Business View Magazine | February 2018

128 129 make some money. It took a while; he didn’t want to share the recipe, and, like most chefs, he wasn’t in the business for the money–they cook as a labor of love. But Dennis convinced him and they started making jerky in the basement of a catering kitch- en at the Bayonne Country Club in Bayonne,New Jersey.They started selling the jerky in Bayonne, and then at Calusa Pines Golf Course in Naples.” Some members at Calusa Pines,who loved the product, either loaned the pair funds, or made a monetary investment, so that they could purchase the proper cooking equipment to make jerky on a larger scale.“From 2009 to 2013, they sold their product in Ziploc bags on golf courses around the country, as well as some online commerce,”Silvestro reports. In 2013, a gentleman by the name of Ro- han Oza, a serial entrepreneur who was one of the early investors in Vitaminwater, Pop Chips, and Vita Coco,met them after tasting the jerky on the golf course, and was surprised to find out that the jerky makers were not members of the country club, but were, in fact, caddies.After the meeting,Oza became CHEF’S CUT REAL JERKY CO. the third partner in the business and, in 2014, after some rebranding of the packaging and a little re- finement of recipes, the trio took the product to the retail marketplace.“And the business has been on fire since then,”Silvestro adds. Silvestro joined the team in 2014, and admits that when he joined, jerky was not his favorite snack.“I did not like jerky,”he admits.“But I loved the story and thought the product was phenomenal. Growing up in NewYork,we knew jerky as ‘Slim Jim.’ It was break-your-teeth hard.When I tasted this product, it was tender, it was easy to eat, it tasted great, and it struckmy interest, especially with my background in the snack world. So, I was eager to become part of this organization.” Today, Chef’s Cut Real Jerky Co. is headquartered in NewYork City. It has 24 full-time employees–12 based in NewYork and 12 sales and marketing em- ployees spread out across the country. Since 2011, the company has sold more than 15 million bags of jerky,with one million of those sold on golf cours-