When Yumara Nash and her mother Auzhoné Robinson first walked into Aviva by Kameel in downtown Atlanta, they knew it would become one of their favorite restaurants.
“I like the vibe in here,” Nash, 12, said when they stepped inside. “It makes you want to eat there.”
But that same day on June 12, gunfire broke out near the restaurant. Kameel Srouji, chef and owner of Aviva, jumped into action along with his team to keep customers from panicking.
It was chaos he said, with people flying all over the place, but he shut the doors, brought people behind the counter and offered food, drink, hugs and calming words.
“You’re under my roof,” Srouji said. “That’s what I do, I’ll put my body there for you guys because it’s tradition. You come to my house, you’re my responsibility.”
Robinson said she had never experienced that amount of care in a restaurant before, and once it was safe to leave J. Alburl, a member from the Imprints, Aviva’s marketing team, walked the mother and daughter back to their cars. Alburl insisted that Robinson save his contact information so the Aviva team could treat the pair to a free meal and make up for the frightening experience.
Later that night, Robinson mentioned her daughter’s interest in cooking, and she shared their social media account, HappilyRooted. The account has amassed about 300,000 followers between Instagram and TikTok. In their videos, Robinson often shows Nash, or Chef Yum as she’s known, making a new recipe, or grocery shopping or spending a girl’s day together. When Alburl learned about Chef Yum’s talent in the kitchen, he pitched Srouji the idea of inviting Nash back to spend a day cooking with him, and he loved it.
Chef Yum is soft-spoken at first, but once she starts talking about food, her face lights up and everyone leans a little closer to hear her describe her recipes. While sitting in one of the high-top stools at Aviva by Kameel’s Midtown location, with Srouji and her mom across from her, Nash recalled what inspired her to start cooking — she was ready for a change from the weekly rotation of meals her mother made.
“Mommy, she doesn’t …” Nash considered her next words tactfully. “I had to make something new because I was tired of those meals,” she said with a giggle.
Now Nash cooks dinner most nights, and Robinson is in charge of breakfast since her daughter isn’t much of a morning person.
Robinson said she noticed Nash’s interest in the kitchen from a young age, but giving her “the opportunity and the freedom to have that independence, to get in there and do it, I think that really helped develop who she is today.”
Nash began cooking in earnest about a year ago. Her first recipe was salmon hibachi, and salmon has quickly become a favorite ingredient of hers. She makes it at least once a week, she said, from salmon pasta to honey-glazed salmon.
Credit: Courtesy of J. Alburl, the Imprints
Credit: Courtesy of J. Alburl, the Imprints
It’s easy to forget she’s 12 years old, especially when she talks about omega 3, or when she explains how she avoids corn syrup by reading the ingredients in everything she buys, like a few days ago when she was on the hunt for maple syrup and almond butter with no added ingredients. She also avoids food dyes, which means she hasn’t eaten candy in two years.
Nash became more interested in nutrition when one of her teachers taught her about the unhealthy ingredients in processed food. After that, Nash started eating fresh fruit everyday, and she and her mother began frequenting more farmers markets.
When Srouji first spoke with Nash on the phone, he was immediately impressed by how much she “understands about food,” he said.
Srouji also started cooking when he was around Nash’s age, and after the traumatic events that brought the two together, it felt a bit serendipitous. He invited her to cook with him in the Aviva kitchen, so the pair met up to make gluten-free pasta with salmon.
Nash said she loved cooking with Chef Kameel. He showed her how to utilize new spices like saffron, and how to make salmon on a flat top grill, a technique she hopes to try out soon. She also remembered the way he made the sauce — with real tomatoes instead of from a can. And he showed her how to cook with olive oil, so now it’s the only oil Robinson and Nash use at home.
Srouji occasionally offered Nash suggestions for how to level up a recipe she was planning, like adding tarragon to her honey-glazed salmon, or topping her oat pancakes and blueberry compote with some chopped pecans.
“She’s eager to learn, and you can see that she has the passion,” Srouji said. “I will tell her one time how to do it, and she (does) it.”
“I take directions very seriously,” Nash agreed. “Because I don’t want to mess up, and I want to learn how to do stuff the right way.”
While she finds inspiration for what to make online, she rarely follows a recipe. Usually she tastes her food as she goes, makes mistakes and builds a meal without needing a measuring cup. And she never writes the recipe down afterward, just like Srouji.
Despite the 57-year age gap, they agree on a lot of things when it comes to food, and they’re well matched in the kitchen; for starters, Srouji likes to sing while he’s cooking, and Nash does a little dance when a recipe turns out particularly good.
Credit: Courtesy of J. Alburl, the Imprints
Credit: Courtesy of J. Alburl, the Imprints
While Nash has plenty of time to decide her career path, the cooking prodigy said she hopes to become a veterinarian because she loves animals and wants to give them a happy life. She’s thinking of combining her two passions by opening an animal shelter where the pets can spend time outside and dine on food fit for kings.
She already feeds her Pomeranian-poodle mix some “bougie” meals, she said, which include ingredients like salmon oil, eggs, peas, carrots and quinoa. And when she stays with her dad, she tries to feed him and his dog a healthier diet, but she’s still working on that challenge.
Like Chef Kameel, who is well-known in Atlanta for the friendliness and love he shares with those who dine in his restaurants, Chef Yum has a gift for feeding those around her.
Credit: Courtesy of J. Alburl, the Imprints
Credit: Courtesy of J. Alburl, the Imprints
She hopes other kids will watch her videos and be inspired to experiment in the kitchen and try different things from what they normally eat at home.
“Just mix it up,” she said.
And despite the frightening events during their first visit, Aviva by Kameel has quickly become a favorite place for the pair to eat.
“One time mommy came here with an attitude,” Nash said. “But when she ate the food, she was so happy, she was (taking) videos and dancing.”
Robinson couldn’t deny it: “That’s how you know the food’s good,” she said. “You feel it from inside.”
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