Jeffrey Amoscato
When Jeffrey Amoscato was growing up, his aunt had a local cooking store and school. At the young age of eight he started to take cooking classes for kids and sit in on cooking classes for adults. He knew at an early age what he wanted to do. It didn't take long for Jeff to find himself working in restaurants while in high school and as soon as he graduated from high school, Jeff enrolled at NECI. NECI appealed to him because of the two internships and the real world working environment of NECI Commons.
Knowing how important it is to make connections, Jeff asked Chef Michel LeBorgne for help getting his first internship at Le Cirque 2000. While working at Le Cirque 2000, Jeff met another NECI grad who had contacts in Italy. By connecting the dots, he was able to secure his second internship at Ristorante San Domenico, a small 2 Michelin starred restaurant in Imola. For both internships Jeff made a 5 month commitment to the restaurant in order to learn as much as possible. The 700 required hours of the NECI internship were over in just a few months, but Jeff didn't want to waste the opportunity to learn. In fact, while in Italy he lived above the restaurant and worked every service - definitely more than 700 hours of work!
Upon his return from Italy, Jeff landed a job as a line cook at Jean-Georges Restaurant, first as a tournant in the Nougatine kitchen. In five months Jeff moved up to Garde Manger and then Fish Commis in the main Jean-Georges kitchen. During the 12 months he worked there, Jeff learned a lot about the world of fine dining but realized this was not his final destination in the restaurant world. Being eager to continue learning, Jeff took a night class at the French Culinary Institute on Food & Beverage Management.
The night class only whetted Jeff's appetite to gain more knowledge about the restaurant industry. Perhaps working in the kitchen wasn't all that he wanted to do. He began to see the value of going back to school and earning his BA. So in the fall of 2003 Jeff returned to NECI for the Hospitality and Restaurant Management Bachelor's program.
When it was time to find his HRM internship, Jeff knew what he had to do - work his contacts. It wasn't going to be just luck that landed him the perfect internship. Jeff had a classmate who had worked at Gramercy Tavern (a Union Square Hospitality Group restaurant) who told him how great it was to work for USHG. Jeff had a few specific goals for this internship: he wanted to return to New York City, preferably in a downtown restaurant and he wanted to work at a fine dining restaurant. All of his research led him to conclude that Union Square Hospitality Group was the company for him. But that still didn't land him a job. Jeff used all of his persuasive powers to gently but persistently let USHG know that he was the one for them. Calling, visiting, and calling and visiting again, they finally offered him an internship with their newest project at the Museum of Modern Art. Although he was back in midtown he knew the rest of the experience would be a huge stepping stone.
Jeff worked for USHG to open the restaurant and cafes for MoMA. It was an excellent opportunity to learn many different aspects of the industry, including fine dining and high volume quick service cafes. "I would work on sourcing fine stemware one day and then need to figure out how to move 1,000 people through a cafe the next. I couldn't have asked for a better internship." Once everything was up and running, Jeff was hired as a floor manager for the Bar Room, the casual front room of The Modern.
Jeff enjoyed his transition to the Front of House and never thought about leaving to go back to the kitchen. Then, about a year later, the Director of Purchasing position for all of the restaurants in MoMA opened up and a colleague suggested that he should consider it. This was a completely different job; however, Jeff's mix of culinary BOH and FOH management experience gave him an outstanding perspective on how to get the job done. Though he had never reached a position of management in the kitchen or been a general manager of a restaurant, he knew he had the foundation to take the job because he understood both sides of the restaurant. And his BA degree from NECI gave him the financial basics that he needed.
Within 18 months of taking the internship with Union Square Hospitality Group, Jeff became the Director of Purchasing for the restaurants at MoMA. He worked hard to organize and streamline a dysfunctional department that was vital to all restaurant operations. Two years later he was reaching out to the corporate office encouraging them to look at opportunities for group purchasing with the other restaurants in the group. Corporate noticed Jeff and his work and when an operations position opened up in the corporate office they knew who to turn to. Jeff became the Purchasing and Systems Operation Manager for USHG.
Since USHG restaurants are chef driven and independently run there was little group purchasing happening when Jeff moved to the corporate offices. Jeff quickly saw there was significant buying power that wasn't being harnessed. He began collecting data, analyzing purchasing habits and looking for opportunities to make a financial difference. Purchasing at this level goes far beyond food and beverage. Kitchen equipment, restaurant linens, disposables, printing, and even garbage were all areas of opportunity. By creating relationships with individual companies and vendors he was able to create programs that benefited USHG.
Jeff never imagined the turns that his life would take to get him to where he is today. He's planning to stick around to help USHG continue to grow. There are several projects and new restaurants on the horizon and he wants to be part of that future.
A key piece of advice Jeff received early on was to work hard if you want to move up. At no point should you just assume that the next job is yours. Jeff recommends that finding a good mentor, someone who believes in you and is willing to invest in your growth, is key to moving up in your career. Over the years, Jeff has had 2 key mentors and is currently working with a third. Each mentor brought something to the relationship and when goals were achieved or changed Jeff would move on to someone new. All those connections he made over the years, the relationships he built and the contacts he kept were instrumental to creating the opportunities that allowed him to succeed. Who knows what the future holds, but Jeff knows he will follow the path as it appears before him.