Chance encounter with celebrity chef sparks UAF student's dream
February 4, 2021
After Daniel Christensen's brother died, Daniel found himself adrift. He decided to
join the applied business degree program, mostly as a distraction. It didn’t take
long for him to realize how important a business education is for the success of his
many entrepreneurial aspirations.
One of Christensen’s pursuits is building and growing a production company that blends his artistic nature and business knowledge. He is intrigued as much by producing music and videos as he is by performing. He plans to pass this production company on to his niece, the daughter of his late brother. He says the knowledge he has acquired in the business program at the Community and Technical College is helping him make strategic and sound business decisions for this company.
Christensen has held many different jobs since he was young. One of his favorite jobs fulfilled his lifelong dream of being the guy running down the lanes at a bowling alley to fix a problem.
Working in the food industry has always been a mainstay. At one point, he was working back in the kitchen of a local eatery. Guy Fieri, host of the popular food shows "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" and "Guy’s Grocery Games" came to Fairbanks to do an episode on its food establishments. Christensen was on shift at one of those venues, quietly working behind the scenes to take the production crew’s lunch order, prepare the meals and deliver them. Fieri introduced himself after he and the show's producer noticed Christenen's work ethic and efforts to support the establishment and the crew there that day.
Getting to meet Fieri, along with Christensen’s food service history and his new knowledge of proper business planning, have motivated him to begin planning a cafe. So, when you see a new cafe open in downtown Fairbanks, pop in and ask if it belongs to Daniel Christensen. If so, he’ll deserve a pat on the back and lots of local support!