It has been a bit since I last posted anything on here so I will give a summary. We did a few street fairs Bradley Beach on Memorial Day weekend and The Belmar Seafood Festival. As usual Bradley Beach was a good time, you can never go wrong with the combination of the beach, holiday weekend, great food and beautiful scenery. The weather was nice all weekend and a good time was had by all.




We also did a catering job for Stevens Institute of Technology on the Hudson River in Hoboken, NJ. All I can say is WOW college kids can eat, we did not have a crumb left and the view was so beautiful with NYC right across the river. We then catered a benefit motorcycle run for the Ronald McDonald House of Southern NJ in Camden, NJ. We donated the food and gor help from, my mother, Emmy, Jordan, Rebecca and Reg who thankfully all donated their time to help the kids. This was a great day despite the weather.

Check out our other new videos on you tube at the following link. http://www.youtube.com/user/DRJCatering
I hope you enjoy the videos.

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Here are some new videos:

1. how to make butterfly fries - do not try this at home children.
2. BBQ Ribs and a Pig Roast Party Enjoy





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Pig Roast Catering Job

This was one of the first big catering jobs of the season and the weather continued right where it ended last year, rain.

The occasion was a communion and it was for 80 guests.

The menu consisted of a Whole roasted pig, Italian marinated grilled boneless chicken breast, hot dogs, baby back ribs, baked beans, red skin potato salad, fruit salad and assorted cookies for dessert.

I decided to attempt smoking the ribs for the first time. I used a combination of Hickory and Mesquite wood and my secret dry rub. I amoked them for 4 hours and they came out soooooo good, moist, smokey and good.

The crew was myself, Michelle and Jeff, my wife was also there since the racetrack where we have a concession stand on Sundays was rained out.

The party went great, they loved the food especially the ribs and were very happy. Another job well done. The only interesting thing was when my wife set off the house alarm (the customers were at church) trying to get into the house from the garage for the restroom. The poice arrived just as the customer did. It was a bit embarassing but they were fine with it.

I have posted some pictures. There are more at our facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/drjcatering.

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Somers Point Bayfest Street Fair - April 24, 2010

Well it must be Spring if we are doing our first street fair. This is always our first one of the year in Somers Point, NJ which is about 15 minutes south of Atlantic City.

It is located right on the bay and is usually a pretty good event. This year was sunny but a bit cool. The crew was myself, my wife, Jeff and Jordan.

The tradition is to go down on friday night and stay in a motel.
We then go to Atlantic City for dinner, this time we ate at the Borgata buffet. This is a great buffet, we did it justice.

Our daughter Jordan worked her first all day street fair with us and she did great. She was in charge of ladelling out the lemonade and iced tea from a giant bin. We have been doing these fairs for over 10 years and have had many people work for us, but my 10 year old daughter was the first one to think of filling up a bunch of cups ahead of time with ice. Thats my daughter, love you Jordan.

Our menu today was Butterfly Fries, fresh cut fries, crabcake sandwiches, chicken fingers and fries, burgers, sausage and pepper sandwiches, cheese steak sandwiches, our famous pulled pork sandwiches and iced tea and lemonade. We really got hammered on the butterfly fries, sold about 300 orders.

All in all it was a great day, I am posting a few pics on here to see, but all of them are at our facebook fanpage (please join) www.facebook.com/drjcatering.

Radio Interview

I just wanted to let everyone know that a good friend of mine Jewels that I know from culinary school interviewed me for her monthly radio show about my olympic experience.. The show will air on March 26th. The station is WNTI 91.9 and it served Northern New Jersey. If you do not live in that area you can go on their website http://www.wnti.org/ and listen live. The show is on at 8:00 am. Also if you do not want to get up that early or forget they archive the shows so you can go online anytime after the 26th and listen.

Hope you tune in

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At the airport

Well I guess this is time for a retrospective of the last month.

It seems like yesterday I was kissing my family goodbye and heading for an adventure, not knowing what exactly the job I would be doing entailed, not knowing who I would be rooming with or if we would all get along, not knowing how a 42 year old American would be greeted by our Canadian neighbors, and just generally wondering about the whole situation.

Well I can say with 200% certainty that, next to having children and getting married this has been the single most exciting, enjoyable and awe inspiring experience of my life. I am flying back to the USA and New Jersey with a new view on life and the world, this experience has changed me both inside and out. I never would have thought, back in December when I said to my wife "I have an idea" and she responded like she usually does when I make such a statement saying "uh oh", that this would make such an impact on me, especially considering the fact that the idea was originally only to earn some extra money during our slow winter months.

