The Co-op welcomes Phil Jahnke Sauer as prepared foods manager 
By Tanya O’Connor, marketing coordinator
Your Co-op’s Prepared Foods Manager, Phil Jahnke Sauer, is an expressive guy. That is – if you happen to find him actually sitting down. When Phil pushes ‘pause’ from creating food and starts talking about it, his passion’s pretty contagious.
We learn, among other things, that Phil really loves mustard – so much so that he’s a former judge of Middleton, Wisconsin’s annual World-Wide Mustard Competition. His favorite is whole grain. He likes yellow. His favorite dish, egg salad, is perfected by mustard. We learn he comes from a family of men who cook. “I think we must have a heightened olfactory sense,” he speculates. He loves food, he adds, and loves working with it. “We have to eat,” says Phil. “I find it silly not to eat well.”
Part of eating well, Phil notes, lies in fostering local food systems. He’s the former sales and warehouse manager, and then general manager, of the Iowa Food Hub (IFH). He continues to serve as the organization’s board vice president. “We’re always looking to grow in our use of local,” says Phil. “The producers are here. We want to use their product.” Sharing knowledge of local foods, and food in general, is something Phil’s committed to. “I love to educate anyone who will listen about the ‘good food movement’ and this industry allows me to do so on a daily basis.”
The food industry isn’t one Phil started out in. His undergraduate degree is in public relations. He’s earned a masters in education along the way. But back in 2006, at Sonoma, California’s Sonoma Market, Phil got a gig as a deli night manager. It was his first full-time food job and it’s where, he says, he ‘cut his teeth.’ “I learned so much there,” Phil recalls. “I learned about service, consistency, customer engagement and, most importantly, how to make a great sandwich.” Eventually, a move back to the midwest landed him in the bakery of a Madison Whole Foods Market. This fortuitous event has defined his future.
“Whole Foods is where I really fell in love with the food industry,” says Phil. “I learned the art of scratch bread baking, merchandising and purchasing.” Phil invested five years educating himself in, as he says, “all the finer details of the retail game.” This knowledge propelled him to the position of bakery manager at Whole Foods, skills Phil put into play most recently at the former Deli Arts & Letters in Decorah.
At the Co-op, Phil and team have been fine-tuning sandwich selections – “it’s all about the balance” he says – and introducing new desserts, Hot Slide and Grab & Go options. Co-op shoppers will find smoky roast beef, Italian and turkey cranberry sandwich options now in the Deli case, as well as tiramisu, the “deeply fudgy” brownie and more. Four-packs of croissants and muffins are now available to shoppers. Phil’s quick to credit his staff for their labors. “I have great staff who like to learn and put out a consistent, quality product.”
Asked what’s his favorite kitchen tool, Phil’s answer is simple. It’s his hands. “Seriously,” he says, “having good hands makes a huge difference in the kitchen. They’re the original multi-tasking tool.” Aside from that, a meat slicer, he admits, is nice to have.
Here’s a few of Phil’s favorite foods (ingredients): cured pork “in its many varieties,” alpine style cheeses, rye bread, beans, “especially kidney,” fennel (bulb, seed or pollen), pickles, chives, garlic, black pepper and, of course, mustard. Our IT Manager, Theresa, wondered what Phil’s “desert island foods” would be. Phil picks artisanal spaghetti with butter, parmesan, salt and “lots of black pepper.” For dessert, it’s plain, full fat Kalona yogurt topped with sorghum syrup.
That’s the thing about Phil: he has a way of simmering down complexities into simple solutions, particularly when it comes to food. He’s the guy you’ll see in the classic newsboy cap strolling the aisles when he’s done in the Deli, searching out that evening’s dinner. He sticks largely to making tacos and pasta at home, or a charcuterie with terrines and ham. If he and Amanda (his spouse and UNI marketing specialist and Diversity and Equity Team member) were enjoying a picnic, he’d pack salami, cheese, fruit, pickles and great bread. Afterwards, you may find him gardening on his 15 acres outside of Lourdes (in southwest Howard County), perusing his sizable cookbook collection or reading about farming. As able, he and Amanda love to enjoy food crafted by others. Most recently, they traveled to Owamni by The Sioux Chef in Minneapolis, where, says Phil, “we had everything.”
Watch the Co-op Deli as we continue to implement weekly sales and new products in the future, such as the recent addition of sliced deli meats and more. We invite shoppers to greet Phil when they catch him at the Deli counter. He’ll be the one, as he says, “continuing to use the freshest and best-tasting ingredients to be found.”
