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 Jerry
Shafir, Founder and President
Kettle Cuisine
Jerry’s first experience in the food
business was waiting and bussing tables at a Chicago-area
restaurant between college and law school. While at the time it
seemed to be just a way to make some spending money, the pace,
passion and excitement of the food industry made a deep
impression, especially when he later had the opportunity to
compare it to corporate law. So when Jerry left law to pursue
his MBA at Harvard and saw that Legal Sea Foods was recruiting
there, he decided to go for it. As a top aide to the founder of
Legal Sea Foods, Inc. he learned a process of packaging fresh,
refrigerated soups utilizing a rapid chilling method. He also
saw the potential of using this technology to make a higher
quality soup with a longer shelf life than had ever been
available to foodservice operators before.
 With
this knowledge in hand, Kettle Cuisine was born. Jerry’s vision
was to provide restaurateurs the ability to buy fresh,
all-natural prepared soups made from scratch, soups which were
just as good (or even better) than the soups they had made in
their own kitchens.
Working with chefs, Jerry developed a line
of fresh soups using the finest quality, natural food
ingredients and classical artisan cooking techniques. In Kettle
Cuisine’s kitchen, chefs braised fresh meats, prepared and
sautéed fresh vegetables, and simmered made-from-scratch stocks
for hours – just as we continue to do today. Jerry started out
by selling these exceptional refrigerated soups in bulk to
restaurants and food-service establishments, and soon to
delicatessens and grocery stores, all of which marketed the soup
as their own, made-on-premise soup.
 In
1999, retailer interest sparked the idea to package selected
varieties in individual 10-ounce bowls and sell them from
refrigerated cases under the Kettle Cuisine brand name. Since
then, Kettle Cuisine has provided packaged soups to a number of
retailers, both under the Kettle Cuisine brand and under the
stores own brand.
Today, the company offers a selection of
over 70 varieties of soups, chilis, and chowders and services
over 5,000 restaurants, cafés, delicatessens and supermarkets in
the eastern United States.
Jerry is currently President Elect of the
Refrigerated Foods Association and a Board Member. As an active
member of Kettle Cuisine’s local community, Jerry has served as
president of the Chelsea Chapter of the Kiwanis Club and is
currently on the Board of Directors and on the Executive
Committee of the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce.
Jerry and Lorna, his wife who has put up
with Jerry and Kettle Cuisine for over 25 years, live in Newton
and have two daughters, one in college and the other a recent
college graduate. His hobbies include traveling, music and a
variety of athletic endeavors, the most important of which is
refereeing rugby. |
