Within a few hours Hoosier’s 200 lb carcass needs to be broken down into more manageable sized pieces.  Having little formal training as a butcher, most of procedures that I follow are self taught. In culinary school butchering class was breaking down a chicken or two and a few demonstrations on fish butchery.  I clearly remember our meat fabrication instructor Mr. Perrillo saying “as long as you are cutting between meat and fat, chefy baby you’re on the right track”.  The school did serve some great meats at their highly acclaimed  restaurants, however, they hired professional butchers to fabricate for them.

My alma mater

I was fortunate, as a cook at The Bostonian Hotel in the late 80’s and early 90’s I had the opportunity to work with an accomplished butcher, Uriel Pinada.  He was very generous with his time.  With his guidance and my perseverance I was soon able break down smaller livestock , such as lamb, without screwing them up too badly.  Uriel is married to super chef Lydia Shire and still butchering; last I heard he is working at another Bostonian Hotel alum’s restaurant. I appreciate what he taught me, allowing me to gain the confidence I needed to handle much larger animals.

Uriel Pinada

When a pig is delivered it is most often delivered split straight down the middle from nose to tail with a separate bag containing the liver, heart, tongue and kidneys.  I will write more about the innards later.  One half goes into the walk-in to stay cold, the other gets laid out on our back kitchen’s prep table.  I start right in, removing the bigger bits first to make the carcass more manageable, working my way through it until it is all processed. This usually takes several hours.  I am not going to get into the gory details, I will explain during subsequent posts were all of the parts we are using come from and how we process them.

One side of the pig, in the process of being butchered.

I think of butchering whole animals as the necessary evil.  Though I have become quite proficient at it (see video below of me butchering a lamb), I really don’t like doing it.  I feel that if we are going to serve meat we need to do it the right way; support local farms with the least possible amount of environment impact.  I have often said “if meat didn’t taste so good, I would be a vegetarian”.  At least 3/4th of the meals I eat are vegetarian, most lunches and often dinner.  Note that while I am writing this my grill is getting smoking hot so I can cook some rare to medium-rare local beef burgers.

The next post will be about some of the curing that takes place before any of the pig finds it’s way onto our menu.

Below is a video of me butchering a lamb, you can see from my facial expressions that it is not one of my favorite jobs.

We have often been asked how and why we chose EVOO for the name of our restaurant.  This post shares with you some of the fun that took place towards the end of 1997 when Colleen and I were trying to figure out the name of our soon to open restaurant, not an easy decision, at least not for us.  You have to understand that Colleen and I aren’t the fastest when it comes to naming.  Both of our children’s names weren’t decided upon until  they were 3 days old and we filling out the exit papers at the maternity hospital.  Lot’s of deliberation was going on, for months, but, the final decision was not made until it had to be.

Many chefs use there names, which is great if your name is Jasper or Hammersley.  In my case using either Peter or McCarthy conjures up images of an Irish Pub, not a bad thing, just not what we had in mind for our restaurant.  Plus I don’t think I would have been comfortable naming the restaurant after myself.  The amount of shit that my friends and family would have given me would have been tremendous.  Of course there were many inappropriate eponyms that friends suggested.

Using the address was another option.  118 Beacon Street, our original restaurant’s street address.  Beacon was seriously considered.  In the end using the address seamed a little to uptight for us, we wanted a fun name.

Toward the end our naming time frame, we had to get it done so we could incorporate, a necessary formality that usually takes place many months before a restaurant actually opens.   I was doing some consulting, helping some restaurants with menu design and recipes.  While writing a recipe for god knows what, instead of writing out extra virgin olive oil, I used the acronym EVOO,  not an original idea on my part.  I had been and had seen many of my peers use the same acronym for years.  Of course, this was all long before Rachel Ray’s claim to have originated the acronym.  It dawned on me that EVOO may be a good name candidate.  That night I suggested it to Colleen, she didn’t like it, which was not a surprise to me.  She often takes time to warm up to my ideas.  She thought that no one would know what it means, which they didn’t and many still don’t.

We actually had a list of potential names posted on our refrigerator.  We would cross off and add on as we went along.  For a long time EVOO was just another option, I really didn’t think that it would end up at the top of the list.  I wish I knew where that list was now, I think it would be fun to see the other names, I am curious what I would think of them now.  Were there any good alternatives amongst them?

