The Pittsburgh Dish
Do you really know the food scene of Pittsburgh?! The Pittsburgh Dish introduces you to the people, places, and recipes that make our regional cuisine so special. By sharing personal stories, weekly recommendations, and community recipes, we aim to inspire you to connect with local taste makers and experience the unique flavors that shape our city.
The Pittsburgh Dish
083 Chef Joe Peroney, From Culinary Olympics to Pittsburgh Kitchens
(01:16) A small-town “toast boy” grows into a gold-medal chef, then chooses a new kind of success. We sit down with Chef Joe Peroney to unpack a winding path from The Greenbrier’s relentless kitchens to the world stage at the Culinary Olympics, and how a sudden vision scare and a marathon reset his compass toward time, family, and impact.
(15:19) Joe lifts the lid on competition cooking, from training in unfamiliar kitchens to plating East Coast flavors as tiny, elegant starters. He also shares the quieter victories: trading 20-hour days for a role that still feeds millions, mentoring the next generation as part-time faculty, and creating a 32-layer lasagna that stops conversation in its tracks. For anyone weighing ambition against life outside the kitchen, his pivot offers a clear, human roadmap.
(42:08) Later, we also welcome Chef Barbara Ann of AB Kitchen with a life-changing kale salad—bright lemon, apple cider vinegar, coconut aminos, and a crunchy pumpkin-seed topper—proving wholesome can be addictive. Together, these chef stories show how food can be both world-class and weeknight-ready, and how the best meals often carry a lesson about what matters most.
If the episode moved you, tap follow, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what part of Joe’s journey hit home for you?
Welcome to The Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman. How do certain life events cause a pivot in your career? From Fayette County to traveling around the world for the Olympics of food and back again, we learn all about the story of Chef Joe Peroney. And later, if you're looking for a refreshing salad good for any season, Chef Barbara Ann of AB Kitchen has a recipe to pass along. All that ahead, stay tuned. But first up, since we're keeping chefs at the forefront of this week's episode, we want to give a special shout out to our friend Chef Alekka Sweeney. Chef Alekka has been an ongoing monthly monetary supporter of the Pittsburgh Dish this entire year. And if you like what we're doing, we'd love you to join her. Check out our links at the bottom of the show notes, or visit our website at Pittsburgh Dish.com and click the support button. If you have a small business, we'll be sure to give you some shout outs on future episodes, just like we do for Alekka. And to see what Alekka is up to in the coming year, visit her website at chefalekka.com for her upcoming classes or to book your own private chef experience. Now on to the show. Well, thank you so much for coming over and for being on the show. Would you introduce yourself to our listeners and what you have going on right now in the world of food?
Joe:Yeah, Doug, so excited to finally be able to meet you in person here.
Doug:Yes, it's our first time meeting.
Joe:Yeah. Longtime listener, but happy to be here. Super fan of the podcast. I like to think so. My name is Joe Peroney. And uh in the world of food, I'm a I'm a very busy boy around the city. Yes. So my day job, my nine to five, I'm the corporate development chef for Giant Eagle. And then once I'm done with that, I go into the private chef realm. All right. Uh so I do the private chef events cooking classes, uh, private chef experiences, and I do some select venues where I teach classes at as well. Yeah.
Doug:Have I seen you? Uh have you done something at Cosign?
Joe:Yeah, CoSign Speak Easy and Munhall. They're one of my uh my favorite venues to go to.
Doug:Yes, yes. And then you're also doing these other classes in people's homes when you can accommodate like a small group and you're teaching them mostly pasta, right? Yeah.
Joe:So I start the groups at like a minimum of six people. Okay. And up to about 12 or 14. And then we do pasta classes, which are about three hours long. Or if you are somebody who bought one of those fancy pizza ovens online and never really were able to make good pizza, I go into your house too, and I bring pizza ovens of my own, and we fire your ovens up and we really get you on the fast track to great pizzas. Incredible.
Doug:Okay, I definitely want to talk more about the classes, but I do want to just back up a second. I wanted to understand when you said culinary development chef, how do you define that? Like what is that about in your day job?
Joe:So if you listen to the past podcast with uh Chef Ben D'Amico. Oh, do you know Ben? Yeah, I work with him day in and day out, very close with Ben. So we kind of are on the same level of what we're we're doing. We're developing recipes for all of our stores. So the biggest challenge for me is how can we write a recipe that is consistent between 226 stores across five different states? My goodness, you have different levels of talent. So uh a lot of the work that I do is for quality assurance, the food safety aspect of recipe adherence. Like you're not gonna see me on a random Thursday night, you know, unloading the rotisserie ovens. So we work out of our headquarters in Cranberry. Okay. We work remote some days, or oftentimes you can see us at like the Robinson Market District here.
Doug:Yes, there's a kitchen in there. Actually, I think that is where I met Ben D'Amico the first time, was up in the uh in the cooking school. The cooking school cooking school, yeah. At Settler's Ridge. Now, are your recipes for Giant Eagle, are they for all of the stores then, or are they for the market districts? Is there any sort of specialty or do you kind of cover everything?
Joe:Yeah. So what Ben and I do, Ben focuses a lot mostly on market district specific programs. And then he and I work together on programs that can be universal. All right. So if we introduce a new line of meals, you may see it in both formats at first, but we may see it has better traction in market district, and then it becomes a market district exclusive, or vice versa. Ben may create a program for market district and we put it in select giant eagles, and it sees a lot of good sales and volume. Yeah. And then we move it to all of our locations.