There is nothing about this experience that I can say was negative, even when things sometimes became frustrating, I thought to myself, who cares I am at the Olympics. From day one when I arrived and picked up my Olympic Credentials ( I thought I was soooo cool walking around with them around my neck, until I realized every other person had them), to meeting my room mates, to my first day working, to my first Olympic event, to the first athlete I saw walking around the village, to the first 3:00 am night of partying with the 20 year olds ( there were many of those), to watching the USA hockey team play and win, to watching Americans such as Bode Miller and many others accepting their medals live, to just walking around the village and looking at people.

On My first day of work the owner of Whistler Cooks who I worked for said to all 450 of us employees, at some point during the next 4 weeks you are all going to have your "Olympic moment" and when you do you will know it. Well it seemed I was having those moments every 5 minutes.

I am so, so glad my wife was able to come out and share the experience with me. It was only for 3 days and was definatly not easy to get there and get back for her. In the end though we shared something very special that I do not know will ever be duplicated.

At my job in the end, working out of trailers, we served the ticketholders, press, media, volunteers, Vanoc, Kings, Queens and other dignitaries over 500,000 meals in 3 weeks, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, quite an accomplishment.

I know in reality the 3 weeks of the Olympics is not real life, in real life Isreal would not walk into an arena next to Iran, and other countries that have waged war against each other in the past and present would not be drinking in the same bar, but this is what happens for 3 or 4 weeks during the Olympics. It would be great if this was real life.

I want to thank everyone at home, Reg for taking care of the business stuff, my wonderful children for just being, my mother for helping out with the girls and entertaining my wife, my inlaws for the financial support, Krystal and Wendi for holding down the fort at work. Without you guys this trip never would have been a reality. I thank you and love you all.

I have a few more pictures I will post when I get home, until then thank you for listening the last month.

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New videos

Check out the new videos I have put up on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/DRJCatering

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Well 2 days left, now it is starting to get sad realizing that all the great friends I have made will soon all go back to their own lives as will I. I have met so many great people this month, I will miss them all very much.

Yesterday was pretty uneventfull, people watched for a few hours, saw a great band play in the village, and then went out clubbing with my friends.

Today we catered a party for the Vancouver Organizing Committe (VANOC) or also known as the smurfs, for 800 of the volunteers who work at our venue. It was a fun party, simple and a very nice night.

I have some pictures of the village and various people as well as the smurf party and the crowd at biathalon and some pictures of our work compound check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/UntitledAlbum02

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Bobsled and Friends

Well I am in the home stretch, I had today and Thursday off then 3 last days at work and then home on Monday. I will be very glad to see my kids and wife, but will miss this place and the people alot, it has no doubt become part of who I am.

Went to see the final 2 runs of the womans 2 person bobsled and got to see the USA take home a Bronze Medal, it was pretty cool and the first time I have witnessed firsthand a USA medal win. The bobsled is so exciting to watch and got to see a few flips ( no one got hurt though). Hopefully thursday night I will get tickets for the medal ceremony and see them get their medal and also maybe a USA medal in the Womans Giant Slalom Combined which will be run during the day Thursday. Here are more pics http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/Womans2PersonBobsledFinal

Went out tonight for some Sushi (sorry family) and then out to party a bit as this town was going nuts with the Gold and Silver for Canada in the 2 woman bobsled and also Canada winning medals in speed skating, short track speedskating, and a local from here in Whistler winning the Gold Medal in Womans Ski Cross along with the Canada Men winning their hockey game against Russia.

Thursday is a huge day with the gold medal game USA vs Canada for womans hockey. It will be insane around here, and the anticipation is growing for a possible showdown in mens hockey USA vs Canada on Sunday.

And finally and album of friends having fun. http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/Friends#

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Videos are working

It seems as if my videos are up and running again on the blog so check them out, they are a few posts down.

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Ski Jump

2 Cross Country Skiiers from Japan

These 2 pics are the front of the house night crew I work with, what a great group of people from USA, Australia, France, New Zealand and Canada.

This pic is of Josh (from Canada) on the left who works with me during the day and night and Pedro ( from Angola and Portugal) and Jessie ( from Canada) who both work the morning and lunch shift.

I watched some of the medal round on the large ski jump hill and all I can say is wow. These guys fly over one and a half times the length of a football field, amazing. It was a beautiful day, sunny, warm, and in the high 50's so there are a few interesting pictures in my photo album from today ( you will know them when you see them).

There are also pics of some cross country skiiers ( I have know idea who they were other then some were from Japan).

And lastly but not least there are some pictures of some of my co workers and new friends who work the dinner shift with me, represented are USA, Canada, Australia, France and Portugal/Angola. Check them all out at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/LargeHillSkiJumpingAndWorkFriends.

