Over the years, Cristy Kisner’s life has taken a lot of turns. Not all of them for the better.
Kisner – who owns Cristy’s Kitchen in Roswell, a café and bakery that serves up gluten free, dairy free, and vegan dishes – is originally from Peru, and lived with her family in Lima before coming to Georgia. Kisner first began cooking in earnest as a way to help her daughters cope with some health problems – her oldest daughter has an autoimmune disease, and another has a severe gluten intolerance.
“I started teaching the moms of the school how to make healthy food,” she said. “I released my first cookbook [in Peru] in Spanish.”
Through food, Kisner wanted to find a way to help alleviate her daughters’ symptoms. While doing research for her oldest daughter she came across what’s called the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet. The AIP diet involves eliminating certain foods that may cause inflammation and then reintroducing them gradually once symptoms improve.
According to Medical News Today, there is not enough evidence to confirm that the AIP diet can reduce inflammation or benefit people with any autoimmune disease. However, there is research that shows certain foods can make autoimmune disease symptoms worse, and some scientific evidence to suggest a link between gut health and inflammatory disease. For Kisner, it’s not just about taking those inflammatory ingredients out of her food, but making sure she adds nutrients in as well.
“I am still learning, I am still reading,” she said. “That is my goal, just to share all of this, because I know that there are so many people that have the same problem, the same journey. I know how lonely you can feel.”
Years after her first cookbook, Kisner has another one on the market featuring recipes without gluten, dairy, or processed sugars. But it was a long journey to get to this point. According to Kisner, while living in Peru, her husband Sebastian’s furniture business began to struggle. Eventually, the family went bankrupt, and around that same time her husband had a heart attack. But it was also then that a new opportunity arose.
Kisner’s brother-in-law lived in Roswell, and when the family had visited before Kisner had stumbled across the café that would eventually become Cristy’s Kitchen. She fell in love with the place, and started to dream of one day opening her own restaurant. While her husband was recovering, her brother-in-law called with some news. Remember that place you loved? It’s for sale.
“This is a sign,” Kisner remembered thinking. “It’s a huge sign. We have to move there.”
With help from family and friends, they were able to buy the business, located at 1066 Alpharetta Street. They arrived in Roswell in October of 2019 and opened up the restaurant that December. Then, COVID-19 hit. Kisner said they tried not to let the pandemic discourage them.
“We were so grateful, really, because we thought okay – we are in the middle of the worst time for the whole world, but we are living our dream,” she said.
Times were hard during those early days. Then, something happened that changed everything. According to Kisner, Brandon Stanton – the founder of the social media account Humans of New York (HONY), who is originally from Marietta – started coming into Cristy’s Kitchen. Stanton has an autoimmune disease, and began trying the health conscious goodies at Cristy’s. Eventually, he asked if he could share her story on his account.
At first, she was skeptical.
“I said, ‘No way. I don’t want to share my story,’” she said. “I don’t even have a picture on my Facebook profile.”
Eventually, Kisner said Stanton was able to convince her by showing her that her story might help other people going through something similar.
“If we write your story, you can give hope to so [many] people in the world that are on the same journey that you are with your daughters, or with financial problems, or health problems, whatever,” she remembered him telling her. “You can give people so much hope.”
Stanton did not respond to a request for comment for this story, but Kisner and her husband are featured in a 12-part story on HONY’s Instagram from early 2021. A fundraising campaign was also connected with the posts.
“Last night was very special for me,” reads a HONY Instagram post featuring Kisner and her husband from March 19, 2021. “I almost never get to be in the physical presence of someone while their story is being posted on HONY. But after closing time last night, I headed over to @cristyskitchenga to spend the evening with Cristy and Sebastian.”
Stanton is not the only customer that Kisner has formed a relationship with.
“We have this amazing connection with our customers, because you know, when you have so [many] dietary restrictions, or allergies, you need to find a safe place,” she said. “That’s what we have. We have not customers, [but] a beautiful community now.”
The full HONY story about Kisner can be found on HONY’s Instagram