On today’s Meat and Greet post, we’re featuring an interview with one of our behind-the-scenes employees- Jeff! As is more than fitting for a team member at Stoltzfus Meats, Jeff has a real passion for food that shines through in his interview.
Q: Tell us a little bit about you and what you like to do outside of work.
A: I was born in Philly, graduated from Ephrata in 2000, attended Johnson and Wales University where I graduated Magna Cum Laude with an associates in Culinary Arts, an associates in Baking and Pastry Arts, and Bachelor’s in Food Service Management. I was a bakery manager in the Intercourse, PA area for 15 years before coming to Stoltzfus Meats. Outside of work I am an avid pizza maker, amateur woodworker, and camping enthusiast.
A: My role at Stoltzfus Meats is the Farmhouse Production Kitchen Manager. My main responsibilities are ordering product, making soups, cleaning the kitchen, and delivering to our retail store.
A: A typical workday for me usually involves setting up any soup production for the customers who have placed a soup order for the day. I then produce said soups, wash the relevant dishes, pack the soups into containers, clean the kitchen, and deliver all products produced in the farmhouse at the end of the day.
A: If we are talking realistically, The Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater New Jersey. It’s a small collection of Japanese stores including a supermarket, restaurants, homewares store, and a book store. It’s nothing to write home about for most people but for me it’s always been as close as I would ever come to making it to actual Japan so it’s been my stand in ever since. The place has a food court which has tons of excellent food options like ramen, Takoyaki, taiyaki, donburi, mochi donuts, tempura, and onigiri. If I had one day it would be spent shopping and eating at the Mitsuwa.
Q: What is the best meal you’ve ever eaten?
Second is a place in place in Baltimore on Light Street called Double Zero. They had super amazing pizzas and wonderfully creative cocktails. The real kicker was that we didn’t realize the place was vegan. Their pizzas were in my top 3 of all time.
Third was in college, my friend Marc Fugaro cooked us homemade chicken parm from scratch. The dude was such an amazing cook even while still in college. His chicken parm that he perfected is the reason I don’t eat chicken parm to this day. None have even come close to holding a candle to his and to him he probably doesn’t even remember making this meal because it was just a throwaway meal to him.
Last but not least is happy hour at Double Knot in Philly. This place at happy hour served mostly Japanese inspired (notice a trend with me) food, in a sort of tapas style. We went for the duck scrapple bao which was fantastic but we must have ordered 6 plates of the short rib robatayaki.
I don’t know about you, but after reading Jeff’s descriptions of his favorite meals I’m feeling hungry! We appreciate Jeff’s passion for delicious food and flavor. If you’d like to taste some of the delicious food that Jeff makes – grab a container of the tomato bisque that he recommends! You can find it online, or in our retail stores.