Jennifer Shafer is a lifelong foodie and Jersey girl who ‘grew-up’ in her grandparent’s Italian seafood restaurant, The Captain’s Quarters, located in the Ironbound section of Newark. Although her family retired from the restaurant business in the mid 90’s, this is where her love of amazing food was born. As a young adult, Jennifer was further inspired by The Food Network’s Chef Sara Moulton and started cooking nightly while watching Sara’s call-in show ‘Cooking Live’. It was also around this time that she started collecting cookbooks, which she still does today. The most cherished cookbooks in her collection are the ones that were passed down to her, complete with food stains and handwritten notes in the margins, by loved ones who are now gone. Ever busy with family, work and her many hobbies, these days Jennifer is still passionate about food and cooking, but meal preps every Sunday to recreate healthy and balanced versions of favorite meals, as well as some decadent dishes, that are enjoyed by her family and shared with friends near and far through the magic of social media (IG: kale_to_cupcakes).
Recently, Jennifer started to combine her love of food with her love of the many small towns, farmlands, and farmers markets scattered throughout New Jersey. From hand picking Jersey Fresh produce and making endless jars of jam or wandering an artisan food pop-up chatting and trading recipes with the farmers, to finding Zen in a goat yoga class and then scouting out the ultimate farm-to-table spot for lunch or the coziest coffee shop that makes the perfect cup of Joe, Jennifer travels the state from top to bottom -and all points in between- to find the very best in food, small town and farm experiences New Jersey has to offer. Follow her Jersey Bites adventures as she eats, sips, and travels her way across The Great Garden State!
As we welcome fall, we also welcome these new restaurant openings in the Garden State.
Biga Pizzeria & Ristorante, Cedar Grove (pictured at top)
Cedar Grove...