Ergo Chef’s Beginning
Ergo Chef’s story began when owner and professional Chef Scott Staib began to develop hand and wrist pain associated with using his traditional chef knife. He set out to re-create the Chef knife for optimal comfort, control and above all less strain and fatigue. The ergonomic design he created in his dads machine shop, was unique to the industry and caught the attention of many chefs who demanded a high quality, functional knife without breaking the bank.
Ergo Chef began in 2002 with one knife and a diamond oval sharpening rod. That’s it! From there we began to add different knives that people wanted and listened to our customers so we could develop more products to our offering.
Ergo Chef’s journey through the now 19 years in business, connected our family to many amazing people, chefs, stores, and celebrities. All the while we developed our core lines, the Pro-Series, Crimson Series, Prodigy Series and now the new Pro-Series 2.0 as we discontinue our original flagship Pro-Series line. We expanded our chef inspired items by adding Chef bags, DUO Kitchen Tongs and other misc. items found on our website. In 2016 we opened a warehouse store to sell our goods to the local community in Danbury Ct. and it has been growing in popularity ever since. We also sharpen knives from all over the country and are known as the best around by our customers.
Our first encounter with a celebrity chef
One of our first celebrity encounters was with PBS Emmy Award Winning Chef Christina Cooks at a Food Show in 2005. She is an amazing whole foods chef with some great books and products available at Christina Cooks website One thing I’ll always be grateful for was her advice about helping my eczema at the time. That was to cut down on dairy, and by golly it went away without using drugs. Thanks Christina!
Chef Plum on our home page
On our website home page you will find a testimonial from a local CIA graduate Chef, and celebrity Chef Plum. He is also now a friend of the family. He fell in love with our knives back in 2009 and to this day is using our knives in all he does as a personal chef, and on his TV appearances with local and national TV. No paid endorsement. He has won Food Network competitions and has even won the first season of Guy’s Grocery Games. Here is the genuine Chef Plum talking about our product in his kitchen (Found on our home page):
How we met Guy Fieri
We had high aspirations for working with a Food Network celebrity with high energy and one who could capture your attention when they spoke. We had that amazing opportunity with a new Food Network Star that came on the scene in 2007. That was Chef Guy Fieri who we met at a food show in Atlantic City. We prepared a kit for him and had asked the MC of the show Guy Mitchell, to please connect us for an introduction if the opportunity rose. As they say…the rest was history…sort of. He loved our 8″ Chef Knife. After a meeting with his team and a few more years, waiting for the right time, Ergo Chef landed a knife deal with Guy Fieri. We were so excited and will always be thankful for the opportunity given to us by the now Mayor of Flavortown.
Together we designed up some pretty awesome knives and wild ideas, and some were just a bit too far out of the ball park. After we created the real deal design, we planned a launch to market in 2010. The Knuckle Sandwich Series was born and we were so humbled and honored to be Guy’s choice to start this off the hook knife line and introduce to the housewares industry. This achievement was no small tasks as we had to put on our A game and come up with many designs, before the final design was chosen. Then came the complex tooling which would make these first of their kind knives. Exciting Stuff! Luckily we worked in our dad’s machine shop for a few years and we had his knowledge on production capabilities of how metals and plastic got machined and produced. Without that I don’t think we would have succeeded the first years of Ergo Chef.
A bit of advice when going into business. Make sure you have the knowledge or hire someone on your team who has the knowledge and know how to get done what you need. And don’t skimp on quality! Make a quality product and make it right. That was our dad’s motto, God rest his soul. We lost dad 2 years ago and he has left a hole where he filled our lives and hearts with smiles and good mornings in our Ergo Chef office.
We worked with Guy from 2010 – 2012 and then “got the band back together” in 2019, to this day, which we have a new amazing 8″ Knuckle Sandwich Chef knife available now!
Tony Luke & Big Green Egg
We went on with our Journey in Ergo Chef’s family business of doing trade shows, consumer food shows and Costco Road Shows, to meet face to face with prospects, customers, and new chefs. One thing we can say is networking and the friendly connections you make along your road definitely help to open up opportunities, both at present and in the future. You just have to know how to seize them and develop those relationships.
