About Dinesh Kumar Subramani

Head of Hotel Services, mecwacare. With 20+ years in hospitality leadership, from kitchens to organisation-wide service design - Dinesh leads kitchen, laundry and cleaning across mecwacare. He is recognised for resident-centred dining, fine dining program design, digital and AI integration, and culture-first training that connects everyday hospitality decisions to quality and compliance.

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About mecwacare

mecwacare is a leading not-for-profit aged care provider supporting more than 20,000 Victorians each week. With over 65 years of experience, mecwacare delivers person-centred care across residential, home, disability, and community services. Their commitment to dignity, quality, and innovation has made them one of Victoria’s most trusted names in aged care.

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Episode Insights: Hospitality as Care - Dinesh Subramani on Food, Dignity and Digital Transformation in Aged Care

1. Career arc: from dishwasher to Head of Hotel Services

Dinesh’s 21-year journey at mecwacare began as a student and part-time dishwasher. A single day filling in for a delayed agency chef led to outstanding feedback, a career pivot from IT studies to hospitality, and eventually leadership over kitchen, laundry and cleaning across the organisation.

💡 Insight: Passion plus proximity to residents can meaningfully reshape careers, and lift service quality.

2. Residents first: food as dignity, joy and daily connection

For Dinesh, hospitality is care. Two levers matter most in residents’ quality of life: food and lifestyle. The team prioritises choice and responsiveness (e.g., never denying an omelette request) because trust and wellbeing are built in the dining room as much as in the clinic.

💡 Insight: : Resident-centred hospitality transforms mealtime into a predictable, dignifying moment of care.

3. Fine Dining Nights: designing memorable experiences

Monthly Fine Dining events invite residents (and sometimes families) to dress up for a multi-course, white-glove service with music, lighting and printed menus. A resident’s comment; that her last fine-dining experience was 54 years ago - catalysed rollout across facilities.

💡 Insight: : Structured, repeatable “wow” moments can be operationalised across sites without losing warmth.

4. Scaling to 22 facilities: patient leadership + empowered teams

Growth from one facility to 22 residential services (plus six retirement villages and a large home care program) demanded patience, trust and clear structure. Dinesh relies on three regional coordinators and local chef-leaders - not command-and-control, to maintain standards.

💡 Insight: : Scale without burnout comes from distributed ownership, not centralised micromanagement.

5. Culture by design: teaching the “why,” not just the “what”

Onboarding blends strong induction, practical playbooks and continuous coaching. Inspired by “start with why,” Dinesh frames every standard (e.g., table setup) around the reason it matters to resident experience, not just compliance.

💡 Insight: : Purpose-led training improves adherence, initiative and pride.

6. Digital uplift & AI: hospitality that talks to compliance

Dinesh is driving digital innovation and AI-assisted workflows so hotel services connect cleanly with compliance and quality systems. The goal: turn hospitality data (menus, preferences, nutrition, service feedback) into evidence that supports standards, without adding admin burden.

💡 Insight: : When hospitality, data and governance are integrated, compliance becomes a by-product of doing the right thing daily.

7. Change management at scale: invite, don’t impose

Rollouts succeed by invitation and shared purpose. Chefs were asked why fine dining and service flexibility matter; once aligned, adoption followed with minimal pushback.

💡 Insight: : Frontline buy-in is earned through meaning, not mandates.