Doug:How interesting. Yeah. And when we're saying all giant eagles, this is the food that you can pick up in the deli cold to hot areas, right? Like it could be some prepared stuff. Like I think of like the meatloaf, and of course I think of like chicken tenders and things like that. I know that's not a recipe, but uh those are probably the things I pick up the most. But you're developing these other items that are intriguing and they're you know, not any one particular cuisine, right? You have to kind of think about what's available and what the customer might want.
Joe:Absolutely. And like right now, we're filming this, you know, at the end of December. Like we are focusing right now on summer, summer barbecue, what's new, what kind of flavor profiles are we looking at. Um, and then we'll go right into the fall, winter again.
Doug:So that is so incredible. And it kind of blows my mind that you are thinking about summer, and here we are. Uh we're recording right before Christmas. So the planning, long-term planning and effort that it takes to make sure you're having great product months from now.
Joe:Yeah, it's uh it's pretty amazing when you come to the corporate side of it. Because when I was working in restaurants, it was you're focusing on that day, that weekend, and then it's just like you reset Sunday night and do it all over again, where this is a lot more like navigating a uh a cruise ship as opposed to a speed boat of a restaurant.
Doug:Yeah, I imagine like in the restaurant world, you're you're like, hey, what's available today? And that's what's on the menu tonight, right?
Joe:For sure. Uh in an ideal location. But you know, you may have a uh a guest in a restaurant who is demanding something that maybe asparagus right now that's not in season. So you got to kind of accommodate to that kind of clientele also.
Doug:Hopefully not asking for great tomatoes in December. Um, okay, so giant eagle corporate development of these recipes is the day job. And when you have the time, outside of the corporate chef world, you're doing these more private events uh in people's homes. Tell me a little bit more about this angle on pasta and pizza, because that sounds like it's sort of a heart song for you, right? Is this a place that you like to live? Oh my gosh, it is.
Joe:So pizza has always been like a huge part of my life. Uh even to the point where, like today, 724-929-2809, that's the number for Jake's Rostraver. I haven't dialed that number in 25 years, but it's still ingrained in my memory from my childhood. Is that your family go-to pizza spot? Oh, not my family, but some of the uh Pittsburgh Dish alumni. Wow. Autumn Pawelec. Oh, yes, big fan, and Chef Janet also. Oh, she grew up in Rostraver. Yes, yes. And one of us, I'm not gonna tell you who on air, but one of us had our very first date in middle school at Jake's Ros Traver.
Doug:Oh, see, that now this will have to be like some kind of like survey thing we put out on like the social media. There you go. Okay. Well, that's incredible. And is that tell me where did you grow up?
Joe:In that area? So yeah, I grew up in the Periopolis area. Okay, it's a one-stop light town on Route 51. Yeah. There's really nothing there growing up. But yeah, pizza was always that one thing that go to like Friday night. And I I would always be the one who goes to get the pizza like with my dad and uh have the car pie on the way home. So it was always like mushroom pizza for me.
Doug:I like a mushroom pizza. So, Joe, if Jake's and the pizza is this core memory from childhood, why don't you tell us a little bit more about early life and food? You know, what was food life like at home? Were you cooking? Were folks cooking for you?
Joe:Did Jake's pizza set you on the path to cooking? So I I always loved messing around in the kitchen, and I have uh very vivid memories. I the first dish I try to make was French toast. Wow. And we had uh oleo, you know, the sticks of oleo.
Doug:Yes, margarine, as most people say nowadays.
Joe:Yeah, where did oleo come from? I have no clue. But I put a ton of it in a frying pan and almost like like sauteed this French toast, and it splattered all over the kitchen, like the ceiling and walls were covered. So I kind of took a break from cooking then, but uh, it really kind of started my love for food with my my grandparents. So growing up, I was one of four kids, and during the summers, I was the one that was uh a little hard to handle, if you will. I was the the kid, you know, in his Hulk Hogan underpants, jumping off the couch, dropping L Bozone people. So they would send me to my grandparents for the summer breaks a lot of times. And what happened there, Doug, is every Saturday my grandfather and I would get in the car and he had every flyer for every grocery store because he wanted to find the best deal. So we would go to Mount Pleasant, to the Foodlands, uh to Bel Vernon, to the shopping saves. We would just go all over, and they had an abundance of sampling stations back then, if you recall in the Pittsburgh area. So we would go and sample all the foods, buy the food, and go home. And every Sunday morning we had like a family breakfast at Grandpap's house. And my job, I was a toast boy. So I did the toast, I did the butter, I did the jellies, and uh, we just loved it. And I think that's really what kind of ingrained the love of food and the love of hospitality into my life without knowing it at such a young age.
Doug:I love that story so much for so many reasons. Number one, you're having this bonding moment with your grandparents, your grandpa specifically. And I think of the food adventure of going around and feeling like you're getting all these samples and deals. Like how fun as a kid, right? Oh, yeah. I thought it was I thought it was a blast. Yeah, I loved it. And then they actually invite you into the kitchen uh to have a specific job. Yeah.
Joe:I I don't know if I've ever heard the title Toast Boy. Toast boy. I was Toast Boy. I went on to be salad boy at the Greenbrier. So yeah. There's a lot of uh yeah, a lot of jobs.
Doug:Well, let's talk about that a little bit more. So as you start to make the decision to go into a culinary direction, how does that all get going? Like where do you where do you begin that path?
