Meet the Owner: Wolff's Apple House

is a veritable paradise for foodies, chefs, health fanatics and home cooks. You will notice a dedication to quality and excellent customer service that is rare to find these days.

When I sat down with fourth generation owner, Fran Wolff, I began to see firsthand where that commitment to excellence comes from. Wolff is friendly, lively and never hesitated to help out a customer during our interview. Read below to find out more.

Name: Fran Wolff

Age: 40

Hometown: Media

Home now: Media

Favorite thing about the community: That it’s a hometown, a tight knit community.

Do you do any community work? We donate lots of food to the homeless through soup kitchens and pick-ups. We have also been involved in the Healthy Communities Initiative in the past.

Years in the industry: My whole life.

Earliest cooking memory: I love summer corn. There is nothing better than freshly picked corn that is simply steamed and eaten right away. When I was a kid we would have corn at lunch and dinner. At dinner you could only have one ear of corn, but at lunch you could have as many as you wanted. It was basically competitive eating between all of us.

First kitchen job: When I was 10 years old, I was picking peaches. We used to also have a peach orchard.

What brought you to the industry? My great-grandparents started the business, it’s our family business.

Advice for home cooks: Start with the freshest ingredients. Ask questions when you don’t know something. Our staff are quite knowledgeable and eager to help.

Favorite thing to cook: Grilling vegetables. I’ve been doing it for years and I love grilling zucchini, eggplant, summer squash, etc. My favorite is zucchini with salt, pepper and Old Bay seasoning. My wife accidentally knocked over some Old Bay while I was grilling zucchini and it just worked. Now we cook it that way on purpose.

Favorite menu item: Apple barbecue pulled pork

Healthiest menu item: We have lots and lots of healthy ingredients. Everything is all-natural: there is no high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated palm oil, etc. We are a fresh produce spot and use all-natural ingredients. We also know all our vendors and distributors.

Favorite local restaurant:

Favorite restaurant in the world: Fred’s in Maui, Hawaii. My wife and I went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. Honeymoon food just tastes better.

Guilty pleasure (food or drink): Apple fritters—I’m only allowed to have one a month.

Last meal on earth: There was this place in Los Angeles that had amazing Thai curry chicken, and that would be my last meal.

Cook for any celebrities? Howard Eskin

Favorite food shows: I don’t want to watch them, it feels like work to me…

Biggest kitchen disaster: We do fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving. About seven or eight years ago, the turkey farm that we had been using called us a few days before Thanksgiving to say that they couldn’t complete our order. We scrambled and called the oldest turkey farm in the United States, Esben Shade Farms in Lancaster County. They were able to fill our order, even on such short notice. We still use them today. They have superior turkeys.