Why is this cooking smell so horrible?

[PassingStranger]

I'm a fairly regular visitor to a care home to visit someone.
We have to walk past the kitchen area to get to their room.

The cooking smell is awful and not at all tempting i ve noticed it and she has also mentioned it.
It's al.ost a case of hold your nose as you walk past.

You know some cooking smells are lovely, make you hungry etc, smell tempting, this does not.
I've never eaten there, or know what they have for their meals. Im usually gome when they eat.
All I know is its awful smelling.

Anyone know why ?

The person that you visit, what does she think of the food there?

Don’t they have adequate ventilation and an extractor fan? Fish, cabbage etc smells linger

In a care home often the food is quite old fashioned e.g. boiled to death vegetables. Think old school dinner style food, that is the kind of thing which is sometimes served.

What are they cooking? I wonder if care homes make boring and bland food as assume that's what the residents want. So avoid fragrant spices and resort to lots of boiled veg and under seasoned meats.

I will ask in the future about the food abit more.
Yes it's like a horrible cabbage smell

Is it the smell of old oil or maybe extractor fans not been cleaned or filters changed etc?

Sounds likely actually.

What's nursing home food like,
,do you get better food the more you pay?

I don't know why but this is relatable as the smell of school and hospital dinners makes me queasy.

Sounds like boiled cabbage Gross

Cabbage only smells bad when overcooked. I thought that fashion would have disappeared in the 1970s

It’s always like that in hospitals and care homes, smells like cabbage but individually the food is okay and isn’t like the smell!

Yes agree.