If I remember correctly we had whittled the potential names down to two, EVOO and possibly Beacon.  During one of the many meetings we had with our lawyer, who was pressuring us to decide on the name (he needed it, so we could incorporate).  He asked us what names we were thinking of.  We told him, he immediately said “oh, you have to go with EVOO, it’s fun, it’s different, people would remember it” which were all things that we were looking for in a name.  That sealed it for us, EVOO went to and stayed at the top of the list.

The only reason that I have second guessed our choice is that the Food Network crowd who know what the acronym represents think that we are an Italian or Mediterranean restaurant. Which we are not.  Describing  the style of food we serve and why is the topic for a future post, it’s not a simple answer.

I just had Colleen proof this post to be sure it was factually correct.  She agreed with everything except for my suggesting EVOO.  Her delusional memory recollects that she saw it on some notes that I was writing for the  previously mentioned consulting job.  Claiming she suggested it to me.  Once again someone taking credit for my idea. Women…

First I want to point out that I am not a vegetarian.  Second, I do agree that there are healthful benefits of eating a vegetarian diet. Third, it pisses me off when I dine out at a nice restaurant and they either don’t offer vegetarian dishes or put the obligatory vegetarian pasta or risotto dish on the menu.

Lunch for me is almost always meat free.  Having pizza, sushi, ramen, a sandwich or a burrito is never a problem, that style of restaurant usually offers several vegetarian options that are flavorful and satisfying.  The bitch is at sit down restaurants the vegetarian option is often an after thought; just some lame-ass dish to check off the box.

At EVOO I strive to have interesting vegetarian dishes on the menu.  When coming up with a dish that is not based on animal protein I think whether adding an animal product to the dish would make it better or not.  A great example of this is soup.  If you read recipes in books, magazines or online, the recipes usually calls for chicken stock.  Why? I have no idea.  If you are making a carrot soup why would you want it to taste like chicken, or mushroom soup tasting of beef.  Sure you can make a delicious soup using meat stocks. But, you can also make the same soup just as good, possibly better using vegetable stock.  If you are making corn chowder, make a corn stock, mushroom soup use mushroom stock, after all these are the flavors that you are trying to showcase.

Here are some of our recent vegetarian dishes:

Pumpkin-Smoked Goat Cheese Stuffed Fried Squash Blossom.

Miso Braised Eggplant with Sesame Mashed Potatoes, Apple-Seaweed Salad and Gingered Plum Sauce.

Baked Sweet Dumpling Squash Filled with Ricotta Cavatelli, Hen-of-the-Woods Mushrooms and Brussels Sprouts.

Crisp Fried Eggplant with Curried Tomato Sauce and Yogurt Dressed Cucumber Salad.

Eat your veggies!!

I know I keep barking up the same tree…sustainable this, sustainable that, blah blah blah.  You may think that you have heard enough already, but I don’t.   So, I am climbing up on my soap box once again to tell you about The Chefs Collaborative Cookbook.

The Chefs Collaborative is a nonprofit network of chefs, food professionals and tree huggers who have been bringing chefs and farmers together since 1993.  If you want the full story of who they are and what they do go to their website  chefscollaborative.org.    I am posting now to tell you about the awesome book that they have produced.

I supplied a recipe for the book, which is why they sent me copy.  I have have had recipes in books a number of times and it’s always pretty cool.  But when I picked up their book and started thumbing through it seeing all of the great insightful recipes, I couldn’t put it down.  There is a tremendous amount of information in this book; why organic is better, why organic costs more, how to buy sustainable seafood, what’s the difference between grass fed, grain fed and pastured beef. It answers all these questions and a lot more.

Not only are we going to use this book for it’s great recipes, it will also be a great recourse for us.

The book has a $40 cover price.  However if you go through their website (link above) you can get it from Amazon.com for only $22.

I have often contemplated what our mission is.  The first couple of years it was simple- whatever it takes; 100 hour weeks, no vacation, no pay… just keep your head down and keep going, hopefully everything will work out.  fortunately it did.  Some good reviews and a lot of regular customers made it so I could put more meaning into my work.  The obvious mission is- cook great food in a comfortable setting without any pretense.   For a number of years I have had a good feel for what our mission was, I just couldn’t summarize it into a concise sentence.

