From left to right, Stacy Marshall, Jenny Haynes and Laird Marshall stand by the Hay-Mar Kitchen grill on May 3. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — A new catering company, Hay-Mar Kitchen, marked its official start in operations on May 3.

The company was founded in April by Shepherdstown residents Jennifer Haynes and Lair Marshall, who have spent a combined 50 years in the restaurant industry.

“We worked together at the Yellow Brick Bank and learned so much from its chef, Mike Luksa. When he moved on to The Press Room, we followed him there,” Haynes said of Luksa, who is the chef and owner of The Press Room. “We learned a lot of our knowledge about cooking from him.”

The decision to start the business together was inspired by the pair’s mutual love for high-quality, local food.

“You don’t need fancy stuff to create a good meal — just good ingredients,” Haynes said, mentioning the meat they use is from Crestview Meat Market in Martinsburg. “In particular, we want to highlight local foods that are only around one a year, like ramps and morel mushrooms.”

Hay-Mar Kitchen co-owner Jenny Haynes holds a shrimp salad, before serving it to a customer on May 3. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

On Saturday, one of those local foods was on the menu. Haynes and Laird had spent hours sourcing ramps in the wild for one of the entrees they were featuring, a ramp pesto chicken sandwich on ciabatta.

“Ramps is a wild member of the onion family. It’s got, maybe, a four or five week season every year,” Laird said. “We are right at the tail end of the season. You have to harvest when you can, because they might be gone tomorrow.”

He said that they have techniques to make the shelf life of the ramps and other local foods last a little longer, so they can continue to serve them when they’re out of season.

“People are covetous of them,” Laird said.

Laird and Haynes are both natives to the area — Haynes’ ancestors, in fact, founded Shepherdstown — so they have much inherited knowledge about local food and tastes that will inform their catering. They also place a heavy importance on not using pre-made food in their catering.

“We’re trying to do the best that we can. We make everything that we possibly can from scratch. It shows off the craft and years of technique we have developed, in our years in the restaurant industry,” Haynes said. “We typically try making four or five different versions of an item, before we are satisfied with a dish. Making sure everything tastes just-so is important to us.”

She said that even extends down to simple things that other caterers might look for a shortcut with, like pickles.

“You can buy pickles or you can make pickles. Things people think of as an off-the-shelf item, we want to show people can still be made from scratch — and made better from scratch,” Haynes said. “Texture and flavor are incredibly important to us.”

Because of their from-scratch approach and restaurant experience, the pair are capable of catering food for those with dietary restrictions, such as vegan and gluten-free.

According to Laird’s wife, Stacy Marshall, Hay-Mar Kitchen is also unique, because of its focus on quality customer service.

“My husband Laird and Jenny have been working in restaurants for years. They truly enjoy the service industry,” Stacy said, mentioning she is helping with the administrative side of the business. “We believe that service is a calling.”

To learn more about Hay-Mar Kitchen, call 304-215-1014 or email admin@haymarkitchen.com.