Desserts and a Lot More

Bill Justus, Executive Chef at Hershey Lodge

Bill Justus, Executive Chef of Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA, learned to appreciate chocolate at a very early age. “My grandparents from Scotland always had all kinds of different chocolates from Scotland at their house when we visited,” he recalls.

Justus developed his passion for cooking a few years later while helping at his aunt and uncle’s restaurant and carryout in Columbus, Ohio. During high school, he worked under a certified master chef at the Athletic Club of Columbus. During that time, he entered an apprenticeship program and refined his culinary skills at the Athletic Club.

After graduation, Justus moved to Florida to work with Chef Klaus Friedenreich, owner of Klaus’s Cuisine and team captain for the 1980 Culinary Olympic Team. Justus then worked at Opryland in Nashville, where he held a variety of positions, including Executive Sous Chef. He was also Executive Chef at Brookside Golf and Country Club in Columbus.

In 2001, Justus became the Executive Chef of the culinary team at Hershey Lodge, where he oversees all banquet and restaurant operations for the 665-room property. The Lodge offers more than 100,000 square feet of meeting space, four restaurants and a full-service coffee shop. With a staff of more than 40, Justus routinely prepares and serves meals for up to 2,000 guests.

Naturally, the Executive Chef at Hershey Lodge has very definite ideas about chocolate. “It shouldn’t be too overpowering. It should enhance and compliment the other accompanying flavors,” he says. “I try to use as many types of chocolate as possible. I particularly like working with the Hershey’s Special Dark product. It has a nice chocolate liquor percentage. I also like to eat the Special Dark chocolate bars and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.”

His signature desserts are a Hershey chocolate molten cake in The Forebay restaurant (recipe), and a version of our mudslide cookie in the Cocoa Beanery (recipe).

Not surprisingly, chocolate is used for a lot more than desserts at Hershey Lodge. “We use Hershey’s cocoa powder for a lot of different spice rubs. We use the Special Dark syrup in the Hershey Grill for our chocolate ketchup and for our chocolate barbecue chicken wings. We use Hershey’s white chocolate chips in our risotto in the Hershey Grill. We use Hershey’s cocoa in The Forebay on our seared diver scallops and petit lamb chops,” he says.

Edited by Patricia D. Sherman

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