Mayhaw, Beautyberry, and Mimosa Flower Jelly from the Florida Panhandle

Looking for a lovely lunch alternative? Here you go! A little spice, a little sweet, a little smoke, some great Bakehouse bread, and the crowning culinary jewel—a couple spoonfuls of one of the great new fruit jellies we just started getting in from the Florida Panhandle.

The sandwich starts with Bakehouse bread. I made mine with Rustic Italian, but really, a couple of moderately thick slices of any of them would probably work really well. Toast them until they’re golden brown.

Next, spread on some of our Pimento Cheese—a bit on the inside of each slice of bread. It’s been two decades now since I first came up with this recipe, and over the course of those 20 years, Pimento Cheese has become one of the most popular items we produce. You can score some seven days a week at the Creamery, Deli, Roadhouse, and Bakehouse!

Atop the cheese, spoon on a thinnish layer of one of these special Panhandle jellies. While they’re not all that hard to find in the Southeast, up until they arrived at the Deli last month, you might have gone most of your life without ever seeing them here in Southeastern Michigan. They come from the folks at Bright Acres Homestead, in Wakulla County, not too far from Tallahassee. The farm has been owned and run by Dan and Jenn Bright since the middle of the aughts, right around the same time I started working on the pimento cheese recipe! Bright Acres is a real working farm—animals, crops, and crafts. I look forward to getting down there in person one day.

Right now, we have three of their special Florida Panhandle jellies in stock:

• Mimosa Flower Jelly – Mimosa flowers are beautiful to look at, but few folks know you can also make jelly out of them. Freshly plucked from the trees on the farm, then gently simmered with sugar into a jelly. Since the mimosas bloom only once a year, the jelly is remarkably rare! Delicate, aromatic, elegant flavor. Mimosa—Albizia Julibrissin—is also known as “The Joy Tree,” so if you, like me, are always looking to add a bit of joy to your day, give it a try!
• Mayhaw Berry Jelly – Mayhaw berries come from early spring blossoms. Tart and terrific! The color of a light red wine, the jelly has a bit of the tartness I’m so taken by when it comes to cranberries.
• Beautyberry Jelly – Beautyberries come from a small shrub that grows in both the American Southeast and Southeast Asia. If you happen upon a plant, take note that the leaves are said to act as a natural mosquito repellent. The berries, though, are what the jelly is based on—tiny and bright purple when they’re harvested in August. The freshly pressed juice is also purple, but in cooking with sugar, it turns a wonderful pinkish purple. The Beautyberry Jelly is quite hard to come by, so score a jar or two ASAP if you want to try it!

After you’ve spread on the jelly, lay on a slice, or two, or three, or four, of your favorite bacon. Nueske’s applewood smoked bacon is often my choice—24 hours of smoking over applewood logs makes one seriously lovely bacon.

That’s it! Close up the sandwich, slice, eat, and enjoy. Open a bag of Zingerman’s potato chips (I’m partial to the Tellicherry Black Pepper) and you’ve got a lovely lunch.

Joy-inducing jellies

A restored estate, a bird sanctuary, a whole lot of history

Fritz Maytag, the founder of Anchor Steam Brewery, once told me, “It’s not all that hard to find a great product. And it’s not that hard to find a really wonderful story. But when you can find a great product that has a great story behind it, you’re onto something special!” The Italian rice from Cascina Oschiena is just that—both the rice and the story behind it are exceptional. Oschiena’s work exemplifies beautifully all of what I wrote in “A Taste of Zingerman’s Food Philosophy,” and thanks to the always amazing work by our friends and importer Rogers Collection, their rice has finally arrived in Ann Arbor!

Cascina Oschiena is one of the oldest farms in their area in the province of Vercelli in the Piedmont, up in the northwest corner of the country. All the way back in the 13th century, Cascina Oschiena was being farmed by the friars at the Abbey of St. Stephen of Vercelli. As was true in those days, estates of this sort were essentially self-contained communities. As the crew at Oschiena writes:

All the inhabitants contributed to life on the farmstead, each with their own activity: the paddy weeders, diggers, carters, riders, saddlers, blacksmiths, carpenters and joiners. … The traditional hand broadcast sowing method was accompanied by the transplant technique in the 1930s, and this continued until the end of the 1950s.

