Check Out Tim Schafer’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Schafer. 

Hi Tim, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I was born in New Jersey to a Welsh immigrant mother. At age two or three, I was placed in an orphanage due to the hardships my mother was experiencing while trying to take care of me and my older English-born sister. Their stories run deep as well. I was raised in the New Jersey foster care system, living in five foster homes and an almost adoptive situation. Each of these situations are a very involved story in their own right. I landed at my last foster home in Morristown, New Jersey in 1974 when I was in seventh grade and eleven years old. At sixteen, I left the foster care system, and l quit High School only to spend the next year living on the streets. I took a position at a local supermarket bagging the groceries, collecting the carts, running to aisle five with a mop to clean up the pickle juice. I actually enjoyed my job. I helped out in the different departments and eventually was offered a spot as an apprentice meat cutter. I was thrilled, and I always liked helping out the cool people that worked in the meat room. It lasted for five years; I thought I would be a butcher forever. Unfortunately, the Local Union had a big strike, and many of us were laid off. I went to work for a small local butcher shop which was a ton of fun, and I learned a lot, but I wanted more. I applied for a position as a butcher in a local restaurant and got the job. That is where my culinary adventures would begin. I started a two-year cook’s apprenticeship while I still processed all the meat, teaching others, and still in training myself. I applied to the Culinary Institute of America, was accepted and started after my apprenticeship was complete. I decided to do my externship at the same restaurant I was at and continue training under the same Chef, and after graduating, I did the same. After a few months, the Chef moved on, and I took my first position as Head Chef. Two years there and then two years at a seafood restaurant I opened with a friend and then on to opening my first restaurant, called Creations in Madison, New Jersey. I then opened Tim Schafer’s Cuisine, expanded from twenty-four to seventy-five seats. After visiting friends near Charlotte North Carolina, myself, wife, and six kids at the time moved to the Lake Norman area. I opened Tim Schafer’s at Lake Norman in 2004 to a welcoming of wonderful guests, including a stronghold of the NASCAR community. Unfortunately, I closed the restaurant after five years. Since then, I have been consulting on various projects, catering dinner parties, writing about my passion for cooking, especially with beer. It is at the top of my list to pay it forward where and whenever I can for many local charitable organizations. I have many to mention. I will be hosting “A Taste of Home” to benefit Saint Pater’s Village “St. Peter’s Home for Boys” to raise funds and bring awareness about group foster care and group homes. The event will be held on October 22 in Madison, New Jersey. I am a very lucky, blessed, and fortunate man. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being raised in foster care had many different challenges but also brought on so much strength and unity. 

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Professionalism. Integrity. Consistency. Gratitude. Joy. 

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
It has affected my industry more than I have ever seen in over forty years. 

Contact Info:

• Website: brewchefhopzalts.com
• Instagram: Cheftim50
• Facebook: Tim Schafer