Thanks for stopping by “mi casa” on the Internet.

I am the “The Tortilla Guy” and I strive to be America’s best wrapper! This site is about what I love and what I do in the food industry. Please, stop. Check it out and lets maybe compare and exchange recipes and talk anything about food. I am always looking for great ideas and have some to offer too.

The image on the left features my nephew “The Burrito Boy” and myself.

When you have a chance, please check out my videos, where you will not only see The Burrito Boy and I offering fun child-friendly recipes for wraps, but also some of the fun my colleagues and I have at our nation’s food shows.

A little something about me.

I started in the food business working for Butcher Boys in Norwood, New Jersey, where I learned how to cut different meats and cutlets and make all kinds of sausage. From there, I started my first business and “Steve the Steakman” was born.

Strangely enough, most of my business centered on not meats, but frozen seafood. Servicing restaurants throughout North Jersey, Rockland, and Westchester, New York, I learned everything from how to buy to billing and accounting.

An American love story.

While buying frozen seafood at one of my distributors, I started chatting with the secretary. And boom, love (or what I thought was). So, while getting the shrimp prices, I also was able to get the digits (if you know what I mean). The next thing I know, I’m getting married, living in Westchester, still selling frozen seafood but also looking for new opportunities. Thanks to my bride at the time, we found one—a card and gift store, which was also a luncheonette.

We bought the place and turned it into a breakfast joint for people on their way to the city or work or anywhere else. With minimal adverting, our business became a bigger breakfast spot than the deli next door! For six years, my partner and I started at 4:30 a.m. each morning to pound out coffee, rolls, bagels, muffins, cakes, cookies, danishes and all other kinds of early morning noshes. Unfortunately, the business and the marriage are no longer. But we did try and we had a lot of fun!

Citarella!

My next stop was at the world famous Citarella—one of New York City’s most celebrated fine food stores. Zagat’s New York Marketplace Guide called our array “awesome, enticing and amazing.” To this day, that is exactly what you will experience at this culinary prize. I started there as a butcher and moved up the ranks quickly. My communication skills earned me a spot in the prepared-food department where I soon became the manager. Citarella was an awesome experience. I learned from a friend how to make all kinds of sausage—from pork, chicken, turkey and fish to even wild game. I also learned how to set up an impressive prepared-food case, plating skills and how to set up Holiday demos for food products.

Birth of a Salesman

My next stop after Citarella was at M&M Food Sales, which was a father-and-soon food broker team. I discovered my ability to sell foods in NYC—the biggest and best city in the world! At M&M, we represented Blue Ridge Farms (now Chloe Foods), County Muffins, Davids Cookies, the “Soup Nazi’s” soups (yes, that “Soup Nazi”) and Tumaro’s Tortillas. I learned about presentations for food shows how to prepare food for New York City crowds at major events and not was I able to get them to taste it, but even like it!

While some of the products and names have changed, all of these relationships are lasting to this day. And they have helped me become who I am in the food industry and lead me to my next and current top: Tumaro’s Tortillas.

That’s a wrap!

At this national company that offers wholesome tasty tortillas for wraps, I have been a regional sales representative for four years. My territory includes the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and the Caribbean. Tumaro’s has given me the opportunity to create any wrap at any food show. And I mean any wrap. You name it. I have dazzled food-show visitors with everything from chocolate with cannoli cream wraps to apple-cinnamon quesadillas.

I have met with almost every deli buyer along the East Coast, dealt with crazy trucking issues—from trucks disappearing to the day-to-day issues of trucks coming from across country—and along the way, I’ve taken the food course that was part of a Cornell University program, attended Lehman College, Westchester Community College and, of course, The School of Hard Knocks. Owning two businesses means having to learn from trial and error, which I have mastered!

Now, that’s a wrap!