Kristel Arabian

Founder

Kristel Arabian was born in Beirut, Lebanon to an Armenian family rich in culinary traditions. Food and big meals were a central focus of their family gatherings and culture. As a child, she was always interested in determining the "whys and hows" of all things. This stretched from the sciences to the daily occurrences in her mother's busy home kitchen. Instead of cartoons, she would watch hours of Julia Child, Jacques Pepin and her favorite show, "Great Chefs". During her younger years, Kristel dabbled in both food and science; working first at a bakery at the age of 14, then spending 8 years as a pharmacy technician and later in science laboratories. During this time she earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Microbiology, with an emphasis in Chemistry.
 
After graduating, on sheer instinct, Kristel found a job cooking upscale American comfort food at Marshall Blair's restaurant in Silverlake. She thrived in the fast-paced kitchen environment and parlayed her kitchen training with her knowledge of science to help understand the “whys and hows” of all the techniques she was absorbing. She later worked at Joe Miller’s Michelin starred restaurant in Venice as the daytime Chef de Cuisine and was also the chef under Evan Funke for The Rustic Canyon Group’s opened of Milo & Olive in Santa Monica.
 
Following her time in the kitchen, Kristel spent 3 years recruiting chefs at a long-standing agency in Los Angeles as their sole culinary recruiter and later, part of the opening team at One Haus NYC, as the Director of Recruitment. She now enjoys running this boutique recruiting firm, Kitchen Culture (named as a nod to her background in Microbiology along with the nuanced nature of Restaurant culture), where she is dedicated to working with a small group of like-minded Chefs, Managers and Operators to help further their success in the realm of hospitality.

Most recently, Kristel has Co-Founded two food-tech software companies, weaving her love of hospitality with her flair for innovation: She also sits on the board of non-profits. Her work includes activity with The Independent Restaurant Coalition, Hospitality United Alliance, The Independent Hospitality Coalition and Armenia Empowered. She is also actively working with Chrysalis, an organization that helps “changes lives through jobs”.