Stefan Niemczyk
Stefan, the son of a Lebanese immigrant, grew up in a home where food was an expression of love. Cooking side by side with his grandmother, he learned that adding passion to any recipe led to the best results.
It’s that passion he now brings to his clients at Scratch Made.
A graduate of Bucknell University, Stefan began his career in the world of finance. He could not ignore his love for food, and left the financial world to pursue a degree in culinary arts from Le Cordon Bleu.
As a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, he began work at several Los Angeles restaurants from quick service dinners to Michelin two star, fine dining establishments.
Stefan was first introduced to the world of CPG, when he was contracted to lead product development for Gourmet Blends. A balsamic vinegar and olive oil importer used by the restaurant he was currently working at. Again, blazing a new trail, Stefan left his job in the restaurant world to aid in growing a team and product portfolio for Gourmet Blends to millions in annual sales.
With the urge to start his own business and a knowledge of a supply gap for freshly prepared, paleo specific meals, Stefan left his role at Gourmet Blends to become the founder and CEO of eliteEATS. A first of its kind, paleo meal delivery service providing direct to consumer, subscription based meals that fit the paleo dietary template.
Serving customers up and down the coast of California, he built eliteEATS for three years, expanding to several states, and eventually sold eliteEATS to Territory Foods, a like minded business looking to scale its fresh prepared, direct to consumer, meal delivery service nationwide.
Initially, Stefan served Territory as the sales director in California, where he built a team that led to annual D2C and B2B sales north of $13 million.
He then switched roles to lead the culinary department of Territory, overseeing procurement, production, FSQA and product innovation. Solving for the most delicate of supply chains, fresh ingredients, while expanding the company's culinary reach to a nationwide footprint.
His last role at Territory was as VP of Operations, where he oversaw the entire end to end operations of the business. From procurement, to production, food safety, fulfillment, logistics, and customer service. As part of the executive management team, his tenure at Territory helped propel the company to hundreds of millions in total sales and most recently helped build the operations for Mealogic, the first ever turnkey prepared meals platform. Where brands can tap into the operations infrastructure that was built by Stefan and the Territory team to launch their own, white label, fresh prepared meals business line.