Joe:So, right out of high school, I took a job with Sony Electronics. Oh, there was a production plant in New Stanton. That's right. I remember this. Yeah, and I worked there for seven years. It was a great job. Uh I loved it. I had no reason to leave, but they started outsourcing jobs. And once they started outsourcing Doug through foreign trade laws, they had to pay us to go back to school.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Joe:So, not sure what I wanted to do, talk to counselors and see what was kind of like the hot job, and they recommended x-ray technician. Uh-huh. Well, when I went to apply for that, I did not have the grades in high school to be an x-ray tech. So the next best thing is like, well, maybe I'll do cooking. They wouldn't pay for cooking, though, it wasn't a trade in demand, but they would pay for a nutrition degree. So I went to Westmoreland County Community College in Youngwood. Yes. And I got my degree in dietetic technologies. And I continued to stay there to get my culinary degree because under the hospitality umbrella there, nutrition fell under that hospitality program. So there were multiple cooking classes. And right away, once I got in the kitchen, I was like, this is it. This is what I want to do.
Doug:Well, you and I have something in common. I don't know if you know, I have my nutrition degree, and one of the things that I loved is that there were overlaps to hospitality, yeah, and we had to run a restaurant. And those were some of like my most exciting classes.
Joe:Yeah, it was uh after my degree with uh the dietetics, I never did anything after that. I could test out to become a registered dietitian, but I already knew like I was hooked. Yeah, same here.
Doug:I never did anything with nutrition per se, other than cooking.
Joe:So, where does the work start to happen? So I started working around Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. My first job was a cook uh in this little restaurant in Periopolis called Caparella's. It was about 25 seats, maybe. And it is crazy to see that building now, like just how tiny the footprint is compared to where I've been throughout the world. Is it still open? It is open still, but they've changed locations to Uniontown. I see. A much larger location that fits them. I mean, they are busy every day of the week. Like they're such a great family. But when I was going through school, I did a stint at Il Pizzaolo in Lebanon. Yeah. I just fell in love with that product from first bite.
Doug:Well, they do it well too. They know what they're doing.
Joe:Oh, incredible. Yes. And uh, like I just handed the the owner Ron my application one day in the middle of like a dinner service. I walked up and said, Hey, if you ever need anybody, I'm available. And he called me and I started working there a couple months later. Just fell in love with the Neapolitan pizza aspect of it. Um, but after school, I did my externship at the Greenbrier Resort. Oh, yes, in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. And that's where I got uh I got hired on as pantry attendant, which is the fancy name for salad boy. And I made salads. And I made salads, like Caesar salad and like a house salad for about seven months straight. That's all I all I did. Oh my goodness. And I loved it. You did? Oh, it was just being in the kitchens of the Greenbrier. Yes, there was a level of intensity and discipline that like I was missing in my life. So when my externship ended, I just elected to stay on as full-time staff down there. And I stayed there for six years. I did a three-year culinary apprenticeship program, and that entailed of like we would on a random Tuesday, we may be carving 600 pounds of ice blocks. Wow. We would do pastry competitions, cooking competitions, cold food, and we would have judges from across the country come in, very high-level chefs, a lot of times with certified master chef qualifications, which there's maybe 75 in the country. Wow. And we would have to cook and present to them and get these critiques. And at such a young age, it was terrifying. But I'm so glad I did that when I did at that younger age. And and how old were you at that time? I was about 27. Yeah. Very malleable, right? Yeah. So, like, just throw it at me. Yeah, I couldn't care less. I I was I was so happy. Like, you need me to work extra? Yes, chef. Oh wow. And doing salads for that many months in a row never got old. No, to me, it was it was it was incredible because you got to be in this kitchen and just absorb everything that was going on around you. Right. And like I said, the energy was just like I mean, I still go back to the Green Briar. I'm very fortunate they've invited me back the past few years to do demonstrations and talking with their culinary staff. And it still gives me like that same like nervous energy walking through the kitchen. It's it's irreplaceable.
Doug:You know, what you're bringing up too is that it wasn't just the job that was in front of you, but it was the energy. And I think what you really landed on, the rigor that you were sort of seeing and absorbing from everybody else. There's so much more to learning that can happen even if you think you have a smaller role, right?
Joe:Absolutely. Yeah. You can learn so much just by listening. And uh, we had one chef when we would do these competitions, whatever it may have been, he would tell us like, you're gonna learn so much more from other people's mistakes than you would just going at it alone. So hearing these critiques from these chefs and just listening to that, taking it all in. I mean, it was very uh it was like the catalyst to the rest of my career.
Doug:It's a great point. We really learn, I think, best from trying and failing a little bit. You fail forward, you learn a little bit more. If you get everything right too, and you don't get any feedback, you don't really know what you did well and what you didn't do well. For sure. Yeah. Good experience. Yeah. Okay. So from the greenbrier, let's kind of fast forward. Where else do you go in the culinary world that takes you to Giant Eagle?
