We’re introducing you to our passionate team of experts. Today’s featured Deli crew member is Specialty Foods Monger, Daniel Berman!
Meet Daniel
Daniel has moved around quite a bit throughout his life! He was born in Boston, then raised for most of his developmental years in Brooklyn. He attended primary and secondary school all the way down in Miami before moving back up to Philadelphia for college. After graduating, he drove west in a big black Cadillac with two childhood friends to Berkeley, California. During his tenure out west, he worked in advertising in San Francisco. But with twelve years under his belt on the west coast, he drove back east to Albany, New York with a wife and child, “because I lost a bet.” There he reinvented himself as a food writer, for a personal food blog, a regional publication and Yelp, where he helped build a local community of food reviewers. He took a sabbatical year in Princeton, NJ, at the Institute for Advanced Study where he researched regional foods like Trenton Tomato Pie, the Pork Roll / Taylor Ham divide, and Garden State hot dogs. When the University of Michigan came knocking on his wife’s door, they made the schlep to Ann Arbor, where she currently works as a professor and runs the Department of Organizational Studies.
Soon after arriving, Daniel signed on with Zingerman’s Mail Order for the 2019 holiday season, and was “bitten with the Zingerman’s bug.” He became a member of Zingerman’s Great Food Group, where he remains one of the writers for an internal newsletter called The Nosh, and also works with chef Kieron Hales of Cornman Farms on the Heartland Hot Dish Podcast. His very first encounter with Zingerman’s was over 20 years ago when he first considered leaving his career in advertising, when he met Debra Dickerson of Neal’s Yard Dairy for coffee in Oakland, California and she talked about getting her start selling cheese at Zingerman’s. Since then, his trajectory has slowly but steadily turned him towards his eventual position with the Specialty Foods team at the Deli. Daniel and his wife have two children together. His eldest a Senior at the College of Engineering pursuing a degree in Computer Science, and his youngest a junior in the IB program at Washtenaw International High School — also a fellow food lover, who cooks with Daniel and has accompanied him on exploring the best wings in Buffalo, NY over the past several years.
Daniel at the Deli
Daniel has been living his best Zingerman’s life for over six years, spending half a decade over at Mail Order and joining us here at the Deli a little over a year ago. Daniel is one of our incredible Specialty Foods mongers; he feels a great sense of responsibility to all our great vendors to represent the food we sell the absolute best he can, and to share what makes each item on our shelves so special. He regularly delights our guests with his breadth of knowledge, whether they’re first-timers or Deli regulars.
Daniel’s happy place is when he’s surrounded by great food, whether it’s the restaurant walk-in, our cheese cave, or a stocked warehouse. Working side by side with a team of passionate and kind food lovers is both fulfilling and inspiring! On a personal level, Daniel “lives for the ‘wows.’” He says, “Every day I get the opportunity to give people tastes of some foods that just knock both of their socks clear off their feet.” Not only does he feel a sense of responsibility to share great food, he also feels deeply fortunate to impart that experience to our guests. One of his proudest achievements here at the Deli is learning how to hand slice smoked salmon. The other is having created not one, but TWO different Sandwiches of the Month — The Cubano Italiano and the Humdinger. He still has the hand-painted posters for those sandwiches in his basement! “Should I get a third,” Daniel says, “my plan is to get them all framed and hang them as a triptych in my living room.” Knowing Daniel, this feat is well within the realm of possibility.
Daniel is known among staff and guests for being a spritzer sample extraordinaire. His secret is a ratio of two parts sweet to one part sour, with a dash of something aromatic. He’s also known for his friendly demeanor, encyclopedic knowledge of just about every subcategory of food we sell, and his ability to make seemingly intimidating items on our shelves inviting and approachable. “Sure, you can save them for a special day,” Daniel says about our selection, “but I’d argue today is pretty special.”
Daniel’s pantry is stocked with tinned fish; more accurately, he has an entire shelf devoted to it. Tuna, mackerel, sardines, mussels — you name it, Daniel is a fan. He loves how they only improve with age. He’s got tins of Ortiz tuna loin dating back to 2013! His dream Deli meal is the #1 Who’s Greenberg Anyway with a New pickle, fried kreplach with our housemade spicy ketchup, a blintz, and an ice cold can of Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray. But his absolute favorite food in the Deli — and the entirety of the ZCoB — is Le Gaslonde Beurre de Baratte, aka the butter that eats like cheese. He and his family eat it with a Bakehouse Challah almost every Friday night for Shabbat dinner. His most-anticipated time of year is our Balsamic Blowout in January, when we put all our balsamics, from our everyday 6-year to our rare Tradizionales, on sale. He loves unlocking that cabinet to share tastes of those precious bottles, especially when guests can enjoy them at a significant discount!
Five Fun Facts
1. It’s possible Daniel’s foodie identity is genetic, as his Nana Soosha was also deep in the food scene before it was fashionable; she would hunt down the good wheels of real Parmigiano-Reggiano before they were widely imported to the US and covet wedges of Colston-Basset Stilton “when other members of the family wouldn’t touch the stuff.” Nana Soosha is the one to thank for Daniel’s first taste of Stilton, which he loves and still remembers to this day!
2. Daniel is a pinball aficionado. It’s been a lifelong obsession. You can regularly find him at Pinball Petes, and relies on the Pinball Map app (who knew that was a thing?!) while traveling.
3. As a foodie, Daniel balances all the eating he does with exercise. “My fitness goals are to keep my metabolism up so that I can eat more and don’t have to shop for new pants.” Shopping for food? Yes please. Shopping for new clothes? Daniel says no thanks! Typically he exercises in his basement with a Peloton and some dumbbells, but he also enjoys brisk walks with some kind of fun destination at the end – like food or pinball!
4. You probably wouldn’t know it given Daniel’s pale complexion, but he used to race sailboats in Miami and spent most of his summers there on the water. “Back then I had a deep dark tropical tan despite using the strongest sunblock imaginable.” He once ventured to the docks on the San Francisco bay, hearing it had some of the best sailing in the world, but the water was so cold and winds so fierce, it just didn’t have the same charm that Miami did. He still enjoys getting out on the water, whether it’s a kayak, canoe, paddleboard, party boat, or ferry.
5. One of Daniel’s favorite food memories is visiting Neal’s Yard Dairy on a trip to London back in ‘98. The monger there took him through the full case from one end to the other, and even showed him the aging room below!
