PUBLISHER'S VIEWPOINT
November 2005
Honoring A Friend

I want to honor a friend on an important anniversary. All of us in the foodservice business—and especially we in the media business—owe Jerry Maahs, founder of Alto-Shaam, a huge load of gratitude. Jerry’s company is 50 years old this year and it’s a good time to remember some of his achievements. Forgive me if I include some personal remembrances.

When I think of Jerry, I picture him sitting at a table in his booth at a show in Germany or France or England or Hong Kong. It could be anywhere in the world. He’s deep in animated conversation with a customer, a distributor partner or an operator. He’s slightly hunched over, very intense. You could always tell he was listening closely. I’d walk by and give him a high sign. He’d give me a little nod that meant, “Not now, but please come back later.”

When I wandered back, he’d always take the time to take me through how things worked in that particular market: Who his distributor was, who it had been, what he learned over many years about that market’s unique problems and opportunities. When we were launching an international magazine in the 1990s, his advice was invaluable.

Jerry Maahs can be credited with getting American foodservice to adopt a host of significant developments.

And Jerry didn’t share just with me. Almost anyone who wanted to go into international markets could depend on him for help. I think one can say without too much reaching that the preeminent position of American foodservice equipment in world markets is in large part a result of Jerry’s work.

His prowess in international markets is only a part of his achievement. He did something very few have done: He invented a new way to cook. His Halo-Heat technology revolutionized the way food was cooked and held. And once again, it was not just his invention of the equipment, though that is significant enough. It was his ceaseless promotion of the concept, his work with food safety professionals and health departments to make them understand slow cooking, and his endless advertising and demonstration of his systems to operators that is truly remarkable. People don’t call the equipment he invented ovens. They call them “Alto-Shaams.”

And he did it not just once, but several times. He can be credited with finally getting American foodservice to adopt the combination-oven steamer, with accepting blast-chill/retherm systems and with a host of other significant developments.

But, of course, we media types love Jerry because he believed in advertising, and still does. Quite simply, he changed the way foodservice equipment was marketed.

Jerry’s still involved, but his daughter Karen Hansen and son Steve are now running the business day-to-day. The aggressive promotion of the company and its products continues. And I want to thank Jerry for what he’s done for me and for everyone in this industry.

Cheers,

Robin Ashton
Publisher