First off, what got you interesting in being a chef – even as a kid in Hungary?
My grandmother was a chef in Hungary – I grew up in a tough, Communist country and had to take care of my siblings. I was the oldest of three and cooked at home a lot for myself and siblings. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and cooked with her – she was a professional chef and I learned a lot from her.
I’ve been cooking since I was five – I never went to culinary school. I went to university for business. I’ve always enjoyed cooking for others – I hosted events in high school and college and eventually dropped out of college to be a chef.
What did you do afterwards?
I worked at restaurants really since I was 13 – I started as a dishwasher and quickly switched to cooking. Since high school I was always working – cooking and doing add jobs too like being a bouncer at a trip club when I was younger and had more muscles!
I’ve been doing this now for 26 years. When I was 26 I moved to Ireland – I left Hungary for political reasons. There was no way to break free from poverty in Hungary.
What brought you to the states and to the Pittsburgh area specifically?
I worked for a Michelin trained celebrity chef then was offered a job in Florida at a country club. They flew me down, paid for my flight and visa. I had no idea what a country club even was. They hired me on the spot and I was there for a couple of years, but Florida wasn’t my thing. After that I did some contract jobs in Michigan, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania and the Hermitage Inn in Vermont. I met my ex-wife there and we moved to Pittsburgh – I became the executive chef at the Meadows Casino but was working eight-day weeks with no benefits. I was 30 years old – I needed something different. The casino was the first large-scale job I had – we did two massive buffets. I was there for four years but was overworked. I had no days off – it was time to find something else. That’s when Aramark hired me to become the Executive Chef for PNC Park – in 2021.
How is Pittsburgh food and the food you prepared in Hungary similar?
It’s very Eastern European too – like Hungary. The cultures are similar – much of Pittsburgh eats the food that my grandparents ate – the classic foods like pierogis. It’s easy to see those connections.
You’ve worked in more intimate venues like the Wycliffe Country Club in Florida, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Pennsylvania, and the Hermitage Inn in Vermont – why choose a large-scale format like PNC?
It’s a natural progression to want to do something bigger – to have a bigger challenge. And I wanted to do something more business oriented – more leadership oriented. To have an impact on a team. I love managing people and leading people and you can’t do that in a smaller place.
Plus, in a smaller place you get no time off – its much more stressful. If I’m being honest – I wanted to be a bit selfish – to get a better work-life balance and more benefits. For it to be less stressful. I felt burnt out before – shows like The Bear – it really is like that. That stress and pressure. I wanted to pivot and progress.
Now I was just promoted by the way – I’m now the executive chef for all of the Pittsburgh sports venues – not just PNC Park. For Acrisure Stadium, PNC Park, etc.
What goes into formulating a menu for a venue like PNC? How do you decide on what to offer?
You have to make sure Pittsburgh fans feel connected to the food and react well to it. I’d love to make lobster tails but you have to be realistic too. Much of what we sell is going to be things like hot dogs and chicken an pretzels – you have to go with that stuff. But by the All-Star break we have a good idea of what’s selling and what your bottom five items are that aren’t moving and figure out that new thing instead.
How do you figure out what new things to add?
Noah Kahan is coming next week for a concert – we use concert venues as ways to test new foods out. I’d love for the Pirates to make the postseason – we haven’t done that in the five years I’ve been here. That’s a place to try new things too. We have 90% of our menu set by the time the season is done. Then we do chef tastings on new ideas – those are based on the messaging and the Pittsburgh culture we want to incorporate into the menu – and we want to make sure the ideas are cool and social media friendly as well. Of course it also has to be something we can deliver given our kitchen infrastructure as well. We don’t want to overpromise and under-deliver.
When we all agree on items, we pull in our supervisors for tastings. Then in December we do tastings for the organizations to see what they like and cost it all out and set the menu. We also do some tastings with season ticket holders as well.
With the concessions we get more freedom – those items can be more community friendly – more Pittsburgh – like the Renegade Dog and Polish Cannonballs. We do twists on things so they taste good, represent the city and look exciting.
The Boricua Dog for example represents our connection with Roberto Clemente – it’s a Puerto Rican hot dog. We have a Puerto Rican chef who made it just for us at first and it was amazing so we decided to do that for the stadium.
Do you walk around and see how fans react to your food?
I love to see how fans react to it yes. I try to walk around to see how they react and to ensure we’re serving it correctly.
Any new food ideas or dream ideas you want to implement?
I’d love to offer schnitzel – fried chicken and pork chops are huge in Eastern Europe – ones that take up your whole plate. I’m trying to figure out how to do that properly. I think that would be a show-stopper but I’m still figuring out how to do it. You need to do it the right way – and I want to make sure I’m cooking for the city, not just for me and what I would like. It has to resonate with the fans.
We did just launch a new item – the Clark Cone. It’s a Hungarian pastry – like a pull-apart bread – with a sugar coating , Cracker Jacks and a ganache of melted Clark bars on top. We’ll be selling that soon on a trial basis.
I want to take these and other ideas now to the other stadiums as well. We want fans to be happy not just with the team’s performance – we want their food experiences at the stadium to make them happy too.