Q&A with SOUL STAFF

One of my heroes in not just a culinary sense but “all-around good human being” sense is Chef José Andrés. He founded an organization called,
World Central Kitchen, which is a response team to major disaster areas, to get freshly made, healthy meals directly to those impacted by all manner of disasters and emergencies.

There have been many times where I have wanted to drop everything, grab a suitcase, my knife-roll, and hop on a plane to assist his team. However, that is not very realistic as my duties as a husband, father, and coach would preclude me from doing so.

When the opportunity at JBJ Soul Kitchen arose, I could not say no as this is a very similar endeavor and happens to be right in my backyard, an absolute win-win.

Growing up, I was fortunate to have my grandparents living with us.
My grandmother and mom would always cook dinner so I was exposed to a lot growing up, mostly Italian-American and Polish cuisine.

Seafood was also popular in my household, since I grew up in Point Pleasant, not far from the Barnegat Bay. In the summer, I would go crabbing with my brother, mother and grandfather, and we would clean and cook them that day. Nothing beats seafood that fresh!

We also had a very large family so holidays were always a big deal.
Days would go into preparing food for three times the amount of people that we would actually host. My interest waned for a period of time mostly due to work hours and the ease of great food everywhere living in Hoboken. It picked up again after I got a job as a Data Center Tech doing shift work – 10 hours a day, 4 days a week; an excellent schedule that gave me Mondays off.

I started hosting watch parties for Monday Night Football, I’d spend the day shopping and prepping out a full meal for about a dozen friends each week. That went on for a few years until I moved to Bayonne and shortly after in ’09 the recession hit and I was laid off. This left me with a lot of free time to watch cooking shows and wander to the grocery store to try out recipes for my girlfriend. Sometimes they were a hit, sometimes we ended up ordering takeout, but there were enough hits that she eventually became my wife!

There are so many answers to this one, for me the biggest thing is the feeling you have at the end of the night. No matter how good or bad of a day I may have had, I can look out at our diners and feel their gratitude.

Food has an amazing power to not only connect us, but also to lift our spirits. Something as simple as a freshly prepared three-course meal may not seem like a lot to most of us, but for some that can be the highlight of their day or even their week. It offers them hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

The other main thing is the people. Our volunteers are an amazing group of people and they all want to be here helping and learning. That sort of attitude is contagious and really helps lift your spirits.

There are not many restaurants you can walk into and can ask each and every person, “Is there somewhere else you’d rather be right now?”
And not have a single person respond with, “No’.

I find that all I have to do is to just tell people about us. Once people hear our mission statement and what we do for the community, the two most common responses I get are, “You know I’ve heard about JBJ Soul Kitchen, I’ve been meaning to stop in there for dinner!” And, “Oh wow, that sounds amazing, how do I sign up to volunteer?

As I alluded to earlier, the restaurant industry was not my first career choice. I was a network engineer working for a financial services firm for about 15 years. My wife and I moved into Middletown about 12 years ago and were both commuting into New York for work. It was difficult, but we made it work. Then, our first son was born and we soon realized something needed to change.

I had started doing catering gigs on the side, backyard barbecues and more,but still had no experience in a restaurant and certainly no proper training. Then, the signs started lining up. I had no desire to continue the career path which was from an Engineer to Engineering Management.
It wasn’t for me.

After a year I put my notice in, took some family time off and that Spring Semester enrolled at Brookdale Community College’s Culinary Arts program, and the rest is history!

One of my heroes in not just a culinary sense but “all-around good human being” sense is Chef José Andrés. He founded an organization called,
World Central Kitchen, which is a response team to major disaster areas, to get freshly made, healthy meals directly to those impacted by all manner of disasters and emergencies.

There have been many times where I have wanted to drop everything, grab a suitcase, my knife-roll, and hop on a plane to assist his team. However, that is not very realistic as my duties as a husband, father, and coach would preclude me from doing so.

When the opportunity at JBJ Soul Kitchen arose, I could not say no as this is a very similar endeavor and happens to be right in my backyard, an absolute win-win.

Growing up, I was fortunate to have my grandparents living with us.
My grandmother and mom would always cook dinner so I was exposed to a lot growing up, mostly Italian-American and Polish cuisine.

Seafood was also popular in my household, since I grew up in Point Pleasant, not far from the Barnegat Bay. In the summer, I would go crabbing with my brother, mother and grandfather, and we would clean and cook them that day.
Nothing beats seafood that fresh!

We also had a very large family so holidays were always a big deal.
Days would go into preparing food for three times the amount of people that we would actually host. My interest waned for a period of time mostly due to work hours and the ease of great food everywhere living in Hoboken.
It picked up again after I got a job as a Data Center Tech doing shift work – 10 hours a day, 4 days a week; an excellent schedule that gave me Mondays off.

I started hosting watch parties for Monday Night Football, I’d spend the day shopping and prepping out a full meal for about a dozen friends each week. That went on for a few years until I moved to Bayonne and shortly after in ’09 the recession hit and I was laid off. This left me with a lot of free time to watch cooking shows and wander to the grocery store to try out recipes for my girlfriend. Sometimes they were a hit, sometimes we ended up ordering takeout, but there were enough hits that she eventually became my wife!

There are so many answers to this one, for me the biggest thing is the feeling you have at the end of the night. No matter how good or bad of a day I may have had, I can look out at our diners and feel their gratitude.

Food has an amazing power to not only connect us, but also to lift our spirits. Something as simple as a freshly prepared three-course meal may not seem like a lot to most of us, but for some that can be the highlight of their day or even their week.
It offers them hope that tomorrow will be a better day.

The other main thing is the people. Our volunteers are an amazing group of people and they all want to be here helping and learning. That sort of attitude is contagious and really helps lift your spirits.

There are not many restaurants you can walk into and can ask each and every person, “Is there somewhere else you’d rather be right now?”
And not have a single person respond with, “No’.

I find that all I have to do is to just tell people about us. Once people hear our mission statement and what we do for the community, the two most common responses I get are, “You know I’ve heard about JBJ Soul Kitchen, I’ve been meaning to stop in there for dinner!” And, “Oh wow, that sounds amazing, how do I sign up to volunteer?”

As I alluded to earlier, the restaurant industry was not my first career choice. I was a network engineer working for a financial services firm for about 15 years. My wife and I moved into Middletown about 12 years ago and were both commuting into New York for work. It was difficult, but we made it work. Then, our first son was born and we soon realized something needed to change.

I had started doing catering gigs on the side, backyard barbecues and more,but still had no experience in a restaurant and certainly no proper training. Then, the signs started lining up. I had no desire to continue the career path which was from an Engineer to Engineering Management. It wasn’t for me.

After a year I put my notice in, took some family time off and that Spring Semester enrolled at Brookdale Community College’s Culinary Arts program, and the rest is history!