Our next opportunity was with Tony Luke Jr. making his signature sandwich. Yup the famous Philly Cheese Steak guy who also happens to be an award winning R&B singer and actor. He is a great talent. Follow the genuine Tony Luke here on Instagram. We got to design a serrated sandwich knife for him in 2012 which to this day fans still rave about. Around the same time we connected with The Big Green Egg Co. and created a 2 piece Chef and Paring knife set in their trademark green color with our Patented ergonomic 8″ Chef knife and a 3.5″ paring knife pictured below.
Meeting Michael Symon
Shows kept us busy, along with pitching our products to stores. In 2013 we met the talented Iron Chef Michael Symon on his Cleveland turf, doing the Fabulous Food Show at the I-X Center. Boy did he have a crowd of fans watching him. He is such a laid back celebrity. Our friend, Chef Guy Fieri was also there and made the intro giving us a good word about the knives we make. A few years later we began designing options for Iron Chef Michael Symon after a meeting in New York. We Introduced Chef Symons line in 2016 at the International Housewares Show which soon after was selling in all of Ohio’s Bed Bath and Beyond stores, select mom and pop stores and online retailers. It was a beautiful grey and black handled G10 knife line made from German steel. There is one item, the 7″ Vegetable Cleaver available at a huge savings and almost out of stock.
Teaming up with the now 5 time World BBQ Grand Champion
Myron Mixon with the 3 in 1 Pitmaster Grill Tool
2014 while in Atlanta GA. at a housewares gift show we met a friend of Myron Mixon, David Schakett who had cooked with Myron in the past. He happened to have an BBQ tool idea we were able to make a reality in a new 3 in 1 Grill tool, which Myron loved. So a new relationship was formed and we began making the popular Myron Mixon Pitmaster Grill Tool. Essentially a knife with a Flipper hook on the tip and a bottle opener in the blade. It worked brilliantly. To this day we are still selling the Myron Mixon Pitmaster Grill Tool along with other kits we put together and Myron’s BBQ Rib Skinner which at the moment is sold out but you can order to reserve yours, which is coming in July.
We have put together an amazing June Father’s Day Giveaway with Myron Mixon. So go to our social pages to win this Keto BBQ kit, with Myron’s new Keto BBQ cookbook. Healthier BBQ can be delicious. To enter you must like the post and follow both Myron’s pages and Ergo Chef’s Pages to enter. Drawing will take place on June 21st. Good Luck!
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Private Labeling
Ergo Chef has also begun designing special private label knives for celebrities on TV, You Tube and companies in the US, bringing to market unique items that fit there MO, attitude and personality. Speaking of which we have a new batch of Chef Ben Robinsons knives coming in this month. You would know Chef Ben from his amazing acting and cooking on Bravo’s Below Deck.
We are so thankful to be working with the stores, chefs and celebrities we have met through the years. Relationships are so valuable to us and at the core of who we are as a business and family. We strive to always put customers first with our outstanding customer service and return policy. If you are a customer reading this we thank you for your business and patronage and look forward to serving you for years to come. Our family is looking forward to our big 20 Year Anniversary next year! If your not our customer yet, we hope you give us a try and see the Ergo Chef difference.
This was a brief post of our travels through the years, so lot’s of great people are missing. One who I need to mention here is John Porter, who was instrumental part of our company and introduced us to HIC Harold Import Company which helped us reach more stores and consumers through the years. Also many others that know who you are, we are grateful and so thankful for all of you who have come into our lives and were apart of our journey of growth and adventure thus far.
I want to leave you with a few more video tid bits…Please watch and like our first video below on how we began and designed our knives. We will be adding more videos with helpful tips, tricks and recipes for you, on our channel through the year.
Lastly, before I end this post I want to share a really delicious recipe from our friend Chef Rich Curry. It’s also one of the families favorite soups our grandmother use to make when we were kids. We hope you can share this with your family and enjoy it the way we did and still do!
Stay well and keep on cooking!
From our Family to yours!
Any Questions please call us 203.796.0880 or email: [email protected] we would love to hear from you.
Ergo Chef is a registered trademark of Ergo Chef, LLC
