FARRAH MAFFAI staff Above, executive chef John Turner checks the temperature on the rotisserie chickens at the new Wegmans in Ocean. At left, chocolates are dressed for, the holidays. Turning out platter upon platter of delicious foods for the several thousand customers who swarmed through the new Wegmans in Ocean Township last weekend wasn’t a stretch for John Turner.
The executive chef of the new Wegmans, on Route 35, is accustomed to cooking for squadrons of hungry athletes.
“I cooked for everyone, from a bunch of hungry men to VIPs,” explained Turner, former chef at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford.
“It’s a little bit of culture shock,” admitted Turner, who oversees the kitchen at Wegmans’ newest store, which opened Nov. 7.
For store manager Eric Friedland, welcoming shoppers on opening day was an extension of the community outreach he’s been actively engaged in.
To foster a relationship with the community while the store was being built, Wegmans hosted a block party for several hundred locals.
“We hosted an annual block party in Wanamassa to introduce ourselves,” Friedland recounted. “Five hundred people showed up in July. We had balloons, tents; our chefs prepared foods; our bakery and cheese managers were there. We found out people were just waiting for us to come.”
According to Friedland, Wegmans’ newest store, its fifth in New Jersey, is expected to draw customers from as far south as Point Pleasant and as far north as Perth Amboy.
Locally, Friedland noted that Wegmans’ prime market continues to be working couples who don’t have time to cook and the area’s busy families.
Friedland has overall responsibility for the 130,000-square-foot gourmet market that includes a drive-up pharmacy. Some 450 employees were hired to staff the store, most locals.
“We look for people that have customer skills and have a passion for what they do,” he said. “That’s the making of a great employee. When you enjoy coming to work, it’s not work. Each one of us is challenged.”
Many department heads — pastry chefs, for example — come from local restaurants, he explained.
“They want to come to Wegmans because of our reputation,” he said. “We hired them because they’re so passionate about food.”
Friedland, of Morganville, has been at Wegmans’ Manalapan store since it opened in 2001. He joined the company, which consistently ranks as one of the country’s best companies to work for, in 2000. Previously, he worked at the Marlboro A&P for 15 years.
Turner, of Tinton Falls, also has been executive chef at Ashes Cigar Club and Seafood Bar in Red Bank and at the Ocean Place Resort and Spa in Long Branch.
At Wegmans, Turner is responsible for all prepared foods ranging from lunch and dinner selections at The Market Café to snacks available at the coffee bar. His kitchen staff of 28 cooks turns out everything from deli salads to gourmet dinners.
Among the staff are chefs from several well-known local eateries and others with regional experience.
“It’s a pretty impressive group,” he noted. “I have a great culinary team that’s very diverse. Basically, we dropped a restaurant, into a very, very upscale food market.”
But his mission is to do more than cook up delicious foods.
“It’s a misconception that we’re just cooking. We’re here to educate customers and open people up to good food,” explained Turner, who is also the store’s assistant manager.
“We have an expert in each department who will tell you what to pair with what you’ve bought,” added Friedland. “We have the most knowledgeable people working in our departments, and that knowledge and product come together at your dinner table.”
Headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., Wegmans is a family-owned company founded in 1916. With annual sales of more than $3.3 billion in 2003, the company employs more than 32,000 people in 67 stores throughout New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia.
Wegmans raises the bar on grocery shopping by offering attractive stores and displays, an abundance of choices and restaurant-quality prepared foods.
The regional chain gives shoppers a choice of more than 60,000 products. Wegmans’ concept of “stores within a store” means the market includes departments like The Market Café with hot entrees, gourmet sandwiches, sides and salads, Old World Cheese Shop, a patisserie, a Euro-style bakery, natural foods department, and “Complements,” which features upscale tableware, cookware and accessories.
While the Ocean store is a prototype of the Wegmans’ model, input from the community will help shape it to meet the preferences of the local community, Friedland explained.
“We listen to people who come in,” he said. “We create what people are looking for.”
Freidland said his No. 1 priorities are freshness and customer service — “the most incredible food and helping hands.”
Like all the others, the Ocean Township store includes a mezzanine café with seating for 250. Special features include a wood-fired brick oven built on site by fourth-generation Spanish masons where artisan and European-style breads are baked daily.
At Wegmans, it isn’t just that the store comprises so many departments, it’s that each department has a unique variation on its mission.
Each department has something new,” Friedland explained. “ ‘We make great meals easy’ is what we always say.”
In the produce department, up to 700 different items are available and, he said, the store actively seeks out produce grown locally. A feature of this department is a bank of recipe cards with easy-to-follow instructions and a cooking coach is stationed there to teach shoppers how to cook healthy meals.
In Old World Cheeses, shoppers will find 400 varieties of cheese, many imported, and there are always varieties being sampled. The seafood department also includes a cooking coach, who will teach shoppers how to prepare fresh fish.
There’s no question that the major focal point is the wide array of artfully presented prepared foods at The Market Café where ready-to-eat dishes ranging from soups to full meals are available to eat in or carry out.
“It blows people’s minds,” Friedland said. “That’s the creative, exciting part.”
Selections on the lunch menu change daily, and range from $2.99 for a cup of soup to $10 for a full dinner, entrée and two sides.
Friedland said his greatest challenge and his greatest satisfaction is promoting healthy eating.
“We sell food and promote the message, ‘Eat right, live right,’ ” he said. “If we can teach people to eat great food and enjoy it, that is my greatest satisfaction.”