Despite his hard-earned pedigree, Chef Bob Truitt is humble. He evokes pride far sooner when asked a question about his sons’ choir or soccer game than when praised for an outstanding dish. His respect for his team is apparent in all he does, and it’s not uncommon to find Chef on the line sharing in various prepwork. Afterall, “team work makes the dream work,” he said while malletting hundreds of tuna filets into delicate carpaccio rounds for a special tasting menu.
Chef Truitt grew his craft in some of the most prestigious kitchens around the globe. By 18, after a few years balancing cheesesteaks and scalding hot pizza ovens with high school in the Philly suburbs, he was working alongside James Beard Award winning Chef Guillermo Pernot at Philly’s best new restaurant Pasíon. Followed by years at Morimoto Philly and Room for Dessert, Truitt, then 25, moved to Spain to join three-time Michelin starred chef and gastronomic icon Ferran Adriá at El Bulli.
He went on to work at Michael White’s Marea and Ai Fiori, during which he was named a James Beard Semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef and Corton in New York City. In 2024, he joined Stockton Inn as executive chef, helming a robust culinary program throughout the boutique hotel’s three distinct dining areas.
To get to know more about the man behind the chef’s coat, we sat down on a Tuesday morning over coffee when the inn’s first guests of the day had yet to check in and the restaurant was quiet.
What was it that sparked your love of cooking?
My mom. She still cooks to this day.
What type of food did you grow up with?
South Philly Irish and Italian American Food. All the staples of American Italian were pretty big in our house. Chicken cutlet, stuffed Shells, peppers and Eggs. There were certain things like Americana Casseroles – cheesy broccoli chicken over buttered rice. Italian wedding soup was huge. She makes it every year.
How did you know you wanted to cook for a living?
I just enjoyed messing around with it. WhenI was a young teenager, I started watching cooking shows: “Emeril,” the original “Iron Chef” from Japan. That sparked, “holy shit, people do this.” My wheels started turning. I knew nothing and didn’t have exposure outside the country. I hadn’t experienced anything like that but wanted to.
Where did your career path to becoming Stockton Inn’s executive chef begin?
I grew up in Rutledge, Pennsylvania and started washing dishes at my aunt’s bakery on MacDade Boulevard when I was 13. I worked at local pizza shops, doing cheesesteaks, hoagies kind of thing. The next step up was the first Iron Hill Brewery, where I worked the wood-fired pizza oven. I was grateful to find opportunities with some incredible chefs while I was still in high school. I went to Pasíon with Guillermo Pernot during the ceviche revolution of the early 2000s. He was a French-trained Argentine chef and it was my first city job in a real kitchen. He won the James Beard Award for his cookbook that year, I remember that.
What was something you learned from Chef Guillermo Pernot that helped your foundation as a chef?
Discipline, workload, experience. It was a small kitchen with a tight knit team and I had to carry my own weight making $8/hour. That survival instinct kind of started there. I always enjoyed working hard and working a lot. I was just excited to learn things. It was my ambition – always wanting to do more.
I also learned the first pastry I ever made. I still remember the menu verbatim. We had a traditional style rice pudding with cinnamon and raisins in caramelized almond powder served on a pool of banana creme anglais, dried blueberry crepes (that’s where I learned to do crepes) with chocolate mousse and cajeta, a caramelized goat’s milk.
What’s the best meal you’ve ever had?
I’ve had a lot of very good ones. I’m very lucky. I went to Japan for a pastry pop-up event I was baking in and had a Kyoto Kaiseki. The meal was at an old inn that samurai used to frequent, Charlie Chaplin used to stay there. We changed our shoes into slippers. It was completely peaceful; everything pristine and beautiful. You walked into the room and it was a 360-degree view – all the support for the room was done from above so the entire surroundings were unobstructed glass views. We had a geisha who played music and poured drinks.
It’s interesting to hear you recount your favorite meal with details of the overall experience. In addition to an incredible menu, how do you bring that into what you do here at the inn?
Like working at this 326-year-old inn with its history and the people that came before us, that Japanese dinner was perfect because the surroundings came into the flavor. It’s about training yourself to be more focused on the little touches. It’s our job to work with the team to try and make them aware of the details that you may not be looking for typically – how you set up your stations, movements that you make, small changes that will affect our overall performance. To ask, what can we do here to enhance the guest experience that just takes a little more thought?
Let’s talk about the menu. You can really taste the quality of each ingredient. In what ways do the surroundings at the inn play into the food?
From head to toe, we consider seasonality, technique, and use local, organic ingredients. The time of year, who we get our food from – it’s a huge point of importance on every level.
The menu doesn’t say the meats are organic, but they are?
The chicken, beef, liver, duck, eggs … it’s all organic. We don’t label it, it’s just implied. You’ll know when you taste it.
Who are some of the local purveyors you work with?
We’ve created some great relationships with the cattle farmer, River Bend, which we use for our burgers and bolognese. We get greens and vegetables from Blue Moon, our fish purveyor is a south Jersey fish monger called Local 130 who buys small and works with smaller, independent fisherman. A lot of vegetables are from Lancaster Farm Fresh, cheeses from the pizzas are from New Jersey. Our polenta is from Castle Valley in Doylestown. Chickens are from an organic farm in Lancaster.
What is your favorite dish on the menu right now to eat?
The Mafaldine ai Funghi is probably my favorite dish to eat right now. It’s a vegetarian pasta, and it is incredibly rich and satisfying without feeling too heavy.
What is your favorite ingredient to cook with?
Flour and water. So many of my favorite foods come from that simple combination – pasta, pizza, and bread.
What are some of your goals for yourself personally as a chef and for Stockton Inn as a whole?
First and foremost is to always have a full restaurant and happy clientele. I would love recognition for the work the team does and continues to do – not necessarily for myself but for everyone else. It would be truly incredible for them to be recognized with James Beard Award or New York Times review, especially in this small town. Everyone puts so much in to what we do here.
We’re also building a local garden by summer of this year, which is something I’ve always wanted. The gardener can teach us and our team to grow and harvest the food. Having that at our disposal will propel us as a kitchen that relies on the bounty of the seasons.
When you were first interviewed for the executive chef position, what excited you most?
What excited me most was how special the property is and the future potential it has. It felt like a rare opportunity to build something truly great over time.
What do you love most about working at the inn?
100% the team.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
Cooking dinner and cleaning the house! Well that’s what I do a lot. When the weather permits, we like to go to a state park and go for a good hike through the woods. I love playing sports with the kids. Fishing.