Rice growing at that time was almost exclusively done by hand. If you want to see what it was like, check out the amazing 1949 black and white film Riso Amaro, which is centered around the work of the folks who worked so hard in the fields. For the most part, they were women, known in Italian as mondine. Today, Cascina Oschiena is again run by a woman. It is the passion project of Alice Cerutti, whom I had the honor of spending a day with back in 2019, when I visited Cascina Oschiena. Of her work, Alice shares,

I am a farmer with a degree in Business Studies from the University of Turin. … We are deeply involved in safeguarding the environment, and are committed to biodiversity and conserving the historical landscape. Over the years, we have made renovations to maintain the essence and character of the original structures, honoring a centuries-old history of our farmhouse.

In the spirit of what I wrote above about stories and birds, part of the drive for the project was to create a safe resting place for some very special winged creatures. Alice shares the backstory:

The fields surrounding our farmhouse constitute the last recorded Italian nesting site of the Black-tailed Godwit. This … brought us to create the Cascina Oschiena Nature Reserve by converting 60 acres (one fourth of the farmland) from rice cultivation to Natural Reserve and the Black-tailed Godwit became the symbol of our Farm and its Products.

Of course, the main culinary question is “What is the quality of the rice?” The answer is, it’s excellent! There’s a wonderful freshness to the flavor, a vitality and aliveness that I love. It is, in the context of what I wrote last week, the essence of the amazing ecosystem from which it emerges.

We have four risi from Oschiena on hand at the Deli to get going with:

Arborio – The classic for making risotto. Rice arrived in Italy as an immigrant, coming from the Spanish-ruled Sicily, where rice had earlier arrived from India. Arborio (and Carnaroli) are actually descended from rice varieties that came from the Philippines in 1839. Nearly 200 years later, Arborio and Carnaroli would clearly be called some of the most Italian agricultural products available.

Carnaroli – With a bit more “tooth” and a little more flavor, this is my personal pick for risotto.

Selenia – A special short-grain variety that works well for making Sicilian arancini and other similar dishes that call for a stickier rice. Though it’s rarely seen in the U.S., we have this rice on hand, and I’m especially excited!

Ebano – A rare black rice with a great toasty, earthy flavor. Super tasty and visually appealing for summer rice salads, main course rice dishes that aren’t risotto, and more.

All four rices are remarkable, as wonderful as the story of Alice Cerutti, her family, friends, and team at Cascina Oschiena have created over the last eight years. Swing by, take some home, and start cooking soon!

Buy a box (or two)

Extraordinary organic oil from California

Over the last few months, trying to figure out how to lead through such trying times, I’ve been reassuring myself regularly that working through hard times like these (which I wrote about in the pamphlet of the same name) builds character, increases resilience, and enhances long-term health. In a sense, I suppose, that is what was proven true for us throughout the Covid pandemic. Although it was incredibly challenging, I can see now that there are indeed some good things that came out of it. ZingTrain added online classes. BAKE! did the same as well. Roadhouse Park was created in response; in fact, it just opened for the spring season a few days ago. (Swing by on a nice afternoon, appreciate the fresh air at the picnic tables, and enjoy some oysters—they’re only $2 each if you come for Happy Hour, Monday through Friday from 2–6 pm. Order up beer, wine, cocktails, and the whole compelling Roadhouse menu anytime this spring and summer.)

Another one of the good things that emerged out of the Covid pandemic was my connection with the Independent Restaurant Coalition (IRC). The non-profit brought together quality- and community-focused independently owned and run restaurants from all over the country. The group advocated for restaurants with great effectiveness in very thoughtful, collaborative ways throughout those Covid years, and is still actively engaged in doing terrific advocacy work today. Maybe most meaningful of all, out of that group of caring people, I probably also made 14 or 15 new friends! On every level, it was, and is, an inspiration!

