Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Jay Wolfpie.
Hi Jay Jay, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up in Australia. Australia Is a very sports/food/outdoor centered country. It’s our culture. And Aussies are extremely loyal and proud of how we marry the food, sport and outdoor culture.
Fast forward and I get to the States. What do I miss? Aussie traditional foods. The kind you would get at a football game, the kind you would have at every barbecue, the kind you would find in every coffee shop and pub in Australia.
It’s kind of weird that here in California especially, where we have every cuisine in the world gone mainstream, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, etc. but where’s Australia, we arguably have the most fun casual feel good foods in the world!
I love creating all the Australian foods, meat pies, Australian style sausages and of course lots of our unique sweet treats. For selfish reasons because I miss it, but more so because it gives me great joy to bring the expats living in the USA a taste of home that they crave and introduce America to the taste of Australia.
Our business is located in downtown Los Angeles, around a mile from Skid Row, home of over 50,000 homeless, many mentally I’ll or addicts. So I make it a big part of my life to provide them each month with some of our baked goodies and care packages which many expats around the country contribute.
They are so appreciative. It breaks my heart every day to see such sadness in such a modern city/state.
While I’m not trying to solve the issue, I want to bring awareness. If we manage to bring a few laughs and smiles to them, it’s a big deal.
Just to let people who have no one know that there are those that care and feel for our fellow humanity.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There’s no such thing as a smooth sailing. I didn’t want to create something new. Some different spin. I wanted everyone to taste a memory, an image, a smell, a recollection of exactly how they would remember it tasting. Flavours craved.
And then to set up in a way that the businesses would have longevity and growth. A way to reach every corner of the USA not just a local community which was essential during Covid.
I started in my tiny apartment kitchen at home and made it work.
Now we are in a really big commercial facility.
The biggest challenge is how to teach and introduce Americans to Australian-style foods.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Our business concentrates on unique traditional Australian comfort foods.
Meat pies
Sausage Rolls
Pasties
Grilling sausages
Australia’s favourite treats/desserts such as Lamingtons, vanilla slices, custard tarts, caramel slices.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, my interests were sports obsession! Specifically, Australian football we call footy. I grew up in an orthodox Jewish home, my grandparents were all Holocaust survivors. That was a big influence on my life. I was a bit of a troublemaker and ended up dropping out of school early and went off to Israel to join the army. It was something ingrained in me as my grandparents always said, Jews had no place to go during world war 2 and serving in a country that created that home was important to me.
Pricing:
- Meat pie $6.65
- Sausage Roll $4
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: Aussiepiesandsausages.com
- Instagram: @aussiepiesandsausages
- Facebook: Aussiepiesandsausages