Joe:So from the Greenbrier, when in 2016, I decided to leave there. I moved to Northern Virginia. And with one of my mentors, we opened a restaurant, um, a barbecue theme restaurant. You did? Yeah. It was uh it was something really awesome, really cool, and exciting. And my mentor, his name's Rich Rosendale, and he's one of the 70 plus certified master chefs in the country. Yes. And he kind of took me under his wing from a very young age at the Greenbrier because he grew up in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Uh-huh. We had a similar path. We went to Westmoreland County Community College, then moved to the Greenbrier. We did the culinary apprenticeship. So when I got hired there, he kind of got word of hey, there's a county boy here. Yes. And he kind of took him took me under his wing. So during his time, he was competing for a competition called the Boku Store in in Lyon, France. Oh. It's named after fame chef Paul Bocus. Oh, yes. And it was, we had a a bunker at the Greenbrier that they converted part of it to a secret underground kitchen for him. That's crazy. He one day he just came down the steps. He's like, Hey man, what do you know about the Boku store? And I'm like, Oh, not a whole lot, Chef. He's like, Well, come up to the bunker tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. and see if you want to help out. Wow. So he didn't have to do that.
Speaker 2:No.
Joe:He did not. But he I'm so thankful he did because through that was a lot of great doors that opened and a lot of great opportunities. And you know, you I went in the bunker one day, and there's all these famous chefs, uh, Thomas Keller, Daniel Baloo, Jerome Bocus, Grant Atkins, Gavin Case, and and it was just like, oh my gosh, 26 years old, 27, surrounded by these icons of the industry. And it's just like, you know, a normal day as a greenbrier. Whose names are still known today, right?
Doug:I mean for sure. They haven't gone away. And so this is incredible. Did you do then some competition or like go and perform this with the chef? Yeah.
Joe:Yeah. So I didn't do that competition with him. Okay. I didn't travel to Lyon. Okay. But for two years I was part of his team. And what we would do is we would set up his trial runs for him and his chef, Corey. And as soon as they were done, we would start the next trial run. That's like scaling all the ingredients, uh getting everything up to the bunker from the storeroom. So I just love the idea of this bunker, by the way. Like a CD. You got to see it. Yeah.
Doug:Kitchen bunker.
Joe:Okay, I'll take you up on that. We'll get you down there. So the competition world, it's a very kind of niche community. You're not going to see it a whole lot in the USA, but in Europe, it's still very prevalent. Every four years, they hold what is called the Culinary Olympics in Europe. And in 2020, I got a phone call. Uh, they needed an immediate replacement for a team member. Well something happened on one of the United States Culinary Olympic teams, and they said, we need somebody to come in, be a plug and play. Yeah. So they interviewed and tested out three candidates. I just so happened to make the cut and I got on the team. So the United States that year sent four teams to Stuttgart, Germany. I was part of what's called the regional team. Okay. And we were comprised of five chefs, ranging from Baltimore, Maryland to Naples, Florida. So we went to the Culinary Olympics. We were only a team together for about six months.
Doug:I was gonna say, had you met these people at all before?
Joe:I've met one of them before. He was he was also an apprentice at the Greenbrier with me. So Stephen Bush is actually kind of the reason I got on the team. He threw my my name in the hat and vouched for me. So we had about six practice six months of practicing together, and we would go to a new location every month.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Joe:So we may be in Baltimore this month, and then they would go to DC to my restaurant, and then we would go to Naples at somebody else's club, and then we would go to uh West Warner County Community College hosted us. We did our testing there. We would go to um the Carolinas. And the reason for that, Doug, is we wanted to be so comfortable being uncomfortable that we could be. thrown into any situation. Any kitchen, anywhere. It was great because when we got to Germany, we had this beautiful catering kitchen. And it was all everything was number one in German. So we couldn't read the equipment, but it was all induction. There was no gas anywhere in the building. Everything was electric. So thankfully, I always traveled with an induction burner for myself. So I was very familiar with the induction process. And but it was just like we weren't phased at it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Joe:So it didn't ruffle the feathers. No, not at all. But our team competed against 32 other countries, and we won a gold medal for our work, and we ranked third in the world that year, which is the first time the USA has done that in quite a long time. Incredible, and congratulations. Thank you. Yeah.
Doug:I have to ask, what are a few of the items or dishes that you're preparing at this Olympics of the culinary world?
Joe:So I mentioned we had five chefs that range from you know Baltimore down to Florida. We took the approach of we wanted our table to represent the East Coast of the United States. Okay. So just speaking from my part, I was in charge of three dishes that were referred to as the starters. I had the uh New England area take the food that it's known for and present it in a contemporary modern approach. Okay. So the three dishes I did, I did a Thanksgiving dinner, but in the form of a pâté en cru. Okay. Which is like you make these really intricate force meats and inlays and wrap it in puff pastry. You seal it with like a Madeira Jolie. So I did that on a very small format. Uh it had a persimmon chutney with pickled mustard seeds, and it had uh fennel pollen crisps, and you you look at it, and it's it's this beautiful pate, but all the flavors read Thanksgiving. Yes. And then for Maine, I took a Maine lobster tail and I I butchered it out, I fabricated it, and I stuffed it with its own farce and different flavors of tarragon and chervil, and I paired that with potato, and uh it was just like this really intricate lobster terrine with just these beautiful little garnishes that uh just read very elegant, but it's featuring that main lobster tail. And then the state bird of Rhode Island is a chicken, it's the red hen. Oh. I got red hen eggs and I made a pasta dish. So I made a vegetarian cantalone with a lot of forged mushrooms and um presented it that way. There's so many components to these dishes, but my restrictions is my dish had a weigh less than like 75 grams. Because it's a starter, it's a needed to be like a bite or two. Yeah, very small. So uh if you ever see me in person, you know, I'm like 6'4, I'm a big guy, but if you look at this dish, these dishes that I did, like just a petite amount of like fine details. Yes. And during our competitions, we were always told, like, think that you're serving a woman in white gloves. Oh, like it should be petite, light, lacy, delicate. Are you using like tweezers to do the plate? Oh yeah, oh yeah, like these bear claws aren't. Say that with a smile. You know, that's funny because when people get into culinary and they see TV shows like The Bear and uh all these like Netflix documentaries, they want to be that chef who's plating up with tweezers. Yeah. But there's so much more. Like you got to really kind of earn your keep in the kitchen before you get to that level. To that level, yeah.
