Team Spotlight

Naj manages and carries out all the responsibilities of the event catering department, from communicating and coordinating events with clients, to ordering, preparing, delivering and setting up the food. He has total creative license on recipe and menu development, which he loves. He also has profit-and-loss responsibility for the department, often spending time analyzing ingredient costs and menu pricing to ensure clients receive a fair price and the company a profit. If that weren’t enough, he also maintains the equipment and cleanliness of the catering kitchen and provides input on marketing and client prospecting.

“I appreciate the independence of running the department how I see fit,” he said of the position he’s held for more than 7 years. “My boss trusts me and gives me the last call on all menu items. If clients are generally happy and there is growth and profit within the department, I get to just do whatever I want.”    

A Minneapolis native, Naj has more than 20 years’ experience cooking diverse cultural and high-end cuisines. He began his culinary career at age 19 at the acclaimed Minneapolis seafood restaurant Oceanaire. He went on to cook at Masa, D’Amico Kitchen, Victory 44 and 3 Sons Signature Cuisine Catering. Most recently, he was sous chef at IE restaurant.

Naj's wife, Alhia, is from Guadalajara, Mexico. She and her family have had a big influence on Naj's knowledge of and experience cooking Mexican food. Naj's father, from Tripoli, Libya, took Naj on annual trips while he was growing up, exposing him to international cuisines, including Italian and North African foods.

"I've always been open to different kinds of food and tried stuff from all over the world at a very young age," he said. "I'd been to over a dozen different countries by the time I was 18 years old."

Outside of work, Naj's life is slower than it was when he was an active musician for 20 years. He still does periodic theater sound-design gigs. He also has an online clothing store to which he’d like to devote more time, energy and money, after he finishes a few higher priorities projects.

He and Alhia spend a lot of time together, often hosting friends at their house and going out to restaurants. While they enjoy listening to live music, they find the bands they like don’t often play in the area.

“The Twin Cities doesn't get a big variety of concerts on a regular basis,” he laments. “We cut down on bars and clubs in the past few years as we don't like to drink too much these days.”

He enjoys time with his mom, in-laws and stepdad's family regularly. He’s close to his dad's family, many of whom live in faraway places – Libya, France, Jordan and Washington – limiting how much he sees them.