Fresh Meat

The New York Times just did an article on the restaurants owned by Mark Firth and Andrew Tarlow in Brooklyn. It wasn’t just any review or blurb about current hot spots; it focused on meat.

The restaurants—Marlow & Sons, Diner and Bonita—have begun ordering whole primal cuts of meat and butchering them on premises. The idea is both to serve local and fresh product, but it also requires chefs to get a little creative with the animal. While it’s easy to sell of strip steaks and short ribs, people are still squeamish about tongue, bones, heart and the like. The ability to masterfully prepare various cuts of offal is impressive in themselves, but to be able to make a profit from it to a cliental who normally wouldn’t eat the stuff is where the real skill is.

Chris Cosentino, chef of Incanto in San Francisco and creator of the very good website offalgood.com is quoted in the article, talking about the importance of head to tail eating. In honor of restaurants close to home putting more focus on the entire animal and culinary locality, I’m linking a clip Mr. Cosentino did for Gourmet Magazine about pig head preparation. This video is just one of the extremely informational videos Chris posts on his website. Even if you aren’t interested in eating a pig’s head (or any offal for that matter), it’s important to know where that filet mignon you are ordering came from. Browse through the blog on offalgood.com for some interesting videos and posts about the meat we eat.