One of the many great friends I’ve made through that work is Camilla Marcus, one of the IRC’s co-founders. At the time, she was running a recently opened restaurant in Manhattan. Unfortunately, like many small businesses I know, the restaurant did not make it through the pressures of the pandemic. To her enormous credit, Camilla came out of Covid by creating a whole new company, which she called west~bourne, in its place. Fast Company called Camilla one of the “Most Creative People in Business.” I just call her kind, caring, compassionate, and a great cook and businessperson to boot! All the products on the west~bourne website are worth taking a look at. My total top pick, though, is the exceptional extra virgin avocado oil.

The folks at west~bourne have set a whole new standard for me of what avocado oil can be—it really does redefine the class! Each bottle is filled with a beautiful green-gold, cold-pressed oil that’s really the essence of what makes the best avocados so special. The flavor, like any of the great extra virgin oils we sell, is complex, beautifully balanced, and has a lovely, long, lingering finish. It tastes, as you would expect, intensively of what you would expect from the best ripe avocados (which, to be clear, we rarely get around these parts)—buttery, subtly sweet, amazingly aromatic with a little hint of licorice and a titch of tarragon! Food & Wine journalist Kyle Beechey says west~bourne’s is the best avocado oil she’s ever had. Ever since it arrived at the Deli a few weeks ago I’ve been saying the same!

Use west~bourne’s extra virgin avocado oil to dress salad as you do olive oil. Make bruschetta with it—toast some Bakehouse bread, and while it’s hot, pour on some avocado oil and sprinkle with a pinch of good sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper. (I love the top grade Tellicherry at the Deli, and also at the Roadhouse, where it’s on all the tables and those incredible Pepper Fries.) Drizzle it on avocado toast, and you’ll take your usual favorite to new culinary heights. Great on a tin of high-quality tuna—try Salade Nicoise with avocado oil. Superfine on a salad with fresh fennel and oranges and, if you want, slices of ripe avocado as well. Great on pasta with grated Parmigiano Reggiano (the Valserena is tasting particularly great right now) or Pecorino, a bunch of freshly ground black pepper, and avocado oil, along with maybe some sautéed spring asparagus or fresh English peas. You can bake with it too—here’s west~bourne’s recipe for lemon cake made with avocado oil.

Camilla Marcus’ marvelous new cookbook, My Regenerative Kitchen: Plant-Based Recipes and Sustainable Practices to Nourish Ourselves and the Planet, is full of great recipes, including many for avocado oil. Oh yeah, chef and restaurateur Alice Waters wrote the foreword! A big part of what makes west~bourne’s work so special is the significant commitment to work towards ecological sustainability. It is, from the outside looking in, what appears to be the essence of the business. In fact, west~bourne was founded with one simple mission:

… to cure the climate crisis through regenerative food. With a focus on our collective decisions around food and the kitchen, we create products to shift the current paradigm while repairing the relationships between ourselves, our food, and our Earth.

Want to emulate west~bourne’s wonderful efforts at sustainability? west~bourne’s writer Angela Fink offers this sound suggestion:

Start small and stay consistent. In fashion, focus on buying fewer, better-quality pieces that reflect your style. For food, support local farmers, plan meals, and opt for seasonal produce. Sustainability isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress and making mindful choices that align with your values.

Your new favorite finishing oil?

P.S. You won’t see the extra virgin avocado oil on the Zingermans.com Mail Order website, but we’d love to ship you some—just send us an email at [email protected].

What is a cheesemonger? Just for fun, guess the right answer:

1. A farmer who makes cheese.
2. An artist who makes sculptures out of cheese.
3. An athlete who chases wheels of cheese down mountains.
4. A merchant who shares their cheese expertise with shoppers.

Did you guess d? Nice work! That’s what Zingerman’s Delicatessen cheesemonger (aka professional curd nerd) Scott Evans does for a living. He decides which cheeses to buy for the Deli’s specialty food shop and helps customers choose which ones to take home. Pairing a shopper with the perfect cheese is an art. Figuring out how their sense of taste works is the name of the game. 

“You can give someone a cheese they walked in wanting but had never heard of, and that they didn’t know how to ask for, if you know how to ask the right questions,” Scott explains. 

The key is knowing how to ask “why?” Sometimes, Scott asks why a customer likes a particular flavor. Other times, he explores why they’re drawn to a certain texture. Often, he inquires about how they want to use the cheese.

“Nailing that down is what gives them an extraordinary experience,” Scott says.