Doug:I I'm also thinking about these starters and the incredible amount of flavor, depth, and levels and variety that you've packed in what sounds like such a small bite. Yeah. Like it's so much forethought. It's way beyond anything. This is what's fun to talk to chefs about because it's way beyond anything I'm ever going to cook at home.
Joe:So oh, it is. And like I haven't done that style of cooking since we left Stuttgart. This is Chef Joe Peroney, and you're listening to the Pittsburgh Dish.
Doug:Well, let's jump forward a little bit from this competition cook. I feel like I just talked to an iron chef, but in like the most elegant and elevated way.
Joe:So thank you. Yeah. So after the competition, you know, we get back, and that's also right when COVID hit. Yeah, I was thinking when you said 2020. Yeah, so we traveled to Stuttgart in February. We actually competed on Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Joe:And on the way home, we we were getting word like, hey, all these places are shutting down. In Virginia, we were uh kind of labeled as a necessity. Restaurants were. Okay. So we stayed open. And it was like the floodgates open, Doug. We were doing catering, we were doing grab and go, we were uh touchless contacts, everything that could go out the door. Yeah, we had bought different coolers that we could put prepared meals in that we weren't doing before, but there was that market for it. So those were like the most hours I ever worked in my life. It was unreal. Like there were days I actually slept like on a table in the restaurant for a few hours. Wow. And uh it was it was nuts, but there was just one day I was mixing like 75 pounds of coleslaw, and I said, like, there's gotta be, there's gotta be something better. So a few days later, I resigned from the the company without a plan in the world.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Joe:But one thing is with following me, and what I've always done is I've always bet on myself. Yes. So when they asked me, like, where are you going? I said, I have no clue. I said, Where are you were you interviewing? We can help. I'm like, I don't have anything lined up right now. But they were supportive of you leaving. Yeah, absolutely. And in the culinary world, like you you want to see people leave also, right? Because like you hate to see them go, but you love to see them go on and achieve more things. They're gonna go grow. You're gonna grow and you're gonna grow those who are around you. Right. There was a saying, you know, always surround yourself with people who are better than you. At that time, I felt like I needed a change. And uh I put some feelers out there and I worked with a company who did like job placements, and they said, What about rolling rock club in Pennsylvania? Okay, number one, I said, There's no way I'm moving back to Pennsylvania. No, no chance. And the second thing I said was being ignorant to what the Rolling Rock club actually is, I said, There's no way I'm working for a brewery because I thought Rolling Rock club was part of the the beer.
Doug:Exactly.
Joe:But it's not, it's not. I didn't know that. So I I went to do a just a walking interview with the COO at that time, and Doug, I fell in love all over again, like it was the Green Briar. This is a beautiful country club. Absolutely. Yeah, and it's uh remind me of the location. It's out in uh Laughlin Town, which is right past Ligonier. Yes, okay. So it was started by the Mellon family as a weekend retreat for the friends and family, and it it's now one of the most prestigious private clubs in the country. Yes. So there you are. I went there and I did a tasting a couple weeks later, and they really liked it and offered me the position. And I was uh the chef de cuisine of Rolling Rock for two years.
Doug:Wow. You've had just such incredible work along the way. So you kind of eat your own words, you come back to PA and you're working at Rolling Rock. And then when I was doing a little research, I found an article. You you suffered a little bit of adversity along the way.
Joe:Yeah, you can uh you could say that. Yeah. So it was about six months into my stay at Rolling Rock. I started to have some some vision issues. And uh I would start like getting little black blackouts in my right, my right eye. Oh my. And I thought it was just I needed more sleep. Um, I thought it was because at that time I was training for a marathon, like I was just exhausted. Maybe I just needed to wear my glasses more often. Yes. You're really pushing yourself. Yeah, so I kept putting it off, and then one day I was just driving down 30 and my eye went completely black. Just the right eye. Yeah, for like two or three seconds. But it's scary. And I was like, all right, this something's up. Yeah. So I went to my optometrist and they said, We need to send you to a surgeon, like a neurologist. I'm like, what's going on? Like, we don't know, but there's something wrong. So I went to a neurologist and um they did some x-rays and CAT scans, and I had a uh a tumor growing on my optic nerve.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness.
Joe:So I was training for the Pittsburgh Marathon, and they found this tumor in late March. Okay.
Doug:And the marathon's in May?
Joe:Yeah, first weekend in May, I believe. Yeah. And so I said, Well, I'm I'm not missing this marathon. Very stubborn. And the doctors were like, look, you have to get this out like the week before the marathon's the next opening. If you don't get it out, you know, it's gonna be several more weeks, if not months, until there's an availability. And they didn't want to wait. They didn't want to wait. So I said, All right, well, I guess my marathon dreams are over. But at that time, the the group I was training with, Victory Multi Sport, they went out of the way to put on a marathon for me at North Park. Oh. So a few days before my surgery, I was out there running 26.2 miles. Uh, you know, we had the the P3R team from the marathon down there. They had the the finish line tape that I ran through. They gave me medal. Yeah. So my goodness. It was uh it was a great experience. And then that was also kind of the time where my mind shift kind of shifted. You know, I've been traveling, I've been working all these places, traveling internationally to do competitions, but I've been neglecting myself, yes, my family. So I started looking for new opportunities. And in the the chef world, you know, you're expected to put in those hours. Like at Rolling Rock, 12 hours was kind of like a short day for us. And I found this job with Giant Eagle that it just checked all the boxes I wanted for my future.
