About me
A native of Washington, D.C., Abe grew up with Southern Italian cooking on his mom’s side and Southern Virginian cooking on his Dad’s side. Both his parents worked and were often gone, so Abe learned his way around the kitchen and cemented his love of cooking and food at an early age. After graduation from Vanderbilt University, he spent eight years in the US Navy as a Seahawk helicopter pilot before earning his MBA at the London Business School. Abe left military service in 2008, right during the Great Recession. With school loans, a new baby and another on the way, Abe and his wife, also a Navy veteran, had to become very entrepreneurial to survive. Abe leveraged his military experience, working in uncertain and difficult environments, to build a career in emerging markets. He lived and worked in Bulgaria, Egypt, Ghana and Qatar for years. In 2013, Abe and his family returned to the US and he worked as Director of Innovation for a charity to launch a direct trade Ugandan coffee with social impact. This experience introduced him to the food industry, and in 2015, Abe made the decision to combine his passion for healthy cooking with his entrepreneurial spirit to create True Made Foods. He now lives with his wife and four kids in Alexandria, VA, where what little spare time he has is spent shuttling kids between multiple sport practices and events.