Jason Wellnitz Certified Executive Chef
 

Born and raised in Bay City, Michigan, Jason Wellnitz started his culinary career at the Bay Arenac Career Center under Chef Andy Bacigalupo. He began working at the Bay Valley Resort in Heatherfield's Restaurant. Jason competed in Skills USA VICA in high school and moved on to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park NY. Jason filled his free time by sharpening his knives and working at local restaurants. Jason continued his education by completing his Externship at the Soaring Eagle Casino under Chef Chris Nadobny, Chef Brent Hinez, and Chef Brian Owenby. 

After graduation Jason started working as a line cook at the Bavarian Inn Lodge of Frankenmuth Michigan. Jason moved quickly from line cook, to lead, to supervisor, to sous chef within 2 years, working under Chefs Jason VanDamm, Mark Handy CEC, and Dale Poppe before taking over as Executive Chef by year 3 at the age of 23. Jason honed his skills in family cuisine, bulk cooking, and banquets before staging at Alinea in Chicago in 2015. Jason’s biggest take away from that experience was realizing that there was not anything being done there that he could not do himself given the proper staff for support. 

Jason then moved to Grand Rapids Michigan, taking over as Executive Chef of Kent Country Club, Michigan’s oldest private country club. Jason honed his fine dining skills and trained with wine and alcohol pairings and strived to never repeat a menu item changing the full menu every three months. Jason completed training and gained his level 1 sommelier certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers in 2017. During his time at Kent Country Club Jason conducted approximately 20 wine dinners and many private dinners for members.

 Jason continued to maintain membership and service at the country club through the pandemic by rewriting menus with nightly family style to go options and setting up the storerooms as commissaries for staff and members when stock at grocery stores became scarce. While in Grand Rapids, Jason briefly served on the board of the Greater Grand Rapids chapter of ACF as treasurer before returning to the Saginaw area. 

Jason returned to the Saginaw area and resumed his position as Executive Chef of the Bavarian Inn Lodge in August of 2020. Jason was heavily involved with the design of the kitchens and service areas for the new Bavarian Blast Waterpark, revamped food production and output for current food and beverage areas and curated a new wine menu for the hotel. Jason achieved his CEC in February of 2025. Jason is also a certified ServSafe instructor and has a flair for Molecular gastronomy. 

Jason has been working in the industry for approximately 25 years and just celebrated his 15th collective years of service at the Bavarian Inn Lodge and was just instated as the vice president of the ACF Flint Saginaw Valley Chapter.