Doug:Yes.
Joe:And uh I applied, and thankfully I got that, and now it's a fantastic company to work for. I've seen my family more times in the last two and a half years that I've been there than I have in the last 20 years. So goodness. It's just, you know, in my mid-40s, you know, the mind shifts different. I'm not that 26-year-old who wants to work as much as possible. You know, I want to enjoy life now. And that kind of uh that tumor kind of really was a paradigm shift for me in the way I think. And uh my family was very supportive of it, and they're like, How are you not freaking out about this? But I try I give that marathon training so much credit because it just made me so tough mentally every day, you know, getting up, running 10 miles, running six miles, doing a five-mile speed run. And it's just I didn't have time to think about that tumor and then going into work. It was just it was the kind of the escape from reality that I needed at that time. So I didn't worry about that tumor. It was uh yeah, it was it was all good. Oh my god, very easy surgery. Good. And I've healed up well since then.
Doug:Good. I'm so glad. Thank you. I I really appreciate you sharing the lesson of getting a new outlook, and it allowed you to like then spring forward to a job that doesn't take all of your hours away from your life.
Joe:Yeah, and I have some some great bosses and leaders there that you know they they always tell you family first, and if you need a leave for something, hey, we'll get that tomorrow. Like go ahead and spend time with your family.
Doug:I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. I think that's an incredible story, and what a journey in the culinary career. I'd love to bring it back to these things that you're doing for yourself. Now you're doing pasta making and pizza making. Where are you with that business? You know, what's what are your goals? What's upcoming? Do you have any plans in the in the future to expand that part of your life?
Joe:Yes, I always have plans. Uh, you know, I'm always looking at Zillow for like locations I could potentially set up a storefront. Okay. But I'm not in any rush. Yeah. Like no rush at all. But also, one thing we we didn't cover is to kind of circle back to the community college I went to school at, I'm also now a part-time faculty there. I had no idea. So I teach there now. So I've been doing substitute teaching for the last like six months. And then next semester I'll have an evening class all by myself that I'll be teaching food specialties. Do you love it? It's awesome. Yeah. Like I'm in that part stage of my career where you know I want to give back as much as I can to the next generation. And I think me doing the private classes was a good springboard to explore that opportunity to do substitute teaching.
Doug:When you start to teach others, you're sharing your gifts, you're sharing your experience. For me personally, I love sharing what I know with others. So congratulations on all of that. Where do you then stand with the personal business that you're doing with the pasta making and the pizza? Are you still looking to do uh more events and classes in that?
Joe:So we mentioned at the top of the podcast, cosigned speakeasy. Yes. I did, you know, many classes with them last year. 2026, I want to make sure every class that I do is of significant value. So, for example, Doug, January 10th is our first class back, and we build that as like a great Christmas gift. You're getting an experience. So I had a lot of people who either bought them for their family members, yes, their co-workers, or their spouses as a cool Christmas gift that's really unique. We printed out golden tickets and sent them to those people. So uh, you know, when they open up something physical on Christmas, they get this golden ticket. It lists all the times and everything about that that class. It's a great gift. Absolutely. I'm I I think so. Did it sell out? It sold out in less than an hour. Yeah. Wow. And that's kind of a trend we saw. I always joke in class, like, you know, I felt like Taylor Swift because one of the classes we did last year, it was 11 minutes. And people were messing with it. Before it sold out. Before it sold out. Wow. And we do keep the classes small, yeah, just so I can really have a personal, intimate experience with everybody who's there. Yeah.
Doug:And let me just clarify: these classes that we're talking about at Cosign, where do people buy that? Is it through your website or through something on Cosign's website? Where can people find information about that?
Joe:In 2026, we're running everything through my website. Okay. And uh that's where you'll you'll find tickets. Um, and we post direct links on Instagram. That's where I do most of my social media. Yes, most of your marketing. Yep. With all the direct links and you know, buy now. So, but with Cosign this year, uh, our next class, which I kind of teased once already, we're doing a Valentine's Day class. Okay. So February 14th, we're doing all things love. And it could be for Galantine's, it could be for Valentine's, or if you just love pasta, like come on out, we're gonna have different heart-shaped ravioli molds. We'll have like red pasta dough that we're gonna make with beet powder. Yes. So we could do little punch-outs of hearts if you're into that stuff. And uh, my pasta classes are really kind of unique. We teach you how to make the actual dough yourself, but then instead of just making like fettuccine or one or two little shapes, I get these really intricate molds from a woodworker out of Boston. And uh, you just get kind of a different experience. You can make something that's very Instagrammable that you can post and say, like, look what I did. I've seen some of your posts before, and I didn't even recognize the pasta shape. So I love this. Yeah, yeah, it's very unique. So we're doing that, and then we have uh a couple more surprises for 2026, some new locations that we're gonna be doing. I love it. But most of the work that I do is private in the private world. So, like I said before, if you have a party and you want me to come in, it's six is the minimum, and then it can go up to 12 or 14. But I go into your house, we make the fresh pasta right there, and then at the end of class, I feed everybody. So whatever we make in that private setting, we cook and then we eat as a group.
