To use a quote from an old band from Northern California...
"What a Long, Strange Trip it has been!"
If anyone had told me that I would be baking cheesecakes for a living back in the 70's, 80's or 90's, I would have thought that they might have had one or two drinks too many!
Growing up in New Jersey, to be specific, on 'Da Shore', I always had a thing for food. Some of my first real jobs on the Atlantic City Boardwalk involved food; making pizzas on The Steel Pier, bussing at the old Marlborough Blenheim Hotel, cooking steaks and eggs in the window at The Ranch House Restaurant and making silver dollar pancakes in the window at Nash's Beef and Beer.
My dad, L. Edison (Ed) Mathis tried to introduce me to fine foods by taking me to some truly fine restaurants and clubs; including The Vesper Club in Philadelphia, Top of the Sixes in New York City, Strotbeck's and Guishard's in Atlantic City and even to L' Ermitage out in Los Angeles, but I was more of a 'normal' food kind of guy!
There was a place in Atlantic City, Shumsky's, that produced some absolutely fabulous cheesecakes and that is one of my first memories of what would eventually become my vocation.
I ended up going away to a small college in Vermont (where I first started finding out just how flavorful and useful maple syrup could be, especially in cheesecake) but ended up out west in Northern California where I started what would turn out to be 20+ years in the newspaper industry in California, New Jersey and Colorado. It took a very serious, life-threatening medical condition that made me realize that I needed to change my life and after a few more years back in Northern California. I ended up moving to Western Colorado and eventually a small town called Palisade, home of some of the best peaches in the country!
After working a few odd jobs; including driving a cab, I realized that if I truly wanted to change my life, I really should go back to college and ended up making a phone call that changed my life.
The local school here is Mesa State College and I called up to find out about their culinary program. I thought, what the hey, I have always loved to cook, why not see what else I can learn and see if I can make a living in the culinary field. The school directed me to call the head of the culinary program, Dan Kirby and when I did, he invited me to stop by the school the next day.
Now Dan did not know me from Adam, but spent over two hours talking with me and not just about food, but life, the universe and everything. (It did not hurt finding out he was a Springsteen fan too!)
Needless to say, I enrolled in the Colorado Culinary Academy at Mesa State College the next day.
Now I still had no idea of where this would go, but I figured I could decide that after going through the program. No way did I know that this would pretty much be decided for me!
About two or three weeks into my first semester, I had brought in a cheesecake that I had been making for years, my Vermont Maple Cheesecake, and my chef instructor, Chef Jon St. Peter, took a few bites and asked me where he could get one. I looked at him and said... Give me 90 days!. 90 days later, Decadence LLC was born!
Now, having gone through what I had the previous few years, I had virtually no money, but in asking around, I found out about The Business Incubator Center and their commercial kitchen, where new businesses could start out without incurring the expenses of getting one's own place.
I started baking and taking around samples to area restaurants and when I opened in November of 2004, I started with two clients; Rooster's in Clifton and Bennett's B-B-Q in Grand Junction. (As of November 2008, we now have 17 clients from Loveland, to The Grand Valley to Gateway Canyons and are now available in Provo, Utah and more are coming on board!).
Right before Christmas 2005, I was getting ready for a road trip back to New Jersey to see family and friends for the holidays and I stopped by the culinary school. Dan Kirby (remember him?) walked up to me with an empty jar in his hand and said...
"Dude (ok, he might have not said Dude), you should put your cheesecakes in a jar!"
Now I still think he was kidding, but I could not get that idea out of my head and when I got back from New Jersey, I set out to rework all of my recipes to see if you really could bake a quality gourmet cheesecake in an individual serving jar. After quite a few attempts, we actually did it.
We launched this product line at the Downtown Grand Junction Farmer's Market in June of 2006 and had no idea of what people would think. We did ok in sales that first week, a lot of strange looks (until they took a bite!) but the 2nd week, over half of our customers were repeats and within 60 days, our 'Cheesecakes in a Jar' were our #1 selling product line!
"What a Long, Strange Trip it has been!"
BREAKING NEWS!!
In September of this year, we were honored to earn a 2nd Place in The Spirit of Innovation Awards, sponsored by Prepared Foods Magazine and Ventura Foods! (seems that we were beaten out by some small company, Kraft Foods!) We are one of the smallest companies ever to win this award and the first Colorado Company to place!
WEEKLY FOOD COLUMN
Be sure to read my weekly food column on Wednesdays in the Grand Junction Free Press!
It's not just about cheesecakes!!
To my son Austin
This ones for you!
