From line cook to Baldor President, the career of Mike Muzyk is nothing short of legendary. Starting out in the kitchen, the exec left to become a salesman, and oversaw the growth of Baldor from a small company into an innovative, multi-location conglomerate. The produce icon reflected on his journey in the food service industry, and shares insights about its direction as he celebrated his retirement last month.
Muzyk’s remarkable journey to becoming President of Baldor Specialty Foods began in the kitchen; having worked as a chef in Belgium, on cruises touring the Americas, and even in the revered New York restaurant La Côte Basque during its heyday, his experience proved invaluable. However, fathering a special-needs son reshaped his priorities, he returned stateside after accepting a sales position at an Atlanta-based supplier, but was initially skeptical and intended only to stay temporarily, as the hours allowed him to help raise his son.
“I didn’t consider myself a salesman – I was the guy that threw salesmen out of my kitchens,” quipped Muzyk. He soon discovered, to his surprise, that his intimate knowledge of ingredients made him ideally suited for the job: “I could recommend and substitute – I didn’t just walk in and say, ‘We have spinach,’ but could suggest different varieties tailored to different dishes.”
He soon learned that the essence of salesmanship was “selling the why, not the what.” In a market full of distributors, Mike Muzyk discovered to set himself apart: “I tell my sales staff this: Sony released the MP3 player and sold the what; Apple made the same thing but sold the why – they marketed the product as freedom, from the radio, from people telling you what to listen to. Sure, we sell strawberries, but why buy ours?” He emphasized that selling is not just about presenting a customer with a product, but more so about explaining what makes it worth their money. “If our product has a longer shelf life, you have to explain that despite being a dollar more at face value, they save two dollars since you don’t have to throw them out.”
He joined the Baldor team in 1996 and quickly developed a close bond with founder and mentor Kevin Murphy: “I would just take things off of his desk, no questions asked – we had that kind of working relationship, and he trusted me from the beginning,” Muzyk explained. His ascent within the company is a testament to his diligence and ethic: although he joined as a salesman, he was soon promoted to sales manager, and after a corporate restructuring that introduced a C-Suite, Vice President.
Since taking the helm of the company in 2013, Muzyk has been the driving force behind Baldor’s expansion across the Northeast, opening new warehouses near Boston, Washington, and recently Philadelphia. “We’re the largest importer of Prince de Bretagne shallots and a good mover of white asparagus and Dutch peppers, so these new locations helped relieve some pressure from our New York market and could bypass our biggest pinch point, the George Washington Bridge.”
Under his stewardship, Baldor continues to set the industry standard with innovation, particularly in combating food waste. The company became the first food processor in America to achieve zero waste to landfills. “Blue Hill Stone Barn, with chef Dan Barber, did a pop-up restaurant in New York called WastED (a portmanteau of ‘waste’ and ‘education’) to bring attention to food waste,” remembered Muzyk. “They transported all of their discarded food waste from their site in Westchester into the city to be repurposed into a five-course meal.”
Realizing the risk in the process, Barber turned to Muzyk and his team at Baldor, and together, they drafted a menu based solely on the company’s waste products. Mike Muzyk was amazed: “I said to my team, ‘This is what one chef can do with one restaurant – what are we going to do with the tons of food waste ending up at the landfill?’”
He challenged his team to synthesize an outlet for their scraps, and 10 months later, guest-starred on the Today Show to celebrate their zero-waste achievement. “It wasn’t all sexy of course, but it was huge,” Muzyk reflected, “But it’s all part of the circle of life.” Consider the distributor’s line of gluten-free croutons: using Baldor’s leftover trimmings, a New Jersey-based processor dehydrates the product, sends it to a grinder to be milled into a fine flour, bakes them into croutons, and then sells them back to Baldor, who seasons them with their signature spice blend and packages them for sale.
That venture with Chef Barber and Stone Barns evolved into Muzyk overseeing the development of Baldor’s Fresh Cuts program, which today delivers fresh produce to chefs customized according to their unique requirements. It began, he remembered fondly, out of a panicked request from chef Bruno Tison for 250 portobello mushrooms with their gills removed. “When you remove the gills from a portobello,” explained Muyzk, “it can remain blonde in color even after cooking; when you leave them in, they can turn everything dark brown.” He dashed to the city and purchased all new equipment to prepare and deliver the mushrooms to the chef as requested. When questioned by his operations manager about the purpose of all the now unused equipment, Muzyk realized he was onto something: “Today’s Fresh Cuts program now has 350 employees, $12 million worth of equipment, and runs overnight because customized products are always in demand.”
Today, Muzyk continues to emphasize the importance of building relationships with his customers, even in an age where technology replaces many of those key interactions. “Companies believe that they don’t need salesmen and can instead rely on fancy websites; they’ve survived, but really you need both,” he explained. “Chefs now can order products on their phones, and want an immediate solution to their needs.”
To really solve these problems, though, Muzyk stressed the importance of human interaction. “We can talk about seasonal products and those that may be going out of season, or how strawberries grown in wet conditions could be sandy – customers really appreciate this insight.” In this way, Baldor presents itself as the solution to chefs’ needs – human interaction facilitates problem solving, making product recommendations, and even bringing new ideas through flexibility and a wide breadth of product. “Being a chef isn’t just cooking anymore,” Muzyk added, “It’s menu planning, staff training, accounting for food costs, and more – being that solution is a huge help.”
The CIA graduate’s years in the industry also make him a keen judge of the people who work it. “Passion, commitment and honesty – they’re the three grounding principles of a good restaurateur,” he noted. First, he advised, is honesty with your staff and customers: “You can’t tell someone the delivery truck is twenty minutes away when it’s two hours away; you can’t tell someone strawberries taste great when they’re sandy to make a sale.” Second, he added, is a passion and commitment to make things work: “During the pandemic, we almost lost the entire business – it took thirty years to build, and only thirty minutes to lose 75% of our business. We had to keep things going, and there were lots of chefs out there that partnered with us – we sold them ingredients and brought back cooked meals for our new home delivery service.” These, he remarked, are the key hallmarks that define a successful restaurateur.
Mike Muzyk’s legacy at the helm of Baldor speaks for itself. With his kitchen experience driving his prowess as a salesman, he oversaw the company’s expansion into new markets across the Northeast and development of innovative food waste and food customization programs, all the while remaining humble and hardworking. His insights into the future of the food service industry, and emphasis on the importance of person-to-person interaction, prove that both his legacy as he departs leaves Baldor with a solid foundation to remain industry leaders.
For more information about Baldor and their line of products, visit https://www.baldorfood.com/.