We have always been environmentally conscious; recycling, composting, building-out our current EVOO location to meet LEED gold certification etc.  Since our opening we have purchased from local farms.  All of the livestock we serve is humanely raised and local.   We make every effort to only serve sustainable seafood, serve only local beer, source as many top quality organic  / bio-dynamic wines as possible.  You can get some amazing ingredients year round from all over the globe.  However, we choose to get the most from our local producers as possible.  We make pickles and preserves throughout the summer to aid us in extending the local season annually.  I’m sure your getting the point, we try to do things right.

So it finally came to me- a summarized sentence of what our mission is:

To be a sustainable member of our community.

That’s it. To endure, even give back to our community with as little impact on the environment as possible.

Smoking our own hams bring us much more than ham (the meat).  The meat could end up in ham sandwiches, part of a pasta dish or even as a ham steak.  The skin makes a smoky gelatinous stock we often use in pigs skin risotto and soups.  We always place a pan directly under the smoker to collect the drippings (liquid bacon), which finds its way into vinaigrette, sauces and marinades.  The bones get used to make stocks and sauces.

However, the fat that surrounds the ham, often 1 1/2″ to 2″ thick is freaking amazing. Currently on our menu is Ham Fat-Potato Croquettes.  We take two parts diced ham fat and combine it with one part mashed potato, roll it into balls, bread ’em and then fry ’em. We’re serving them with mustard cream and last summer’s pickles.

Sometimes the best dishes come from the parts that either don’t get used or people are hesitant to try.  Ham fat- yum!

A few nights ago I had the pleasure of dining at EVOO with my 7-year-old son Shane.  Shane is an adventurous eater, willing to try to appreciate just about anything.  When we dine out he is likely to order the most esoteric items on the menu; crispy pig’s ears, snails, liver mousse etc.  Shit, he’s been slurping raw oysters since he was 2.  On occasion he has  been known to plop down on the couch, open a can of salt cured anchovies, pile them on crackers, with no other condiments and finish off the can.  I wish I could get some of my staff enjoy eating as much as he does.

People often say his broad palate is because he is my son and that we expose him to these foods, which is partially true.  Colleen, my wife, wouldn’t consider trying many of the foods that Shane eats.  Our 4-year-old daughter Caitlin, who has been exposed to the same foods, would happily enjoy a diet of bagels with cream cheese for breakfast and lunch, followed by macaroni and cheese for dinner every day.  She claims to like very few foods.  However, with some prodding she will try to enjoy most offerings.  But she lacks the gusto that Shane eats with.

Shane is a Cub Scout and we were doing a sleepover at the Boston Science Museum.  He asked if I knew any good restaurants near the science museum that we could go to before the sleepover.  Of course, I suggested EVOO.   He was thrilled to go, it had been quite some time since we last dined there.  I had recently been telling him  that I was thinking of him while I developed our new arctic char dish.  The dish is contains some of his favorite foods, arctic char, smoked arctic char (in a croquette with potatoes), Spanish white anchovies and wilted spinach (yes, he even likes spinach).  He decided that he was going to have that dish before we left the car.  I chose to have a chop from Paula the Mangalitsa  pig.  He also wanted to try the blood sausage.  I told him that I didn’t think we had enough time and that I will bring one home for him to try.

I love watching him eat.  He started in on his plate by putting  the Spanish white anchovies on the side of the plate stating “they’re my favorite, I want to save them for last”.  Then he peeled the skin off the char to eat that first.  He exclaimed “Wow, this is really good, it’s crispy and it’s juicy”.  He shut me down when I asked him to try it.  At home when I cook fish, the kids argue over the skin, I am lucky to get any of it.  So I had expected him to shut me down.  I was very happy to see him enjoying it as much as he did.

We were sitting at one of the high tables that are directly in front of the cooking line.  Carlos, our long time cold line master was working the station that night, there was a new dish that he had not plated before.  So, since I was right there he asked me to show him how to plate it.  No problem, it was Pig’s head terrine (AKA head cheese) with pickled beef tongue salad.  Not surprisingly Shane wanted to try it.  He tried the pickled tongue first, liked it.  Saying  “it’s better than the last time I had it”, which was only a few weeks prior, we got some as part of a gift from the EVOO cooks.  Then he tried the head cheese.  After a few  “mmm that’s really good” we went back to our table to finish up so we could hurry off to be with a couple hundred other 7 and 8 year olds sleeping at the science museum.

Making our way to the car Shane proclaimed  “that cheese stuff is really good”…