Join Us as We Celebrate the Fryer King, Joe McAuley

n the late 80s, when people were still wearing parachute pants and making mixtapes, Pitco was a Blodgett brand, then a Maytag brand, and Joe McAuley was the standalone salesperson. Fast forward several decades later, and Joe is about to retire from Pitco after a long career that saw him work in every single department in the company while managing every single region of the world.

To say we’re going to miss Joe is a huge understatement. The relationships he’s developed with almost every major chain restaurant have provided a massive impact on the Pitco customer portfolio. He’s smart. He’s funny. And he knows more about commercial fryers than anyone else in the world. We’re quite confident to crown him as the Fryer King.

It’s not often you have someone who has the kind of impact Joe had,” says Bart Polacsek, Pitco’s vice president of sales and marketing. “And his impact spanned several decades. He’s been a tremendous asset to our company and our customers, and he’s an even better person.”

Known for his knowledge about everything fryer-related, Joe recently developed a series of fun and folksy videos called the Fryerside Chats as part of the Pitco Video Library. These informative videos are the epitome of what Joe stands for as the Fryer King. He can talk to anybody, and even more important, he can talk to anyone regardless of profession or culture. Joe treats foodservice challenges the same way he treats people. He doesn’t pre-judge them, and he comes at you with an open mind and a willingness to help. Simply put, Joe McAuley is a huge reason Pitco is the company it is today.

So it’s with great sadness that we’re announcing Joe’s retirement, but we’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you, Joe, for all you’ve done. You treat your colleagues and your customers the same way, and we’ll always be appreciative of that. Thanks, Joe, and best of luck in your next adventures!

If you have a favorite Joe McAuley experience you’d like to share, or if you simply want to say thanks, please provide your comments below. We’d love to make this page an homage to Joe’s amazing Pitco career.