Doug:And I'm just gonna endorse you for a second. You brought me like what would probably happen in a class today. You brought me fresh pasta, you brought me sauces, you brought me an olive oil drizzle. And uh, I don't know if you make this for class, but you brought me an incredible multi-layer lasagna. How many layers in 32. And does that ever happen in a class?
Joe:So in a public class, it does. So at Cosign. Okay. Because Cosign is a ticketed event, you never know who's gonna be to your left or right. Yes. So I don't want to have you know, somebody make pasta and it gets confused with somebody else's. Like, and I don't know if that would like freak people out a little bit. Sure. So everything you make in the public classes at Cosign, you take home and enjoy later. You can freeze it. We give you all the instructions, but I feed them the 32-layer lasagna, which there's a great company in Lancaster that I work with called Arco Boleno.
Doug:Oh, yes.
Joe:And I have bought this tabletop pasta machine.
Doug:Well, they're no, we've had other folks on. Peter's pasta uses that machine, uh, Ryan Peters uh and Soul Pasta uses that machine. So that's a machine name I've heard of. Yeah. Sort of the ultra uh wish list gift, because it's not an inexpensive machine.
Joe:It is not. It's uh, you know, thanks to Ryan, I've known Ryan for a long time. And uh I actually brought him into Rolling Rock to do a pasta class for our culinary team there. Yes. He introduced me to the Arco Boleno people, and I went out there and they were just they're a fantastic group to work with. So I've got their pasta machine, I have a spiral dough mixer now. Uh, it's very expensive, that kind of stuff. But for me, also, like it's worth the investment. Yes. Like I said earlier, I always put my money on me, and I know that piece of special equipment will make a large impact in my classes. But your 32-layer lasagna, yeah, it's it's 16 layers of pasta that I make in that machine, and it's just layered with bechamel, marinara, uh spinach, ricotta, basil. I mean, there's it's it's delicious. Folks, what we're saying here is get to one of these classes. He's gonna feed you. Yeah, you won't go hungry. And on top of lasagna, they get a truffled pasta dish also. So truffle butter, parmesan rige.
Doug:Thank you so much, Chef. You're welcome. All right, Joe, we should do this. Let's remind people of your website and your social handle. Uh, where can people find you for these tickets or just follow you if they want to see all these adventures?
Joe:So the easiest way to find out what's actively going on in my life, you go to my Instagram, that is Joe.peroney, and it has all my uh kind of information there. My website uh is pittsburghchef.com.
Doug:Okay.
Joe:And that'll take you to my webpage, and then from there I have uh another website. It's called Joey Pepperoni. Joey Pepperoni.
Speaker 2:I was wondering when we'd get to that. That is uh a longtime nickname, right?
Joe:Yeah, the alias. I love that so much. Pittsburghchef.com will take you to my main page, but then my Shopify account to book tickets through or the fancy t-shirt that you have in your swag bag t-shirt is Joeypeperoni.com. And growing up, you know, kids can be kids. I was called Joey Pepperoni, Joey Pearogi, Joey Baloney, and I hated it. I hated it. But now it's just like I embrace it. It's the best handle you could have out there. It is, it just kind of rolls off the tongue and it shows like, yeah, you can call me Joey Pepperoni. Like kids love saying it, adults think it's funny. So yeah, Joeypeperoni.com is my storefront for private event classes we booked through there and all the merch. It's perfect. Thank you.
Doug:All right, Joe. I've so enjoyed getting to know you today. Uh, I know you listen to the podcast, so you probably know there's one final question. I know what's going on for you. The name of the show is the Pittsburgh Dish. What's the best dish you've had to eat this past week?
Joe:So I'm very bad with going out to eat. I don't go out to eat a whole lot. A lot of chefs don't. Yeah, your day off, you might be staying at home. Yeah. We just got a bunch of snow here in the Pittsburgh area. It was very cold. And one of my family members brought over some beef barley soup. And I I never cook soup at home. I think the last time I made a soup was a consume at Rolling Rock Club, like three years ago. This beef barley soup hit on a different level. Like I could not stop eating it. Wow. And it was just it was just like what the soul needed. Yes. And that snowy day, it was cold and it was just gloomy. It was that beef barley soup. I wanted to say that lasagna, which I had for breakfast this morning, but gotta go to beef barley.
Doug:Well, that's very nice that you gave that off to someone else too. Because I think I could probably eat that lasagna every day myself. It's delicious. Was there anything special about the beef barley soup?
Joe:So when we would make soups like at the Greenbrier, we would make these large kettles. And a lot of times we separated the ingredients. So you may cook the barley separate. Uh-huh. You may braise the beef separately. So you can just kind of add it in a bowl when one's ordered. Exactly. But this this soup, like the barley, it cooked in the broth and it gave it this just velvety mouthfill.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Joe:And it was just like, it's something I would never, I'm never gonna cook beef barley soup in my life. Right. I wouldn't, I still won't. But man, it was just like I think the fact too that somebody cooked it for me. Exactly. I was thinking the same thing. It always tastes better. It always tastes better. It could be a salad if they chop up the ingredients. It's like, holy cow, this salad's delicious. It's perfect. It is.
Doug:I mean, honestly, when someone cooks for you, it's like the best thing ever.
