When Cameron native Josey Stern, then 21, launched his Izzy’s Food Truck in summer 2021, he sold more than 900 burgers at his first event, the Marshall County Fair. He’s now working a five-county region.

By NORA EDINGER

For the Sunday

News-Register

MOUNDSVILLE — Is it possible — in a real, 2023 kind of way — to grow up, train for a career and launch a successful adulthood without leaving the Ohio Valley and family roots in the dust? Maybe not in every case, but food truck entrepreneur Josey Stern is literally the poster boy of how it can be done.

A flier for the possibility of free tuition at West Virginia Northern Community College that bears Stern’s image is tucked into one window of his rolling kitchen — named Izzy’s Food Truck in honor of a young cousin. The Cameron native’s 2021 diploma from that school’s culinary arts program is also on display.

There’s a bit more than gratitude in play. It’s advertising.

In addition to owning and operating a food truck, the 23-year-old Stern works part time for the college as a steward. This kitchen management position includes working with students doing restaurant mockups during spring and fall dinner events.

There’s multiple other side hustles that are making his keep-it-local career path work, he noted. Stern made a multitude of cheese cakes for both Thanksgiving and Christmas before shutting the truck down for the winter and taking a bit of a vacation.

He also raises piglets that he sells to 4-H types seeking county fair ribbons. He cures bacon and prosciutto.

He’s pondering finding a local beef supplier and purchasing a greenhouse in order to grow his own toppings for the smash burgers that star on his food truck menu. And, he’s already connected to Kirke’s Homemade Ice Cream of St. Clairsville — buying wholesale and selling more than 100 gallons of the stuff at large events.

TAPPED IN

How does someone so young already have that many proverbial coals on the grill? Stern admits he started working in food service — both officially and unofficially — in his early teens. And, that was after learning some basics from mom while he was still in the single digits.

“I started cooking when I was 5 years old,” Stern said of the reality of growing up with three brothers in the house.

“My mom started getting fed up with me because I was an early riser. She was like, ‘I don’t care how old you are. I’m teaching you to make eggs.’ Eggs turned into bacon and bacon into other things.”

Those other things were often candies and pastries that proved popular with classmates at Cameron High School when Stern was raising money to take a school trip to Spain, he noted. “I’d take a case of cupcakes and sell them to kids at school … I really kind of peddled candy out of my locker.”

Not long after, he began working at a bakery. He made ice cream and pastries for the former Nana’s Pie Shop in downtown Moundsville before heading to West Virginia Northern on a path he said seemed nearly a given. He interned at Later Alligator in Centre Market and, post graduation, he briefly served as baker for Sarah’s on Main before rolling out his own truck.

That initial bacon still has a place of honor in Stern’s life, as well. As soon as the truck is up and running, he said bacon goes on the blackstone grill he got for half price at Cabela’s while he was working there during culinary school.

“We always start with bacon,” Stern joked of its obvious allure. “Even if we’re not doing anything that uses bacon.”

It seems to be a smart business decision, along with one brother’s idea that Stern feature smash burgers on his truck menu. Created in Oklahoma during the Great Depression, smash burgers feature equal parts of onion and beef grilled in a thin patty.

The combined aromas of the burgers and bacon literally turned the heads of passing humans and dogs walking the sidewalks of downtown Moundsville during a recent food truck set up.

“It does get a little weird cooking right out in the open,” Stern noted as trucks and cars rolled by on his other side, only a few feet from the grill that’s located on a small external platform to one end of the truck. “But, we love the attention. It’s a lot of fun. We can show off how we do it. We’re not about secrets. You see it all right here.”

FAMILY AFFAIR

The “we” in Stern’s statements is family. “We’re all foodies,” he said.

One brother, Jaron Stern, lives in Oklahoma and was the inspiration for the smash burgers, Stern said. In the flurry of unveiling the truck in 2021, Stern said he wound up flying Jaron Stern in to help cook at the first three food truck events.

Another brother, Bradon Stern, cooks alongside Stern on a more permanent basis. Stern, who is contemplating a pastry certification and a second food truck at some point, is already wondering if Bradon Stern may eventually take over the burger operation.

There’s more. A family member in Morgantown operates a blueberry farm. Those hand-picked berries turned into the preserves that launched his red, white and blueberry burger in July.

“People were initially skeptical,” Stern laughed of that particular specialty. But, he said they were won over by the topping combination of the sweet-tart jam, provolone cheese, red onions and bacon. At Christmas, he had only two servings’s worth of the preserves left.

FUTURE VISION

“Is it something I want to do for the rest of my life? Absolutely not,” Stern said of the truck and how he imagines the future unfolding. But, he noted that he’s having fun and already making “a good paycheck.”

A bit of uncertainty crept in at this point of his interview. As he has assembled his multi-faceted entrepreneurship, he said he has turned down jobs cooking in or opening restaurants.

“I hope that I’m doing the right thing,” he said. “I don’t know what’s next. Everything’s just happened so fast. I’m 23 and I’m building an empire, in a way, from nothing.”

Stern — who has managed to successfully complete culinary school in spite of the fact he is completely gluten intolerant and cannot taste much of his own work — refocused nearly instantly, however.

“A teaspoon of salt is a teaspoon of salt. You just have to be very precise,” he explained of how he makes pastries. French cooking terms were sprinkled into the conversation that followed.

Will his next endeavor involve baking? You never know. He’s young and he realizes that he already has enough of a home-grown reputation to generate his own opportunities.

“I don’t want to sound cocky,” he said. “But, I do feel that there are things that I can bring to the Ohio Valley food scene.”

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