Tawnya Shaw: How did you get started cooking?

Jennifer Cote: My mom loved to cook, and my dad loved to eat. My dad's a real connoisseur. I was eager to help my mom out in the kitchen, and eager to impress my dad- I loved the challenge.

 

TS: And what got you into the food business?

JC: I was making pies when I was 8, and the relatives would tell me I should go into business. So I guess I had that idea in my head. When I worked my first job as a bus girl, the kitchen work fascinated me. Later, a friend (who knew I loved to cook) encouraged me to buy up a small burrito business that was for sale. In 1985, after three years of making wholesale food, my husband and I started The New Deli.

 

TS: What style defines your cooking?

JC: I like using whole foods, and I try to maximize the flavors by handling any given food uniquely. There's a science and an art to cooking, taking raw ingredients and creating different effects. Also, there's a "peasant food" element to my cooking; it's often very simple, healthy ingredients that I've prepared economically, so that we can offer quality meals at our sandwich shop, that won't cost too much. To make those foods practical to offer, I also have to be sure we can make them efficiently. So it ends up being "fast" food, but a far cry from your typical fast food!

 

TS: What's an example of some of your "healthy, economical, fast" food?

JC: Well, we make a Butternut Squash Soup that fits that description. Some folks might think it'd be too labor intensive to bake and peel the squashes, but we've got a system down for that. And we've got a pasta salad we can whip up in about 2 minutes flat. We've prepped the sun-dried tomatoes ahead of time, soaking them in a little brine, then adding hot red pepper oil and olive oil to them. (It's a lot cheaper than buying already prepared.) This pasta is so fresh- we have a way of steeping the garlic at the last minute, so that perfect, fresh garlic flavor permeates the dish. I could go on!

 

TS: What advice might you give anyone considering opening their own food business?

JC: You have to love working- it's very demanding to run your own business. And you better love doing what you do, because you'll be doing a lot of it! Also, be aware of some of the pitfalls: It might take some time to show a profit, and it may be difficult to take time off, if you have a smaller business and you're doing a lot of the work yourself.

 

TS: What are some of the pluses of running your own shop?

JC: My husband and I have been doing this for over 25 years, and have been able to make up our own rules, in a lot of cases. We've been able to raise a family in the midst of building the business; we often would work around the kids' schedules. And, of course it's very satisfying to have a vision, and work towards realizing that vision!

 

TS: How challenging is it to be on the employer-side of a business situation?

JC: We have to keep in mind that we truly are a team. We need to have the respect of our employees; it's easier to hold up under the pressure of the lunch rushes that way! But we need to respect them too, to appreciate all that they do. We have a really great team; we become a lot like family, going through the daily challenges together.

 

TS: What are some of the most popular New Deli menu items?

JC: The Chicken Salad with Caramelized Walnuts is probably most popular. We caramelize our own walnuts, adding them fresh daily to batches of chicken salad (mixed in with a few raisins, soaked in red wine vinegar, for a sweet/sour tang). The Potato Swiss Soup is also popular, and our green salads with home-made salad dressings.

 

TS: How is your cookbook doing?

JC: Well, we continue to sell it regularly at our deli. And it sells a bit online too. Not on the bestseller's list, but it's doing all right. I originally created it for our deli customers, since they asked for recipes so often. I compiled all our favorites and rewrote them for smaller serving sizes. I had started doing the project over ten years ago, before the internet was running rampant with recipes. But even with an apparent abundance of recipes out there, I find that a lot of people want recipes they can trust, from professionals. So there's still a demand for the cookbook!

 

TS: Do you have any aspirations beyond being a successful small business owner and cookbook author?

JC: As much as I enjoy sharing recipes, I still like filling needs in the community. A number of acquaintances have sought us out to cater some big occasions, weddings, church events, and such. To offer reasonably priced, home-made food that's not watered down by starchy sauces and frozen prepared foods, it's a labor of love to do that in large quantities! But my husband and I get a lot of satisfaction out of being able to apply our experience of the past 25 years, to pull these events together to everyone's satisfaction.

 

TS: What's most rewarding about having your own food business?

JC: The customers. They really seem to love us! We try to give a good value for their money, and to keep it interesting with new soups and other features. We offer them traditional deli fare, but also a full vegetarian menu, which a lot of people don't expect in our neck of the woods. We grind our own sesame butter for the tahini, for our falafel sandwiches, that kind of thing! I'm a stickler for healthy eating, so I try to make healthy food available for our customers, and that means I've got some on hand for me too.

 

TS: How have the setbacks compared with the successes?

JC: There's usually a down-side to any job; for us, it's been that we can hardly get away for extended vacations. But we get a few long weekends, and close up shop for ten days over Christmas, which gives us a chance to refresh for the coming year. In this tight economy, we feel very blessed to have the means of generating income. But we've also had a chance to cut down on the number of hours worked per day. After 25 years, my husband and I are glad we don't have to keep up the routines of our early start-up days! On the up-side, there's the incomparable joy of having the grandkids be able to stop by and take in all the deli activity. Our shop is kid-friendly, and it's been fun to include family in so much of what's gone on at The New Deli over the years.

 

 

Email: getrecipes@hotmail.com

The New Deli

624A San Pablo Ave.,

Pinole, CA 94564

Ph: 510.724.5335

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