WesleyLife recently welcomed a new director of culinary excellence. Take a moment to get to know her!
Name: Krista Adams
Educational experience: Diploma, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Atlanta
Origin: Born in Michigan; grew up in Georgia.
Professional experience: Decades-long in culinary arts, including time spent at acclaimed establishments The French Laundry, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, and Ad Hoc, and as sous chef for the Ritz Carlton; she also has worked in leadership roles in food service for private schools, corporate dining, and senior living. She graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta.
Q. What brings you to WesleyLife?
Krista: I have a real passion for senior living, particularly assisted living and healthcare. When people live in independent living, they can basically get in their car and drive to any restaurant and have any experience they want. But historically, when you are less mobile, you have fewer choices. My goal is to enhance the value of the culinary experience we bring to all residents. We owe it to them to give them a greater number of choices, and better-quality food.
Q. Where does your passion for this line of work come from?
Krista: My grandma is 102 and lives in assisted living, so that's part of it. But I also grew up in a family with a healthy attitude toward what it means to grow older, and that you don't have to accept less.
Q. As part of our organizational emphasis on hospitality and branded experiences, you'll be trying to create consistent experiences across all our Communities for Healthy Living. What's the first step you plan to take?
Krista: That's an easy one: getting to know the teams and building relationships. Without trust, there can't be change — and without change, there can't be growth. I am hoping to earn trust, then begin to get our teams those "quick wins" where we need them on the way to some meaningful change.
Q. What are some of the meaningful changes you hope to help achieve throughout our culinary operations?
Krista: We need to come up with a culinary promise; within that, we'll create some pillars of importance. For example, we may promise to be heart-healthy and offer house-made items whenever possible. Within that promise may be goals like using beef that is always fresh, never frozen; making salad dressings from scratch; or making sure a community strives to get a certain percentage of its produce from its own garden. We'll create ways for the communities to measure themselves and see how close they are getting to what we'd like to see as an organization.
Q. How will you make sure the individuality of each community is protected as we customize what we offer?
Krista: We'll establish parameters to keep us within the brand, but if you set the standard of what the baseline is and what our quality qualifiers are, that leaves room for individuality. For example, ’ll be coaching the teams on menu strategy but also will respect what the menu strategy is at the individual community. We have a lot of talented people in place who will continue to do great work.
Q. What would people be surprised to know about you?
Krista: I grew up in Atlanta, but my family still has a ranch in Montana that my great-grandfather landed on in 1896 and homesteaded. Our family still has reunions there, and even our family members from Norway consistently come!