Extraordinary cheese experiences weren’t a big part of Scott’s upbringing. Like many Midwesterners, he encountered so much block cheddar that he almost stopped noticing it. As he grew up, he started appreciating more complex flavors, and as he entered the culinary world, he learned how to tease out what shapes people’s gustatory preferences.

An appreciation for “why” questions drew Scott to Zingerman’s in 2019. He’d worked behind the scenes in restaurants, and the Deli’s specialty food shop offered an opportunity to interact with customers face to face. He started specializing in cheese – especially cheese from American producers – in 2021.

“I help people learn that a cheese from Indiana or Wisconsin can be as good as anything you’d find abroad, and that it doesn’t have to be shipped halfway across the world,” Scott explains. 

Learning from cheesemakers is one of Scott’s favorite parts of the job. Visiting farms and other producers is a special perk. He’ll never forget his first trip to Wisconsin to watch suppliers work their magic.

“That trip crystallized the value of cheese for me, and how different it is from other products,” he explains. “Cheese is an agricultural product at its core: It’s weather, it’s grass, it’s cows. That makes it regional, seasonal, and something that changes. So much work goes into it, and so many hands touch it. They all influence what you’re ultimately selling.”

Ready to tap into Scott’s expertise? Check out Real Simple’s guide to cheese shopping. 

When dairy deliciousness and doing the right thing come together

While the country seems suffused in controversy on any number of social issues, here’s a cause that could bring anyone who loves great food into the fold: the campaign to Save The Emmentaler® is calling for our help!

Gourmino’s Save The Emmentaler initiative is committed to supporting “small-scale cheesemakers and their centuries-old craft, promoting the genuine, natural qualities of Emmentaler AOP as an authentic product that goes beyond tradition to ensure its continued excellence.” I’m on board!! If you’d like to enlist as well, the action step is easy—swing by the Deli and buy a bit of this terrific cheese! (If you’re out of town, just email [email protected] and we can ship you some!) Don’t delay! Supplies of this handmade artisan offering are, not surprisingly, sort of limited!

Emmentaler AOP has long been revered as the “king of Swiss cheeses”; it comes in a massive, 30-inch diameter, 200-pound wheel, and features distinctive holes. Its iconic shape is so well-known that children often draw it when depicting cheese. Tracing its origins to the 13th century, Emmentaler AOP is still crafted by this small number of tradition-minded cheesemakers using the same centuries-old methods. Old-school Emmentaler like this is made only in the Emme Valley, in the central part of Switzerland, about two-thirds of the way from Zurich to Bern. It dates back to the same era as the founding of the Swiss democratic system, in the late 13th century and has been exported since the 16th century. Minimum standards have been legally in place since the formation of the Swiss Cheese Union in 1901, the year before the Deli’s building was built. The far stricter Appellation d’Origin standards were put in place a century later, and these are the standards that the Emmentaler AOP we’re working so hard to save has exceeded. You really can taste the difference. It is, in truth, a truly remarkable cheese. The mission of the Save the Emmentaler movement is both simple and powerful: “Preserve Emmentaler AOP’s integrity through sustainable, small-scale cheesemaking and traditional ripening methods.” Here are six reasons that it really resonates deeply for me.

1. It tastes terrific—there are hundreds of “Swiss cheeses” in the world, but they are not the same as this one, the original. It is to the flavor of supermarket “Swiss” what a stuffed whale would be to the sort that swims in the ocean and that most everyone reading this will also want to help save. It is an ideal fit for our longstanding definition of quality at Zingerman’s: full-flavored and traditionally made.
2. When a community loses its cheese, it loses part of its spirit and connection to place. As Sinead O’Connor sang in “I Want to Talk About Ireland,” “We’ve lost contact with our history … And this is what’s wrong with us.” The work behind Save the Emmentaler was established to keep that from happening. Rooted, connected community is the core of caring; healthy countries are made up of caring communities.
3. Switzerland is one of the oldest democracies in the world, and craft-based, cheesemaking spread throughout the country is one of its anchors, economically, environmentally, agriculturally, and culturally.
4. The more we can demonstrate that there IS a viable market for traditional foods like this traditional Emmentaler AOP, the more people are likely to take on the work of making them.
5. Full-flavored foods like this create joy and beauty in the world. And we could certainly use more of both!
6. As I discussed in the pamphlet “A Revolution of Dignity in the Twenty-First Century Workplace,” this system is built on the foundation of dignity at every level. The farmers, the cows, the land, the community, the cheese, and the customers—all are treated with respect and care in this wonderfully regenerative process.

