From Basic Guacamole to the FLAME Award: How Chef Fahim Found His Calling at Holiday

Summary

After discovering a passion for cooking, Chef Fahim built a career creating meals residents love at Holiday Briarcrest Estates. His dedication to quality, resident feedback and dietary needs recently earned him a FLAME Award.

It started with a bowl of guacamole. Chef Fahim K. was home alone in New York, noticed some avocados going soft, found an online video and tried his hand at making guacamole. When his wife came home and finished every bite, she put down the bowl and told him he had to go to culinary school.

“That’s how actually, literally, it started,” Chef Fahim recalls.

That moment in 2011 set Chef Fahim on a journey that led to Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute, nearly eight years at Holiday Briarcrest Estates and, this year, an Atria FLAME Award. This prestigious award recognizes chefs whose commitment to quality and resident satisfaction sets them apart.

What makes senior living dining at Holiday unique?

Chef Fahim trained in classical French technique, but his food doesn’t stay in one lane. He blends in a South Asian sensibility wherever it fits.

“In my culture, we don’t use stock. We use the actual bone-in product. Using bone-in chicken or bone-in beef naturally creates a stock. That’s kind of my technique,” he explains.

The delicious results speak for themselves. His barbecue meatloaf has become a signature at the community. A baked flounder with orange glaze drew multiple residents to the kitchen door to ask him to make it again. When something works at Holiday Briarcrest Estates, Chef Fahim hears about it directly.

Does Holiday accommodate residents with dietary restrictions?

Chef Fahim has pescatarian residents, and he builds menu items that are specifically designed for them. He runs at least one fish option most days each week.

Also, he keeps two vegetable options available daily so there is always a real choice for vegetarian residents. The dietary needs of the community are at the forefront of his mind, not an afterthought.

A few items that have become staples for those with dietary needs include:

• Eggplant Parmesan – one of the most requested dishes in the community
• Vegetable lasagna – a regular on the menu
• Shrimp and grits

“Seven days a week we have options that are either a fish-based or vegetable-based complete meal,” Chef Fahim notes.

Will the chef actually know my family member?

Part of the Holiday culture is known as “table touching,” a practice where the chef comes to the dining room to check in after a meal. For Chef Fahim, these conversations are not a formality.

“When a resident tells me, ‘Oh Fahim, this is the best meal I’ve ever had,’ that motivates me so much. It is such an honor when that compliment comes from a person who has traveled the world and tasted many kinds of food,” he says.

Chef Fahim gets to know the community members and hear about their families’ food traditions. Several residents at Holiday Briarcrest Estates have shared family recipes with him. When the ingredients allow it, those recipes make it onto the menu. Recently, he prepared a carrot cake for lunch that was made from a resident’s own family recipe.

What is Atria’s FLAME Award and what does it mean?

The FLAME Award is presented to chefs whose communities consistently earn high marks for dining from residents. It is awarded based on quality survey scores and resident satisfaction over time. To secure this honor, residents in a chef’s community must express their feelings that the dining is consistently excellent, time and time again.

For Chef Fahim, the timing of the award could not have been better. His team had spent over a month cooking without a working walk-in freezer – running a remote unit parked outside the building – while simultaneously dealing with a weeks-long elevator renovation.

“The award came at the right moment. It was very, very rewarding to feel like people see your hard work and know that your work is good,” he smiles.

The chef was also quick to spread the credit.

“I wouldn’t even have this award without my kitchen team,” he emphasizes. “I want to give them the credit also.”

Come see what’s on the menu

Chef Fahim’s story reflects what Holiday senior living communities are built on: people who love the work of senior care, who bring real skill and who measure success one meal at a time.

If you’re exploring senior living in the Ballwin, Chesterfield or St. Louis area, visit Holiday Briarcrest Estates, meet the team and experience the community’s award-winning dining for yourself.