Chef's Journey Takes Authentic Flavor From Italy To Morristown

MORRISTOWN, NJ — As AJ Sankofa worked his way up from back waiter to head of Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen's pasta station, something bigger called his name. When the Morristown native tried balancing college and restaurant work, he knew he had a different path than a typical American university.

Sankofa needed to go to Italy, where he could immerse himself in the cuisine in which Jockey Hollow's former executive chef specialized. Two tours of Italy later, people now call him "Chef AJ." He celebrated Tuesday at 92A Elm St. forthe grand opening of his business, ESO Artisinal Pasta, where he brought authentic Italian flavors home to Morristown.

The chef has already accomplished much for a 23-year-old, but he took a winding path. Sankofa tried attending Fairleigh Dickinson University full-time while working even more than that. But he found it a difficult balance and dropped out of FDU after two months.

"It was too much," he told Patch, "and I think I enjoyed working in restaurants so much."

Before Sankofa was Chef AJ, he learned on the job under Kevin Sippel — then Jockey Hollow's executive chef. Sankofa knew Sippel studied somewhere in Italy, so he looked into schools and found the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners.

"I asked Chef Kevin his opinion on the school," Sankofa said. "He actually smiled and pulled out a picture of his graduation photo from the school back in 1998. From there, I set out to follow that path."

Sankofa earned his master's degree from the school and completed an internship as the chef de partie at La Rossa, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Turin, of western Italy. He returned to Italy once more in 2019, when the eatery hired him back as a full-time employee.

The Morristown native crossed the pond again to work with Sippel in Buffalo, before his culinary journey took him to New York City. Sankofa and his fiancée — Kristina Gambarian — worked at Legacy Records, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan.

Then the coronavirus hit the United States, and Legacy Records furloughed them both in March 2020.

"We were actually living in her apartment in Brooklyn at the time," Sankofa said. "Then the pandemic hit, and I took her with me back to Morristown, pretty much thinking that the whole thing would blow over in a matter of weeks. And obviously, that wasn’t the case."

They got bored in that first month of lockdown, so they turned Gambarian's passion for baking into a business. Gambarian made cakes and pies, while Sankofa delivered and did marketing.

The business took off, and they decided to add pasta to the mix. Sankofa got together with friends to develop ESO Artisinal Pasta. And his former colleague at Jockey Hollow offered them a storefront.

ESO Artisinal Pasta opened July 1, with Sankofa as executive chef, Joel Camarillo-Diaz as general manager and Isaiah Findley-Pinnock, the operations manager. All three owners graduated from Morristown High School and worked at Jockey Hollow.

The establishment is more of a retail operation, rather than a restaurant. They provide what's necessary for people to make their own Italian cuisine — the pasta, sauces, pizzas and desserts. Ingredients are imported from Italy.

The business helps people create authentic, Italian meals at home. But they also provide ingredients at a few restaurants. They even provided takeout from February through April and will resume it next month via Morristown restaurant south+pine.

"We weren’t expecting this to really have the impact that it did," Sankofa said. "We really just wanted to keep ourselves occupied throughout the pandemic and do something awesome for the community, which was to allow them to have those restaurant-quality experiences at home. No matter what’s going on in the world, everybody wants to eat."

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