We are thrilled to share the good news that Kristian Unvericht will be our new year-round full-time Camp Food Director. Working closely with Barbara Black, he will take our camp cuisine to new heights. Kristian comes to us with a wealth of experience and a passion for food that is extraordinary. Whether you’re a true foodie or just love good food at camp, having Kristian on board is something very, very special.
Here’s his food background before he came to Greeley, PA.
Chef De cuisine -Fuego Restaurant, Tucson Arizona-Fine Dining Southwest cuisine
Assistant Corporate Pastry -Chef Fox Restaurants, Tucson Arizona- Modern American
Assistant General Manager-Fenouil Brasserie, Portland Oregon- Fine Dining French Nouveau
General Manager- Janos and Downtown Kitchen and Cocktails, Tucson Arizona-Janos was Fine Dining Southwestern Cuisine and Downtown Kitchen was global comfort food
General Manager-Quinn’s Gastro Pub, Seattle Washington- Farm to Table northwest cuisine
General Manager-Tallulah’s Café Seattle Washington- Vegetable focused Farm to table casual
Restaurant Consultant- Salare Restaurant, Seattle Washington- Southern American farm to table
General Manager-Super Six, Seattle Washington- Hawaiian and Korean fusion
We asked Kristian for fun facts about himself and here’s one of our favorites:
“I once met Bill and Melinda Gates, Dave Mathews and all of the members of Pearl Jam in the same night at a restaurant I ran. That is like hitting the Seattle trifecta.”
Read Kristian’s full story of how he developed an infatuation with food and a passion for quality, and what he loves about camp below. Welcome, Kristian!
My interest in food came at an early age, mainly because I loved to eat it! But I also attribute my love for food to both of my grandmothers. They were born into families that made them learn to cook at an early age as part of their house duties. From these early times as children cooking, they were passed down generations of recipes and cooking techniques that they still use to this day. So as a boy, I would watch them prepare meals that sometimes took the whole day – it was the true definition of slow foods. Meals of braised meats, homemade breads and tortillas, potato dumplings, elaborate confections. Looking back, it was truly amazing that so many dishes took a lot of care and knowledge.
One of my grandmothers is Mexican and the other is German so I also had this diverse culinary experience in my life. The smells that would permeate the house were just intoxicating and by dinner time, I would be starving from anticipation. I think my favorite part was not only this sense of happiness I got from tasting food, but also how it brought our family together to relax from the day and just exist in this moment of togetherness and enjoyment.
By the time I was 17, I had dreams of what I wanted to be and working professionally in a restaurant was not one of them. But like all good moms that recognize their child’s true desire and potential, I was asked if I would like to meet a well-known chef in my hometown. My mom thought I could be a chef’s apprentice and see where it took me. It didn’t take long after being in a professional kitchen before I fell in love with the energy. The camaraderie, bonding and commitment. The dedication to pushing yourself to the limits. All of these things made me realize I didn’t just want to commit myself to my relationship with food, but absolutely needed to.
After working my way up through that kitchen and becoming a chef de cuisine by the age of 23, I decided to learn more about restaurants. I went on to work as a pastry chef under someone I still consider to this day to be one of the greatest. In that restaurant, we had an open kitchen, a new concept at the time, and boy did that shake up my whole world. I got to see people eating this food we all worked so hard to prepare. I saw smiles, laughter and pictures being taken of this food.
My next thought was that I already knew I wanted to own my own place some day and thought it would be best if I learned every job in a restaurant. So why not learn to serve and manage a dining room where I could be surrounded by this joy? For some reason, I had this naive thought that every person who comes into a restaurant is happy and smiling so it would be a piece of cake being out with the guests. Ha!
At that point, I decided I needed to move from my hometown, Tucson, to a bigger city with an exploding culinary scene, so I packed my belongings and moved to Portland, Oregon. Even though my first restaurant was fine dining, after moving to a bigger city with such a talented chef, it just blew my mind seeing the progressive techniques and new ingredients. I quickly landed a job managing this beautiful French Nouveau restaurant and in my off time, I ate my way through the city.
