serves the independent living cohort at Avella. Vo works with the assisted-living and memory care group.
Both chefs have experience at top farm-to-fork restaurants. Middleton worked at Grange as a dishwasher, became a line cook and senior sous chef. He was executive chef at Willow in The Exchange hotel Downtown.
Vo learned farm-fresh Vietnamese and Southeast Asian cuisines at Slanted Door in San Francisco. He appeared on the reality TV show “Hell’s Kitchen: Head Chefs Only.”
Middleton and Vo use Produce Express, a wholesaler that coordinates with local farmers. The chefs buy Full Belly Farm produce, fruits and berries from Twin Peaks Orchards in Newcastle and Bliss Farm in Citrus Heights. Lamb comes from Dixon’s Superior Farms.
During growing seasons, the chefs take Avella residents on tours of Roseville Farmers Market. While 15 or 17 residents eye mushrooms, fish and vegetables, Middleton and Vo explain how to evaluate and handle food.
“We walk them through the stalls and discuss the produce, what we can expect is going to come now and in the future, and try and build a lunch menu around those specific people,” Middleton says.
The cooking isn’t exclusively high-end. Some among the community’s 230 residents want traditional fare—grilled chicken or salmon, sandwiches, omelets and other familiar dishes.
But the chefs provide lunch and dinner specials every day. And those specials are tantalizing:
Panzanella salad with grilled stone fruit and heirloom tomatoes. Herb-crusted rack of lamb with local English peas, artichokes and asparagus. Roasted halibut with peas (inspired by a market visit when the group saw a fish monger’s fresh ocean catch).
The chefs also create vegetarian specials based on local produce.
Vo and Middleton created small gardens for residents to tend. They incorporate the bounty into menus. Residents plant, harvest and clear garden beds and savor the results.
The goal, Middleton says, is self-sustaining. “We can do our own small farmers market here, make jams, jellies or hot sauces.”
For information on Avella’s dining program, visit avellaofroseville.com/culinary.
Gabrielle Myers can be reached at gabriellemyers11@gmail.com. Her latest book of poetry, “Go Forth: Lose Yourself Into Life,” is available at finishinglinepress.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
