Our Team
Catherine Garrido, General Manager
Catherine holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and brings over 13 years of experience across accounting, banking, logistics, distribution, and entrepreneurship. She successfully sold her company in Peru before relocating to the United States to pursue a Master’s degree in Marketing. She then relocated from Boston to San Francisco for her Dual Degree in Business Analytics where after 3 years she joined the TLBS team past July of 2025.
Catherine’s passion for business drives her commitment to growth; as a leader, she prioritizes empowering others, recognizing mental well-being as a critical component of high-performing teams, long-term productivity, and organizational resilience.
"One of my most memorable working experience when I was 19 was working for TGI Fridays for a couple of months in between semesters. It was a peek into hospitality, team leadership, and guest-focused operations. This experience continues to shape my knowledge into today’s food industry."
On her free time she enjoys spending time with friends, nature, hiking, reading, writing and watching movies. Her comfort food is estofado de pollo and aji de gallina.
Koji Fujioka, Butchery Manager & Co-owner
Koji is a native son of Berkeley.
His first job was working with high quality seafood @Tokyo Fish Market in north Berkeley, after which he relocated to Seattle where he worked in kitchens focused on the Pacific Northwest’s dining scene and attended culinary school.
He returned to Berkeley in 2017 to join the team at The Local Butcher Shop.
Koji oversees our purchasing area, training new team members about the shop’s sourcing and production methods. He spearheads the Butcher Basket Program, and leads instruction for many of the Butchery Classes.
When outside the shop, he enjoys hiking the Bay Area’s many parks and nature preserves and its Pacific breezes. Weather permitting, he is a fan of grilling spatchcocked chicken, due to its culinary versatility, the speed with which it can come together, and for how easy it is to share.
Derek Calpito, Butchery Manager & Co-owner
D joined The Local Butcher Shop team in 2017 as a Junior Butcher. He now oversees counter-service and directs our team of professional butchers. He has a diverse culinary background, spanning from quick-service restaurants to fine dining and catering. D believes that the customer experience should always prioritize delivering something delicious while making customers feel seen and acknowledged.
Outside of work, D values a well-rounded life, which includes maintaining a healthy lifestyle through gym workouts, longboarding in San Francisco, attending music shows, and camping in the Sierra Nevada. He is also a fan of a well-executed cheeseburger, which he calls the Bee’s Knees. D lives by the philosophy that doing the right thing is always the most challenging part of any situation.
Jason, Kitchen Manager & Co-owner
Jason joined The Local Butcher Shop in 2018 and is the head of the shop’s culinary creativity. He oversees and directs the team that makes all sausages, charcuterie, soups, pickles, and deli meats. The daily sando offerings are his conceptions, and he shares his deep culinary knowledge with the greater community in both the food he creates, and in the butchery and culinary classes he teaches at the shop.
His culinary career began working in kitchens in in his hometown of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. After moving up from cook to Chef de Cuisine and attending culinary school, he moved to Berkeley to further his knowledge of fine dining and work with the high-quality ingredients available to the region. Prior to joining the team at The Local Butcher Shop, he was the Executive Chef at Revival, where the focus on whole-animal butchery sparked his ongoing interest in charcuterie.
When not working Jason enjoys gaming, movies, wilderness adventure, and painting Warhammer 40k miniatures. For his own cooking, he enjoys large roasts and braised dishes which take time to cook but reward the diner with unmatched flavor. A casual meal of charcuterie, cheese and wine is equally enjoyable, but the essential ingredient is always good conversation.
Merl, Sr. Butcher & Co-owner
Merl joined the Local Butcher Shop in 2020.
He enjoys spending time at home with his 2 cats.
Our Team
Butchery Team
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Aidan Pitt
Butcher
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Connor Ruiz
Butcher
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Baron Ma
Butcher
Kitchen Team
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Nicholas Palmer
VAP Assistant
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Eric Fuller
Sando Maker
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Collie Henderson
Garder Manger
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Denzel Torres
Dishwasher
Previous Owners before COOP
Aaron Rocchino - Co-Founder
Aaron’s culinary career began at age twelve when he realized that if he wanted a car when he turned sixteen, he had to start making some money. So, he got a job as a dishwasher at his grandparents’ favorite eating establishment. He moved his way up to a busser position and then into the kitchen as a prep cook. At the age of 16, he was a trained line cook. When Aaron entered vocational high school, he had to decide between focusing on his two favorite topics, auto mechanics or culinary arts. After hemming and hawing at great length, he opted to study culinary arts. His senior year, he won a national cooking competition in Florida. The prize was a full scholarship to attend The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. While attending the Culinary Institute of America, Aaron had the opportunity to intern at Oliveto, an Italian restaurant located in Oakland, California. After completing his 6 month internship, he was offered a full-time job at the restaurant once he graduated from the CIA. After graduating in 2002, Aaron worked in New York City at Le Bernadin under the tutelage of Eric Ripert. Aaron then moved on to Tangerine and Buddakan (both Steven Starr restaurants) in Philadelphia where he learned how to cook at two very fast paced, large volume restaurants. All the while, he was trying to save up money to move out to California and to return to Oliveto. Finally, in 2003, he made the move to Oliveto in Oakland where he worked for four years, first as a line cook and ultimately as a sous chef.
It was under the leadership of Paul Bertolli and Paul Canales that Aaron developed his true cooking style and learned how to butcher whole animals and craft salumi, pate and pasta by hand. He began to understand what is meant to cook “nose to tail” as well as how a restaurant could fit into a larger community of farmers and producers. The relationships with with farmers that he worked with while at Oliveto remain to this day. (He also met his wife at Oliveto!) Aaron was then hired by Chez Panisse as one of four cooks in the famous restaurant in 2007. At Chez Panisse, Aaron continued to butcher whole animals and build relationships with farmers and producers. Aaron was chosen by Chez Panisse to represent the restaurant at Slow Food’s Terra Madre event in Torino, Italy, as well as at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sustainable Fish event.
Monica grew up in San Rafael, CA, and then attended Brown University in Providence, RI, where she mastered the art of cooking in a toaster oven and a microwave. During her junior year in college, she attended the University of Bologna in Italy. It was here that she learned that a tomato isn’t orange but a deep crimson, and that truly fresh food tastes amazing without much tampering. Upon returning to the States, she knew that she wanted food to play a central role in her career. She also had an entrepreneurial spirit and focused her studies in economics, business and management. Upon graduating, Monica went to work at Paula LeDuc Fine Catering in Emeryville, CA, where she was hired as an Event Production Manager. Here she became more comfortable with culinary terms, pairing wines with food, and the art and importance of customer service.
After two years with Paula LeDuc Fine Catering, Monica decided it was time to tap into her business training and start her own company. Monica started Stelle Events where she planned and coordinated events for Americans both in Northern California and in Italy. The company grew to produce twelve high-end events a year. While the company was in its beginning stages, Monica worked at Oliveto Restaurant and Café in Oakland, CA, where she learned much more about Italian food, sustainability and wine pairing. She also met her future husband and co-owner of The Local Butcher Shop, Aaron. After five years of running Stelle Events, it was time to hone her sales skills, so back to Paula LeDuc Fine Catering she went as an Account Executive. She was an Account Executive for two and a half years before opening The Local Butcher Shop.