What makes this cheese so special? It starts with the cows. They graze on a diverse diet of grasses and herbs in open meadows, which gives the milk—and the cheese—a unique and rich flavor. The herds are small, usually just 12 to 20 cows, allowing farmers to maintain a close connection with each animal. Healthier, well-cared-for cows naturally produce higher-quality milk. The milk itself is raw and delivered to the dairy twice a day. It still arrives in old-school milk cans—unlike industrial pumping (which is faster but can damage the delicate fat globules in the milk), cans can help preserve quality. The milk is made into cheese within 12 hours of milking, ensuring it’s as fresh as possible when the process begins.

Gourmino itself was founded nearly a quarter century ago by a quintet of quality-conscious farmers in the interest of helping sustain traditional Swiss cheeses into the 21st century. Today the group is up to 12 producers, and, I will say with confidence that every single cheese we’ve ever gotten from Gourmino has been great!

The Emmentaler AOP Reserve we have on hand right now was made by the Schöpfer family at the Mountain Dairy of Kleinstein. It’s been aged for an impressive two years. The affinage process begins in Gourmino’s Langnau Emmental cellars, where the wheels are hand-washed weekly. Later, the best wheels are moved to the facility in Reichenbach Mountain Galleries for what they refer to as “Affinage in the Mountain,” since the cellar is literally carved into the mountain.

With 24 months of maturing, it should be no surprise that the flavor of the Emmentaler AOP Reserve is meaty, concentrated, complex, and compelling. There’s a small touch of sweetness, a good bit of lovely bitterness. Eat it at room temperature to access its full flavor. Great with some of the heirloom apples we can still get around here this time of year! Totally terrific on slices of Bakehouse’s Dinkelbrot, which have been spread generously with Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter.

For anyone who loves full-flavored traditional cheese, the Emmentaler AOP Reserve is a really great choice! And, the more we eat it, the more demand goes up, and the more effective the campaign to Save the Emmentaler is going to be!

Procure a pound

Grace Singleton, co-managing partner of Zingerman’s Delicatessen, and I persevered through internet issues (at times it sounded like we were talking to each other through fast food drive-through speakers from the ’80s) to talk about everything from her culinary background to what’s ahead in the new year at the Deli. She shared what it’s like working with her fellow managing partners, Rick Strutz and Rodger Bowser; her passion for understanding issues (and fixing them); and her favorite items from around the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (ZCoB). 

Jason Ujvari
Zingerman’s Creative Services Design Manager

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Jason: Where did your career begin before you came to Ann Arbor?

Grace: I grew up on the east side of Cleveland and went to culinary school back in the late ’80s. That was when culinary schools were just starting to be a thing. There weren’t a lot of them. Johnson & Wales University and the CIA [Editor’s note: That’s the Culinary Institute of America, not to be confused with the government’s Central Intelligence Agency] were around. I went to Paul Smith’s College, which is way upstate New York in the Adirondack Mountains. The college has a lot of land (over 10,000 acres) and a small student population (under 2,000 students). A friend who went to U of M got a big kick out of that because there were that many people just in his dorm!

After I graduated, I started off my culinary career and worked for a couple of really good organizations. I worked at Stouffer’s restaurants. Yes, that Stouffer’s. Back in the day, Stouffer’s used to have hotels, restaurants, and frozen food—all three separate divisions. From there I went to the East Coast, and, fun fact, Rick’s family owns the property in Baltimore that I was working at, though we didn’t meet each other until many years later.