Joe:Yeah, and that's you know, the way I look at my life. Like me cooking for somebody, that's my showing affection and love for them. Right. So when they do that for me, like I'm just so appreciative. It's like, oh my gosh, like just one less thing to worry about. And it's like somebody took the time out of their day to make this for me.
Doug:It's it's the best. I couldn't agree more. Chef Joe Peroney, thank you so much for sharing all of your story and experience today. And thanks for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.
Joe:Thank you, Doug. It's been a long time coming, and I'm I'm very happy to be here.
Doug:Up next, if you're looking for a refreshing salad that's good for any season, Chef Barbara Ann of A B Kitchen has just the dish. Hey everybody, we're joined today with Barbara Ann of A B Kitchen. Barb, when you were here last, we talked about your business and how you do all of these custom food items and sort of personal chefing, but a lot of times off-site at Fulton Commons, and then you deliver. Sometimes you do it at somebody's house. I always like to ask a chef when you're not cooking for all these other people, but maybe you're making something for yourself or your family, is there a recipe or a dish that you find that you're making often for you?
Barbara Ann:Sure. Uh, my friend Grace's life-changing kale salad.
unknown:Oh, okay.
Doug:Life-changing kale salad.
Barbara Ann:She says she gives you the directions and she's like, You're gonna have a hard time not eating all of this at once. It's so tasty. And sort of sometimes after traveling or different things, like you just want something green, and this makes it like almost addictive. It's so yummy.
Doug:Well, can you describe it for us a little bit?
Barbara Ann:Like what goes into it? It's kind of neat too if you have allergies, because it's like I modified it. I do coconut aminos in the dressing.
Doug:Okay.
Barbara Ann:And then fresh lemon juice, apple cider vinegar.
Doug:Oh, it's all punchy stuff.
Barbara Ann:Fresh garlic, lots of umami, yeah. Olive oil. Sometimes I do a blend of olive oil and avocado oil.
Doug:Yes.
Barbara Ann:And nutritional yeast, which is packed with B vitamins.
Doug:Yes.
Barbara Ann:Help with energy.
Doug:And does that thicken it up, the nutritional yeast?
Barbara Ann:Yep. And it's kind of like Parmesan type thing. It is.
Doug:It's got a cheesy like quality to it.
Barbara Ann:Yep. And so you could just have that on kale and it's yummy.
Doug:Or anything.
Barbara Ann:Yeah. Yeah. But then you can also, I make like a yummy, crunchy topping with I chop up pumpkin seeds and nutritional yeast and a little garlic powder, and it's yeah, it's kind of like parmesan. But again, it's like packed with protein. Yeah. And then whatever veggies you want to add.
Doug:And the kale itself, are you like shredding it? Are you chopping it and massaging it to do anything unique to make it more palatable?
Barbara Ann:Yeah. So if you want to eat right then, some people prefer to massage it in first. Yes. And but if you want a meal prep for yourself, leave it alone.
Doug:Yeah, don't do it because it's going to soften over a little bit of time.
Barbara Ann:It'll last for the whole week. You just make a big one and then make a big batch of dressing, add whatever you want, and you're eating this tasty stuff all week.
Doug:It sounds delicious. And it sounds like you could really modify it. I love that little extra crunch you're putting on top with the pumpkin seeds, but you could throw in another veggie, maybe a little red onion or whatever you like, maybe a protein on top or some tofu.
Barbara Ann:Yeah.
Doug:Yeah.
Barbara Ann:I do the edamame from Trader Joe's.
Doug:I love that steamed edamame. Yes. I buy that all the time.
Barbara Ann:Protein, primer, and then uh those beets that are all ready to eat. They're in the refrigerator.
Doug:Could you look in my fridge?
Barbara Ann:I have a package of those right now. Those are like super good for you.
Doug:I know. I love those with a dark green anyway. So with the kale. The other thing I had a question about the the coconut aminos, that is sort of equivalent to like a soy sauce, too. You can use soy sauce. If someone can't get the coconut aminos, they could use soy sauce.
Barbara Ann:Yeah. And all of this also uh secret about me, I I don't love all vegetables, so I always try to make them like shine. You know, right? So like I don't love beets, but I know like they're so good for you.
Doug:So this they're good here.
Barbara Ann:Sort of um helps. Yeah. They're not tasting like earthy. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Doug:Yes. You've actually pumped them up with all this other flavor. And remind me again the friend that gave you this initial recipe.
Barbara Ann:Grace.
Doug:So, Grace, thank you so much for giving Barbara Ann this recipe, who's now giving it to all of us.
Barbara Ann:Yeah, yeah.
Doug:Well, I love it. I am always about a kale salad. And the other thing is it's sort of always seasonally available. So even as we get into colder winter months, you're still looking for a salad green.
Barbara Ann:Yep.
Doug:Let's have kale salad.
Barbara Ann:Yeah.
Doug:Barbara, thank you so much. And thanks for being on the Pittsburgh Dish. Thank you. You can find out more about Chef Barbara Ann on her website. That's abkitchenllc.com, or follow her on Instagram at abkitchenpgh. Do you have a recipe? Share it with us. Just visit our website at www.pittsburgdish.com and look for our share a recipe form. If you enjoyed the show, consider buying us a coffee for this episode or supporting the show monthly. You can find links to those options at the bottom of our show description. And if you want to follow my own food adventures, you can find me on social media at Doug Cooking. That's our show for this week. Thanks again to all of our guests and contributors, and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.
