Stefano Diaz is owner & head butcher of The Meat Wagon in Kingston, NY. The Meat Wagon began as a mobile enterprise, offering butchery & custom cutting services to farmers markets throughout the Hudson Valley, before Stefano opened his brick and mortar earlier this year.

After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Pittsburgh, PA, in 2011, Stefano trained at the renowned Biltmore, the former family estate of the Vanderbilt family, in Asheville, NC. At the Biltmore he discovered his passion for butchery & its role at the intersection of farming, cooking, food systems, and community. Upon returning to New York, he completed a butchery apprenticeship at Fleishers Craft Butchery in Brooklyn & worked for three years as head butcher of Fleishers’ original location in Kingston, where strong bonds were born with the community. Following his tenure at Fleishers, Stefano was manager & head butcher of the Marbled Meat shop in Cold Spring before returning to open his own business in Kingston in Jan 2021.

Fun fact: Stefano’s dead name was given by the hospital nurse, not his parents. When he was born, his parents realized none of the names they had chosen fit him, so they asked the nurse to name him instead.