I wanted to get back to the Midwest and I really wanted to own my own place eventually. So, I got a job with C.A. Muer Corporation, a well-known restaurant group, and was a dining room manager at Big Fish in Dearborn. After a few years, they transferred me to Ann Arbor to be the general manager of the Gandy Dancer and I fell in love with the city. I really just thought Ann Arbor was great. I liked that it was big enough to have some interesting things going on but small enough that people all knew each other. I knew about Zingerman’s because I would go to the Bakehouse to buy Chocolate Cherry bread. That was what lured me in! And, working in the industry, I heard lots of great things about Zingerman’s. So when a friend told me about an open position at the Deli, I applied and got the job as the manager of the specialty foods department. Rick and I were hired within a week of each other!

Jason: You’re one of three managing partners at the Deli. What’s it like working with Rick and Rodger?
Grace: It’s great. We all have our own separate areas of responsibility, but we overlap some and we cover each other. We’re a good strategy team. When we’re working on things together, we are great at talking things through, playing devil’s advocate with each other, and coming up with better solutions.

Jason: Is someone more creative and someone more business-focused or does it just depend on what you’re dealing with?Grace: Yeah, it’s kind of a mix. It’s interesting. We took a personality test, I forget if it was Myers-Briggs or another one, and the coach we were working with at the time said, “Wow, this is weird, all three of you are like the same!”
I think Rick is our negotiator. He loves talking to people and trying to figure out a deal. So he’s the one who’s coordinating things. Rodger is a process king. He is super good at it. I can come up with a list of all the tasks that need to happen to get something done, but I’m horrible at putting them in order. So I can go to him and say, “I know I have to do all these things. Which comes first?” And he will be the one who’s like, “This, this, this.”

Jason: Sounds like a great symbiotic-type leadership going on over there.

Grace: It’s nice to have three people with that big of a place to cover each other. Especially since we like to make sure we have at least one partner there every day of the year we’re open.

Jason: What do you think they would say it’s like working with you? Grace: I don’t know. I tend to say I’m good at finding errors, which is helpful and annoying all at the same time. I tend to look pretty far out. And I try to be really connected to the culture and make sure we’re taking care of everything for the staff. Rick does a lot of that, too. So it’s just a different angle of it. Rick is more the person you call at 3 am because he answers his phone no matter what. And I’m the one who’s like, “Hey, how do we set this up so that more people can do it?”

Jason: You’ve been a part of some major changes at the Deli—overseeing the Gold Level LEED-certified Deli expansion project, opening the Zingerman’s Greyline event space, introducing virtual tasting events for fans around the country during the pandemic—all while continuing to lead the day-to-day of Deli catering and retail specialty foods. Any other big changes ahead?
Grace: For years, Rick, Rodger, and I have been working on figuring out a point-of-sale (POS) solution. We started with paper carbon copies, then converted to a “real POS” after the build-out that was a point-of-sale system with KDS (kitchen display system) screens. Now, post-pandemic, we’re at a point where we get all of these orders in from third-party vendors and we need a new solution, we need a tech stack [Editor’s note: The programming languages and frameworks used to develop a website or software]. We’ve been working hard on that for almost two years, trying to find the right solution because there are a lot of options out there, but none of them do exactly what we need them to do.

Since the pandemic, Rick and Rodger and the whole front-of-house and sandwich line teams have worked really hard on finding a way to get extremely accurate quote times for people, and we’ve come up with a system to do that. Folks don’t have to stand in line anymore: They can come in, place an order, and if the wait is an hour and a half, they can shop or walk around the neighborhood. Or they can call their order in or place it online! So now there’s an electronic line, which is still a little confusing to guests if they come in and don’t see a line but there’s still an hour and a half wait.

Anyway, we’re closing in on a solution. I think we’ve made our selection of which system we’re going to use. It’s been a long haul to find the one. We’re going to be working really hard to implement that and get it in place before April or May. 

Other than that, we’re doing some renovations. Our “new” building went up 12 years ago, so it’s getting a little tired and it’s a big property to manage. We need to do things like replace ceiling tiles and redo floors. We also had to redo all of our plumbing. That was a sad realization, but yes, all the plumbing had to get ripped out and redone, mostly in the new building. So, that’s been quite a problem.

