Results tagged: Il Buco

Earlier this week The Wall Street Journal took a look at the increasingly popular NYC menu item, lardo, equating eating it to having a "digestive orgasm." Hog husband to the stars (star chefs, that is) Bev Eggleston provides expert testimony on what makes for an especially fine swine and Ignacio Mattos, chef at Il Buco, shares his method for transforming raw fat back into mouth-watering lardo. Watch the video below to learn more.

For more info about where these fine hogs come from read our recent interview with Bev Eggleston.

[Source: WSJ]

If you've eaten pork recently at any of New York City's more high profile restaurants chances are you've tasted the fruits of Bev Eggleston's labor. Eggleston, a protégé of Joel Salatin, the champion of small-scale ethical farming practices profiled in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, raises pigs, sheep and chickens on his Virginia farm and sells his exalted products (Frank Bruni called Eggleston's pork, "outrageously fine swine" in his review of Terroir) at Washington, D.C. farmer's markets and to dozens of top restaurants in D.C. and New York.

Writer Louise McCready spoke with Eggleston to learn more about his pigs, his upcoming NYC home orders program and plans for bringing live pata negra hogs to the U.S.

How is your New York business unique?

In D.C., we sell at farmers' markets because we feel like we're more local. In Manhattan, we have a strong wholesale presence but no retail, so we're developing a home orders program. We've added a twist to the home metropolitan buying clubs. Each month, you get an unknown quantity of unknown inventory. The EcoFriendly foodie is cognizant that they help us develop a product. We tweak the recipe and send it back to them a couple months later.

Does that mean you'd deliver a dish made from a Gramercy Tavern recipe?

Either the chef will find a recipe that he hasn't put on the menu yet, or it will be the place for a chef to try a new product. We have our meats, their recipe, and a hundred consumers who allow the recipe to get tested before putting it on the menu.

We're going to make sausages, dried salumi, sopressata, chorizo, both fresh and dried lomos, patés, soups, stocks, glacés, consommés, stews, and terrines. We're going to make things that come from the head, the hooves, the butt, the bones, and the knuckle such as thyme-infused and rosemary-infused pork lard I'll grind into sausage or sell as a spread.

When will you be ready to sell these products?

Probably this summer. Right now, our one processing plant is serving both cities. I want to give to New Yorkers what they're asking for - localized food.

What animals are you selling now and why are they special?

With beef, a double-muscle Piedmontese breed, which makes for a unique flavor and quality. We age the beef and grow it on grass only. Gramercy Tavern buys a lot from us, and Peter Hoffman and Danny Meyer both decided they wanted it to be in all their restaurants.

The Katahdin breed is a hair sheep bred that sheds short hair instead of big fluffy mats of wool, and has less lanolin and a lower fat content. A lot of Americans don't like lamb because the fat sits on your tongue and coats your mouth, but the Katahdin is mild, low in fat, and doesn't taste like mutton.

The Ossabaw, the Five-Way Cross (which we call the Farmer's Cross), and the Ossabaw Crosses are the three main breeds of pigs. We cross the Ossabaw with the Durock, a standard hog, and an older breed, called the Waddle. When we mix a Waddle with the Ossabaw, I call it the Waddabaw. Farmers' Cross with Ossabaw: Crossabaw. Berkshire with Ossabow: Berkabaw.

Most chefs prefer the Five-Way Cross because it's an all around killer pig. The Ossabaw and the Ossabaw Crosses need a customer and a chef who's ready to utilize that high fat content pig by making charcuteries or by using a lard based recipe.

Which chefs in particular like the fattier pig?

Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern and Ignacio Mattos at Il Buco. Other fatty pig lovers would be, of course, David Chang and Momofuku Ssam Bar chef Tien Ho.

Due to the recent increase in the price of Ibérico pata negra hams, have any chefs chosen to buy from you rather than import from Spain?

José Andrés, the unofficial Ambassador to Spain who's responsible for getting those hams imported through the USDA and approved, loves our Ossabaw pig because it's the American equivalent of the pata negra. He's going to help us import more breeding stock from Spain because the ones we got off Ossabaw island were there so long, they're inbred. We're in the planning stage right now of getting pata negra - not the hoof - the live animals.

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Sample Eggleston's pigs at these restaurants in and around New York City: Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Blue Hill, Boqueria, Craft (Tom Colicchio's Crispy Port Trotter made Frank Bruni's list of Best New Restaurant Dishes for 2008), Craftsteak, Del Posto, Gramercy Tavern, Hearth, Il Buco, Inside Park at St. Bart's, Insieme, Lupa, Mercat, Momofuku Ko, Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssam Bar, Savoy and Terroir (Marco Canora's Pork Blade Steak, was another of Bruni's top dishes for '08).

For more information about EcoFriendly Foods visit the EcoFriendly Foods web site.

Four new videos on the site this week: Devi with Suvir Saran, Il Buco with Donna Lennard and 'inoteca with Joe Denton and Eric Kleinman.

Chris and I attended the annual Slow Food meeting last weekend. It was a potluck event and instructions were to bring something you made or bought as long as it was "Slow." When we told some friends our plans, they looked at us with a cocked head and in a curious tone said, "slow food?" This was not the first time we were confronted with professed food lovers who were unfamiliar with the term and the movement that is, Slow Food.

Slow Food was started in 1986 in Italy by Carlo Petrini as a reaction to fast food and the industrialization of agriculture. He recognized that many varieties of produce were quickly disappearing from the marketplace and along with it, traditions of cooking, eating and enjoying a meal in the more moderate or slow tradition. Slow Food today is all that and much more.

The Slow Food meeting on Sunday opened with a few remarks given by Ed Yowell, Chair of the NYC Convivium, regarding the events that were held in the past year and some exciting events which will be held over the next few months. Daphne Derven, Director of Programs at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, presented a short film in the documentary style which featured Craig, a chicken farmer, Dan Barber, chef of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Fergus Henderson, a well regarded British chef. The film championed the movement. Each person spoke about the benefits of local produce and small farms. The chicken farmer gave a glimpse into what a real free-range chicken farm looks like. To wrap up the meeting, Rolando Beramendi from Bellavitae and writer Betty Fussell gave a few comments on what Slow Food means to them and the floor was then opened for discussion.

This is where the meeting got interesting. There were many comments about what Slow Food means to the individuals who held the floor. There were comments that verged on enviro-socialist-radicalism and then, there was a suggestion (pre-qualified that it was going to be an unconventional idea) to start up a Mr. Softee-like truck to carry local foods and the Slow Food message to urban areas promoting the goodness that is Slow Food. This was met with laughs and cheers but more importantly, it shed light on all the people who were in the room at the Brooklyn Brewery in Williamsburg. This is a passionate group of people that strongly believe in this movement.

What we took away from the meeting was this; the New York chapter of Slow Food is growing and there is opportunity to get involved and help make a difference. We believe in Slow Food for several reasons. We believe that supporting sustainable agriculture, local farmers and most importantly, enjoying sitting down together at the table with family or friends are all good things.

Going from kitchen to kitchen, it's interesting to hear opinions from chefs regarding Slow Food. Some are passionate about it - like Galen Zamarra, Ed Witt and Dan Barber - while others acknowledge the idea but don't integrate it into their everyday job.

You might have known all about Slow Food before reading this post but how many of your friends don't know about it? We dare you to ask them. We'd love to know what Slow Food means to you and your food-loving friends.

Lastly, for a list of Slow Food-friendly restaurants on Savory New York visit our Slow Food page.