We're pleased to introduce you to our new General Manager, Troy Bond! In addition to providing us with a short bio, Troy was kind enough to indulge us by answering some less formal questions so we could all get to know him a little bit better! Thanks, Troy! Welcome to the Berkshire Food Co-op family!
What was the best concert you ever attended?
Buckethead. You know, the guitar virtuoso who stood in for Slash for a couple of years with Guns N’ Roses and who wears a KFC bucket on his head and takes a break during the show to demonstrate his use of nunchucks. My son now plays my old Strat and he introduced me to the world of Buckethead. I bought tickets for his 2019 tour. It was the best concert because I could see how much joy the show brought to my son, and now I’m a fan, too.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Surfing weekends on Little Talbot Island last year when I realized just how many sharks roam the waters off the coast. I gave away my longboard to a friend before I moved. She’s going to turn it into an outdoor shower.
What’s the last book you read?
I became friends with a customer at my last job who wrote screenplays and HBO documentaries. Over lunches at the Beach Diner, we talked books and politics (he worked on the Bobby Kennedy campaign among others.) He lent me his copy of The Devil in the White City. I enjoy reading artful nonfiction, and I was fascinated to learn about the murders during the World Expo in Chicago as well as the hazards of living in 1893.
Seen anything lately that made you smile?
A Facebook post of my dog Fizzy at a kennel while we were moving. He’s a nervous little man who found a friend in a female schnauzer named Moxy. They’re pals.
What’s the coolest thing you’re working on right now?
I write in my spare time. Currently I’m working on a novel titled Rocco Eats It: The Sabbatical of Rocco Lucci. Rocco, an insufferable celebrity chef, loses it all to find a deeper meaning in life. It so happens that as I started the novel, Jacques Pepin came through my line when I was running a register during a lunch rush. Though Pepin is nothing like my fictional character, he is a well-known celebrity chef and of course I interpreted this chance meeting as a confirmation by some unseen literary spirits that I was on the right track with my novel.
What’s the best meal you’ve ever had?
Over the course of a summer, I built a wood-burning pizza oven in my backyard - a backbreaking labor of love if there ever was one. When I had perfected the fire, the heat and the timing, I invited the neighbors and their kids over for a pizza feast on a summer’s evening, and it became the best memory of living at our home in West Des Moines.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever heard?
“Spoil your regulars.” A third-generation restaurant owner taught me the importance of always taking extra care of the customers who come in every day.
What’s something—big or small—that you’re really bad at?
I have an aversion to wrapping presents. I’m all for gift giving, but kindergartners can make cleaner folds on the ends than me. I just buy a gift bag, some tissue paper and call it good.
What is your favorite family tradition?
Slow cooked duck. Though I eat a primarily plant-based diet, my son is a T-rex. I spend 5 hours tending to a roasted duck for my him on holidays and special occasions. He eats the whole bird. We use the bones and scraps the next day to make phô.
What’s your favorite movie?
Notorious directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains. I like black-and-white films, and I consider this to be one of Hitchcock’s most suspenseful endings. The relationship between Rains (who plays a spineless Nazi) and his mother is priceless.
The formal bio…
Troy Bond started his career in natural foods by opening The Market in his hometown of Cedar Falls, Iowa in 1998. The Market was the first retailer in the area dedicated to selling natural foods after the Cotton Top Co-op closed in the 1970's.
His interest in natural foods springs from a desire to provide healthy foods to support optimum well-being. Prior to opening The Market, Troy was certified to teach Integral Yoga, and served as the Stress Management Specialist with the Ornish Program, an experimental program to reverse heart disease at Mercy Hospital and the Iowa Heart Center in Des Moines.
After selling The Market, Troy went on to work for Whole Foods Market as a Store Team Leader and was named as an All*Star in 2004 after turning around an under-performing location and doubling sales. His career continued as a consultant for natural foods and specialty food service start-ups, a category manager, and a new store opening director. Recently he served on the executive team of the Independent Natural Foods Retailers Association (INFRA) as the Director of Member Relations overseeing the retail operations of 250 retail members with 360 storefronts, and then as the Store Manager for an INFRA store in Florida.Troy is moving to the Great Barrington area from Florida, with his two children, Donovan and Siena, both in high school. In his spare time, Troy enjoys writing fiction, cycling and making pizza from scratch.