Jason: Oof, I’m really sorry about that. Aside from the new POS solution, is there something that you’re really looking forward to this upcoming year at the Deli?Grace: Last year we implemented a Waste Awareness Month. We built it into our annual plan to repeat that, though we’ll probably do it a little bit differently this year. Mid-winter is a nice time of year to look at our systems and processes and identify waste. We’re trying to get all of the eight wastes of Lean listed for everybody so they know what they are, can be aware of them, and then make suggestions for change. It helps get people thinking about waste in a different way. So, I’m excited to do more work on that as I think usually the second and third year you do something it gets better.

Jason: What aspect of your role do you find most rewarding?
Grace: It’s always fun when you’re on the other side of a successful day. The day before Thanksgiving, we had 270 catering orders—people getting their turkey dinners, breads, and pies for the next day. There’s a lot of planning and logistics that go into it, and at the end of the day, you’re tired as heck. But when it goes well, that’s always fun. 

I also always like a little bit of a puzzle. So, if something is going wrong, I like to get down to the root cause, figure out how we got there, and then figure out what we can change to help make it better in the long term.

Jason: And kind of spinning off of that, is there something over at the Deli you’re most proud to be a part of?Grace: I think, in general, the tenure of the people we’re working with is quite exceptional. We have people that have been with us for years and years and years. We have people that have left and come back. There’s a lot of benefit from people knowing the systems, recipes, and quality standards. It’s quite a good group of people. They help each other. If they see a guest who’s not sure what to do, they just jump in and go for it. That’s a wonderful thing.

Jason: Just as a side note to compliment you and your entire team on that, I had several of your managers in my Leadership Development Program and they all pretty much said the exact same thing that you just did. 

Jason: Let’s do a couple of fun ones. What’s one of your favorite things to eat over at the Deli?Grace: The cheese blintzes. We don’t have them on the menu very often, but they are one of my favorite things. And then for a sandwich, I would say #74 Dave’s Open Road.

Jason: What’s your favorite non-Deli ZCoB item? Grace: I’m currently in love with the Bakehouse’s Chocolate Rugelach. I just love the texture of that pastry. And then you can’t go wrong with the Roadhouse’s Fried Chicken or Miss Kim’s Tteokbokki. There are just so many good things across the ZCoB. I am so spoiled. 

Jason: What do you like to cook when you’re at home?Grace: Lots of veggies, stuff out of my garden as much as I can or stuff from the farmers market. I pretty much do all my shopping at the farmers market and at Argus. I like to use vinegar in a lot of things because it gives it pizzazz. So I am definitely the vinegar gal. There are some recipes up on the Deli’s blog about vinegar. I have at least six different vinegars in my cupboard, usually four olive oils, and three different kinds of peppercorns at least. And then one of my favorite things to cook with right now is the Piment d’Ville from Boonville Barn Collective. It’s a company out in California that is growing chile peppers like you would get from the Basque region in France. It is my favorite seasoning right now.

Jason: Your dogs have made an appearance in the background a couple of times. Can you tell me about them?Grace: I have three Brittanys. I have a 2-year-old, a 10-year-old, and an almost 16-year-old. We go running every morning. Now I run two miles with the young ones and then come back and do a mile walk with the oldest one. But we used to all go running three to five miles every day.

Jason: I know you like to cycle, too. Do you have a favorite bike path that you run or ride on?Grace: Yeah, I live right near Mary Beth Doyle Park, so I always go down and run around the park. There’s a nice little route and it’s my nature fix for the day. There’s always blue herons and white egrets and ducks and geese and turtles and all kinds of stuff down there. 

Jason: Alright, Grace, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today. One last question before I let you go: Is there an inspiring moment or event that you’ve had here at the ZCoB you want to share with everyone?Grace: That’s a good question. In general, the inspiring moments keep coming. To me, a lot of it is the work we get to do with producers and really getting to know them. When I went to culinary school, it was all about being consistent and having the same product. And then I got to Zingerman’s, and I started really understanding more about the variances that happen in produce and other products throughout the year. They’re agricultural products, so the sun and the weather and the rain and so many other factors impact them. And it’s inspiring to get to know the producers, the care that goes into the products, and how they have to deal with all the different things that can impact the quality—and why variety and quality should actually be celebrated from year to year! For example, this year’s olive oil crop is going to be really different than last year’s. There was a bigger crop and the weather was different. That’s fun to me, and that’s just everyday inspiration that we keep stumbling upon as we work with these producers and support them.