Years went by and I landed back in Tucson to help my grandmother recover from an accident and found an opportunity to work for a James Beard award winning chef. His life’s work was rooted in the preservation of heritage foods of the southwest and his commitment truly inspired me. I helped change local health codes to allow schools to have onsite gardens that they could use to feed their students. I became a board member for Slow Food. I really discovered an awareness for sustainability and cultural preservation from that chef. But after several years of learning and opening a new restaurant with him, the big city bug came back.
I met a woman, fell in love, and we decided to move to Seattle, which was another great food city that constantly inspired me. I helped open and run several restaurants there. Lauren and I had our first child, Eleanor, and my world changed. Family became a bigger focus in my life, as you would expect.
We had this great idea to travel to Latin America for awhile, showing our daughter more of the world. Then, one day before we were able to start our travels, old friends of mine, Johnny and Rachel Waszczak asked me if I knew someone that wanted to be a Food Director for some family-owned camps they work for. It sounded really fun and brought back fond memories of my childhood at a sleepaway camp, so I jumped at the opportunity.
Lauren, Eleanor and I picked up once again and moved to Greeley, PA. Lauren now works at Camp Timber Tops, where she gets to use so much of her past education and life experience. Seeing her in front of a group of girls playing, mentoring, and helping them grow up to be strong women is so amazing. Not to mention our daughter has hundreds of acres to play with the other staff children too young to be campers. Honestly, her development exploded as soon as we set foot on camp and I can’t ever see her not being at camp. It is also funny when we leave camp and go places like New York City and get on a subway where she waves at every single person because she thinks everyone is her camp family. If only this world was like camp all the time.
This year in the off-season, our family is setting off on our original adventure for a few months and heading to Mexico and Cuba. We will be going to Mexico City, Guadalajara (where part of Lauren’s family lives), Oaxaca, Yucatan and finally, Cuba. I have traveled all throughout Europe and have spent a lot of time in Germany where my father’s family is from. I have learned a lot about my family’s background there, but never as much about my mother’s side. So this trip we are about to embark on is to find out more about our Mexican heritages. And let’s be honest, it is also about eating a ton of fantastic food! While we are there I hope to learn some great recipes and get culinary ideas that I can possibly bring to camp.
Our menu is always diverse and you will find Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese and Middle Eastern cuisine. So many of our dishes are from Barbara Black who is not only a camp owner, but also all of the campers surrogate grandmother, a role she wouldn’t give up for the world. I love coming in to work and seeing Barbara making Matzah balls for Friday dinner or Mandelbread for a sweet treat. Her love for feeding her campers and the joy they receive from it brings me back to the reason I became interested in food, my own grandmothers. So I am here at camp to continue traditions passed on from Barbara and the Black family and also honor the traditions of my family. Because I believe that happiness and love come from something as simple as a good meal.
In this role, I hope that my culinary experience and background can help to maintain the success of our food program and also bring new ideas to compliment tradition. A few of the new things I am working on are even more delicious items to expand our menu, more options for campers with dietary restrictions, and a pizza oven and grove breakfast that are going to knock the socks off our campers. Also, this year Lauren and I will be planting a camp garden so our cooking school program has lots of fresh vegetables to use. I also hope to have a good portion of our food waste go to composting and feed for local pig farms in our community. As I have discussed in my background, I believe sustainability and being more green is beneficial to our planet and also the future of our children.
And what do I like about camp? The first day I was introduced to camp, I felt like family. Everyone went out of their way to show me around, introduce themselves, and make it clear they were happy to have me as part of this great team. I quickly learned that camp is a special place that brings joy to everyone involved. We are all here to promote good values, acceptance and respect for each other while having fun. This is a place that creates long-lasting bonds of friendship. It’s almost like a secret club that you wish the whole world could experience. Not a day goes by that I don’t feel fortunate to be surrounded by special people. As I was told from the beginning, and I strongly believe it, people who come to work at camp are good people. Because devoting your time, energy and love to make each summer for the campers the best, most memorable experience, can only come from someone with a good heart. This is what excites me and makes me so passionate about working here at camp.
