Title: Chef, Owner
Company: Delaware Provision Company, Inc.
Location: Wilmington, Delaware, United States
William J. Hayes, Jr., Chef and Owner of Delaware Provision Company, Inc., has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in food service management and culinary arts.
Since 2011, Mr. Hayes has owned and operated Delaware’s finest quality homemade kielbasa and catering services. He joined the business in 1999, starting as a caterer and chef. These are roles Mr. Hayes still takes pride in. Dubbed as ‘The Kielbasa King,’ Mr. Hayes serves the Wilmington, Millville and surrounding communities with authentic and beloved recipes. On a daily basis, he manages operations, oversees production, sanitation, distribution and logistics and maintains facilities. In addition, he cooks for catering events and manages the processing facility.
Mr. Hayes became involved in his profession because of his interest in joining the family-owned business, which focused on wholesale distribution. After joining in 1999, he decided to make catering the main direction of the company. Throughout the years, he has remained committed to building the success of the business, earning an associate’s degree in hotel, restaurant and institution management from Delaware Technical Community College, magna cum laude, in 2004 and later an associate’s degree in food service management and culinary arts at the institution in 2008. In recent years, Mr. Hayes has expanded the business from its main location in Wilmington to also include a food truck and a secondary brick and mortar location, Delaware Provision South, LLC.
In addition, Mr. Hayes and his establishments have been talked about in the press, including a piece titled “Delaware Provision Hits its ‘Crazy’ Time,” in The News Journal. His exceptional handmade sausages garnered the company a feature called “Sausages are a Link into the Past: Meat Merchants Have the Polish Touch if Not the Polish Heritage” in the same publication. He is a member of the First State Chefs Association and the American Culinary Federation. Mr. Hayes’ aunt and uncle, Kathleen and Sam Lavery, started Delaware Provision Co., in 1970 in New Castle, Delaware. It was a wholesale distributor of deli meats, cheeses, spices, dry goods and other provisions. In 1980, they bought out Barczewskis Meat Market in Wilmington, Delaware, which made homemade Polish sausage products. Throughout the 1980s, they made sausage and distributed provisions throughout Delaware. They dabbled in catering throughout the 1990s, and Mr. Hayes picked up on the catering side of the business when he joined. In five years, Mr. Hayes intends to expand his business by adding a second downstate location and continuing to utilize farmers markets, social networking and business relationships.
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