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Hockey Baby

Today was a long but unbelievable day. Got up at 4 am to get a 5:00 bus to Vancouver, arrived at 8, and took a walk and found the olympic flame, it was very cool to see. While wondering decided to go and have some breakfast and found myself in the same mall food court we ate at years ago when we cruised to Alaska from Vancouver, very weird, brought back a lot of good memories.

I then walked about 45 minutes to meet the man I contacted on craigs list to purchase my hockey ticket, we exchanged cash for ticket and I was on my way.

I got to the arena around 10 for a noon game and just walked around and took it all in. The game was what I expected it to be and so much more, it really makes you patriotic to see all the red, white and blue and USA gear, there were a few Norwegian fans there and added to the Canadians who were rooting for Norway just because, the crowd was split about 60/40 for the USA.

The game was more or less a blowout, the USA won 6-1, but I am so glad I went to this game, my seats were 10 rows off the ice and I got some great pics and you can check them all out at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/HockeyVancouver .

After the game I boarded a 4:00 bus back to Whistler and arrived around 7:30 just in time to watch the end of the Canada - Switzerland game ( which was right after the USA game). What a game, Canada won 3-2 in a shootout. So now we just wait for the showdown on Sunday for the USA - Canada game, the winner I think gets a bye in the next round, it will be an exciting day.

There is not much happening in the next few days so I may not post anything but I will be back soon.

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Well I got tickets for mens hockey USA vs Norway on Thursday so I will give a report when I get back.

Today was uneventful, not much to report.

I will have some pics up when I return from Vancouver tommorow.

For some reason my videos keep getting pulled down so I guess it is pictures from here on out.

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As promised here are some videos, I hope to have morein the next couple of days,enjoy.


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The above pictures are of the peak to peak gondola as well as a view of the crossing. A picture of my wife with a Mountie as well as with a Canadian Luger, I do not know his name but he had the best finish ever in Luge by a Canadian (7th I think). And then some view from the top of the mountain, there are much more pics on the Picassa site, link is below.

I am working on getting some videos up but the internet in my condo is out and I have to go to starbucks to log in, so I apologoze for the delay. I am off Wednesday and Thursday and am going to a local hotel to use the internet for the day so I should be able to put some on in the next few days.

We went skiing on Sunday and it was incredible, took the gondola to what we thought was the top and then took another chairlift to the real top. The top is 8,000 feet and is a glacier above treeline. We had the most incredible view from the top, pictures really do it no justice, every turn was nicer scenery. Then we took the "peak to peak" gondola from Whistler Montain to Blackcomb Mountain and holy ******, check out the pictures and you will see what I mean. This was the most incredible skiing we have ever done, I can not wait to go again.

As we were walking through the village we met and talked to the relatives of Megan Sweeney who is a USA Luger. So go Megan!!!!!!!!

We also went to see the "fire and ice" show at the base of the mountain where they have skiiers and snowboarders doing tricks, it started later then we thought so we walked around the village a bit. I got in line to buy tickets for the womans 4 person bobsled gold medal round and while I was waiting my wife was given 2 tickets for the medal celebrations that night, so we got to see the American receive his medal in Nordic Combined live as well as seeing Appolo Ono on the bigscreen from Vancouver get his silver medal, again very cool.

Well my wife left very, very early monday morning and again the trip home was another ordeal, missed connections and wrong trains, but even with all the trials and tribulations it was a great weekend with her, an experience of a lifetime spending some time at the olympics.

I worked yesterday and other then that it was an uneventfull day, same thing today. I am off the next 2 days after today and may have an in for some USA Mens hockey tickets for Wednesday in Vancouver, keep your fingers crossed.

I do have a bunch of new pics up so check them out. http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/UntitledAlbum

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I have been having some computer and connection problems so hopefull I will have a big new post tommorow.

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Day 2 luge

It is raining today again and we walked around the village and went to see the mens luge first and second runs. It was incredible, you can not appreciate how fast these guys go unless you see it, the fastest today was 95mph.

I am posting some pics to my picassa album at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/DAY2LugeAndMiscPics##

Also Youtube took most of my videos down because they said they were copyright infringement, so I will repost them on the blog.

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I am writing this on the day after the torch has been lit, and as most of you know a Luger from the Republic of Georgia was killed yesterday in a horrific training accident, I was watching it live on TV along with about 600 Olympics workers, volunteers and catering staff in our dinner tent. This has cast a sadness over the town here, a makeshift memorial has been started under the olympic rings in the village and wherever you are whether it be a loud bar or restaurant or club when the footage comes on TV the whole place just becomes silent, it is very surreal. We have tickets to the luge tonight so it will be very sad to be there after this has happened.

Before all this happened we went to the qualifying round for ski jumping on the small hill, it was very cool, we got to see a world record set of 107 meters, it is amazing to see this in person, you can not get an accurate picture of it on tv.

