What was your first job?
I had an internship in high school working for Maltby Café. I was the guy who cooked all the eggs. My first real job was working for a catering company in Woodinville, WA where I grew up.
When did you know that you wanted to work in food?
Those first two jobs each had their own pivotal moments. My first day at Maltby Café the lead chef took me over to the line and said, “This is how it works. Good luck,” and left for a smoke break. It was such a rush with practically illegible tickets floating all over the place for me to decode and execute. I probably messed up half the orders, but I had a blast. The second moment happened on my third day at the catering company. My new boss looked at me and asked me if I was ready for a long day. We worked together for 26 hours straight (he probably did 40 total) and I learned so much. We were cooking for a three day event at a winery and it was so hot out that we had to save all of the cooking for the night when it was cool and used the daylight hours to prep. It went a lot better than the eggs. I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of great mentors since.
How did you end up at MOD?
It was a chance opportunity. I happened to go to show up at the opening of the Alderwood, WA location (I think it was store #6) and was very impressed. Having worked in high end food my whole career, I was surprised to feel that way about a pizza chain, but I could tell MOD was onto something. It was really the culture that came through for me. It felt like fate in a funny way too, since I did a business plan for a pizza version of Mongolian Grill for my final school paper – and here I found it in real life!
What’s your favorite seasonal pizza creation in MOD history?
The Winston, which featured white sauce, mozzarella, roasted cauliflower, jalapeno chicken sausage, Mama Lil’s sweet hot peppers, asiago and rosemary. It was a real accomplishment to get people to love cauliflower on pizza, but we did it. The way that pizza was designed reflected the way I like to think about food – with complimentary flavors and a delicious canvass of pizza.
What do you love to do outside of work?
I love all mountain biking. I grew up right next to so many amazing trails in Paradise Valley and still live just 15 minutes away. I also love gardening with my wife and kids. We are pretty excited about our pumpkins this year, which are already huge!
What do you like to eat when you’re not eating MOD?
I’d have to answer that question in three categories. 1) Current fixation: Right now I am really into ethnic food – Korean and Ethiopian being the favorites. I love food that is not just spicy, but well spiced. Also, anything fermented. 2) Longtime obsession: I am a huge fan of perfected techniques. I’m especially enthralled with anything that’s braised, roasted or cooked using the le poêler method (a hybrid of braising and roasting that’s complicated, but so incredible). And lastly, 3) Fallback comfort food: Chicago style dogs with Italian beef. They have to be from Chicago.
What’s the most surprisingly delicious pizza topping you’ve ever tried?
Roasted cauliflower.
If you could only eat one MOD Classic pizza forever, which would you choose?
It would have to be the Mad Dog, because it was my first at MOD.
What do most people not know about MOD’s menu?
I think people would be surprised at how much thought and energy goes into choosing each and every ingredient we serve. For example, to find our current chicken, we went through almost 10 different samples to find the right product. We were looking at color, moisture, aroma, taste texture… the list goes on. And that was just one ingredient on the make line. We also love finding vendors who share our values and culture.
What food trends do MOD eaters have to look forward to in the next year?
We’re going to be playing around more and more with roasted vegetables, which are extremely popular at MOD. We roast all of our vegetables in house and it’s a fun way to make our pizza even more special. We’ll be incorporating more elements of seasonality to our menu – on top on the four seasonal pizzas we currently do each year.