We are now off to explore, more later.

All my pictures from the ski jump and around the village on day one of the olympics are at http://http//picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/OpeningDayOfTheOlympicsAndSkiJump as well as some video at http://www.youtube.com/user/DRJCatering#p/u.

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Opening Day

Well the day is finally here, opening day.

There is only one event today and 1.2 billion people will be watching, it is the qualifying for the small hill ski jump and we will be there. My wife arrived late last night ( well really early this morning) 24 hours after she left New Jersey, cancelled flights and delays and plane changes and airport layovers later.

It was great to see her, we have never been apart this long.

Well I work today later and then am off for the next 2 days to enjoy the games.
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As promised here are some new videos at you tube http://www.youtube.com/user/DRJCatering

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An Athlete from Russia in the village taking some pictures, pretty cool.

These are my room mates from left to right, Alex from Australia, me, Brandon, Dylon, Mike and Marc from Canada - I really lucked out we all get along very well and they are good guys.

It is hard to see but there is a

gondola connecting these 2 peaks.

Well it is 2 days before the olympics started and it is getting very exciting. I saw them practicing ski jump off the small hill today. Not much else to report, I have been working a lot. I have uploaded some new pics to my album at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/Day47 . There is one picture on there that has 2 mountains on both sides and if you look close you can see the gondola connecting the peaks, it is called aptly the "peak to peak gondola". My wife is coming to visit tomorow, but the snow made it interesting ( I would expect nothing else as the black cloud strikes again). Her flight was cancelled for tomorow morning and luckily I got her re-booked on later in the day, she will just arrive in Whistler at 2:00 am instead of 8:30. I guess it is better then her not coming at all. I have some more video to link to also but it is not ready so I will probably put the link on later today.

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No pics today, sorry.
I worked last night from noon to 10 and got home around 11:30 and had to be up this morning at 3:00 am to get the bus to my venue so I could be there for my 5:30 am start.

Today was lockdown day, all venues become secure and "clean" and after that you need to go through massive security every time you go in, employees, althletes, press and everybody else.

At 6:15, 450 police and army showed up for breakfast, they were not supposed to be there until 7 so we were not ready. Pressure is cooking for 450 people armed with assault rifles and guns.

Today starts the ultra security that will exist through the end of the olympics. There are police everywhere and it is going to get more intense as the week goes on. I am starting to see althetes dressed in their countries uniforms walking around our venue and through the village. I have know idea who they were but I saw cross country skiiers from Estonia and Finland and in the village I have seen groups of British, American, Russian and Swedish althletes walking around.

In the tent that I serve to they have about 16 large flat screen TV's and whenever I go in there to eat or check on things I see the commercials for the Olympics on TV and I smile to myself everytime and say holy ***** I am actually here at an Olympics. Yesterday and today you can really start to feel the electricity in the air and the buzz when you are out and about, it is soooo cool. I miss my wife and kids a lot as well as everyone else, but with every hour I spend here I know I made the right decision to come out here and do this, the feeling here is incredible.

I work tomorow night and then I have my first days off ( Wednesday and Thursday ) and i may try skiing one of those days.

Hopefully I will have some pics tommorow.


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Today was a crazy day, everything that could have went wrong at work went wrong. I had everything timed to go out perfectly at 5:00 and then the bags i was heating everything up in started breaking open in the cooking water, so I decided to put them in the steamer, but guess what it broke after one round of food, so we heatedup the food up on the stove. After that the roasted vegetables I was cooking did not cook in the time I was told they were supposed to cook in. Well to make a long story short I pulled it off and got everything out before serving time, so my bosses were very happy. Hopefully tommorow will be better.

Anyway they were practicing ski jumping today on the small hill and it was very, very cool. I got some great pics, I put some on here but check them all out at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/Day3WhistlerOlympics#

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February 5th

Well I took really cook video today of the Olympic Torch coming past out venue on the Olympic Torch Relay, but when I went to upload it on 2 seconds of it came out and it was before the torch came by so you are just going to have to take my word for it that it was very cool to see.

Other then that just work today, our numbers we cooked for doubled from 60 to 120 today so things are starting to ramp up.

No pics today, maybe tomorow
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My second day at the olympics and my first day at work

Well today was my first day at work, my schedule through sunday is noon to 10 at night, I am working out of a trailer serving all the workforce and the media at the cross country venue (and ski jumping).

The job seems very easy, no real cooking, supervising mostly. My bosses are very cool so that is good. Everyone I have met includng my 5 roommates are great, so that is a plus.

So far all has been awesome, here are a few pics and you can see the rest at http://picasaweb.google.com/pieshops1/Day2Whistler#

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