How to Make a Marshmallow Pop
Valentine Gifts for the Five Senses
Self-Medicating with Magical Food
When Should Bars Cut You Off?
Sausage Recipes of the Month
Making Chocolate from Wild Cacao
—THE CHOW 13—
CLICK THUMBNAIL FOR EACH PROFILE
enlarge imageRYAN FARR
4505 Meats
Pastry chefs were the sexy dudes of the food world in 2008; Sam Mason and Alex Stupak, with their faux hawks and tattooed arms, showed up on the pages of every food magazine. Before that, it was so-called mixologists, gettin’ physical with their ice chisels and mint muddlers. But 2009 has been the year of the hot butcher. You can blame a lot of it on Ryan Farr.
Farr recently became one of the most talked-about chefs in San Francisco—peculiar because he has no restaurant, café, or traditional presence of any kind. He is a nomadic butcher, sausage maker, and butchery teacher, who peddles artisanal hot dogs at the farmers’ market, throws parties at bars where he roasts whole animals, and supplies cocktail bars and coffeehouses with little baggies of addictive deep-fried pork skins called chicharrones.
The aura of excitement around whatever Farr does is testament to the public’s current fixation with carnage and all its trappings: slabs of meat and big shiny knives. But it’s also thanks to Farr’s image-consciousness (in a good way). At a recent pig cookoff, he served raw, house-cured bacon hung on a wire with clothespins, flanked by female attendants in matching feather hair ornaments. He created a set of limited-edition letterpress posters in honor of the chicharrones, with his fingerprint in lard on the back. And in a breathless New York Times story about the “rock star butcher” trend, he quipped that he dreamed of meeting New York’s reigning hot meat man, Tom Mylan, to “throw a 300-pound pig in the middle of a room full of people and just tag-team it with him.” Now that’s sexy.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?
“I have no idea. Maybe a washed-up singer for a Guns ’N Roses cover band? I’ve always been a G’nR fan, and I can see that.”
Did you have a mentor?
“Not really. I’m kind of self-taught when it comes to butchery. I have no back knowledge of USDA cuts and how you break down a steer or pig the same every time. I’ve always been into making sausages: charcuterie, salamis, and all that stuff. I left [the restaurant] Orson to start my own business. I didn’t know exactly what it was, I just knew it was going to be around meat—a smokehouse or butcher or something. I was just following my stomach and to see where I ended up. I’ll keep pushing it until I’m not hungry, and I’m always hungry. I just ate lunch and I’m already thinking about what I’m going to have for dinner!”
What excites you about your industry?
“There are lots of people out there like myself who want to make things for themselves and write their own rules, and we’re all supporting each other as artisans. I’m just focusing on sausages, butchering, and chicharrones, so when we go to the market, I’m using mustard and kimchee my buddies make, hot dog buns from Acme, and sauerkraut from Cultured Organic. I’m buying it from these guys, but I’m also [telling my customers], ‘This is where it’s coming from.’ In a restaurant, it would be all under my name, because I’m the chef.”
I am so deeply over Slow Food USA. Was cool in 2000, definitely does not merit attention now. 300 picnics is the stuff of revolution? Big time boring, just like Slow Food has been for...um....the past decade? Novella deserves the shout out, awesome.
But, it's the first time you guys are doing this so I am sure it will get better!
I have to disagree-What Sam Calagione is doing for beer has brought the craft beer movement to a whole new level. Just one example is Dogfish Head's ancient ale series, or "liquid time capsules." They recreate and reinterpret ancient brewed beverages based on chemical analysis of pottery shards from archeological finds. You may think that this idea is purely novel, but the ales are intricate,...+READ
I have to disagree-What Sam Calagione is doing for beer has brought the craft beer movement to a whole new level. Just one example is Dogfish Head's ancient ale series, or "liquid time capsules." They recreate and reinterpret ancient brewed beverages based on chemical analysis of pottery shards from archeological finds. You may think that this idea is purely novel, but the ales are intricate, unconventional, and most of all delicious! Beer is the new wine, and Sam Calagione proves it.-COLLAPSE
@davina-thank you pointing me in the right direction and highlighting each illustrator in the comments box. They all rock!
HillJ -- we love our illustrators, there are four of them and we're so proud of the work that they did. They are Nathan Fox, Yuko Shimizu, Frank Stockton, and Eamo. Their credit lines are underneath each image.
Props to the "head shot" illustrator. They too deserve credit....heck, why not credit them!
Just because people have been doing coffee bars since 1988 doesn't mean they've been doing them right.
::cough::Starbucks::cough::
And no, people weren't doing anything close to what Caligione, Cilurzo, Arthur, Allagash, et al are doing now 20+ years ago. Wait a sec, how many of those guys from back then are still at it? Surprisingly few.
By your reasoning, no one should get...+READ
Just because people have been doing coffee bars since 1988 doesn't mean they've been doing them right.
::cough::Starbucks::cough::
And no, people weren't doing anything close to what Caligione, Cilurzo, Arthur, Allagash, et al are doing now 20+ years ago. Wait a sec, how many of those guys from back then are still at it? Surprisingly few.
By your reasoning, no one should get superlatives for any of this slow food, locavorism nonsense because really, no one's done anything new with that, oh, since the beginning of human civilization.-COLLAPSE
Great job on 10 of 13 picks. But picking Deb Madison in Chow 2009 is like giving Scorcese that Oscar a couple years back...the timing is wrong, just give the Lifetime Achievement Award instead. And really guys, you've picked a beer guy and a gourmet coffee guy...in 2009? NOTHING has really changed/no innovation in coffee or beer since 1988...just a few new personalities who hit the market more...+READ
Great job on 10 of 13 picks. But picking Deb Madison in Chow 2009 is like giving Scorcese that Oscar a couple years back...the timing is wrong, just give the Lifetime Achievement Award instead. And really guys, you've picked a beer guy and a gourmet coffee guy...in 2009? NOTHING has really changed/no innovation in coffee or beer since 1988...just a few new personalities who hit the market more right, that's all.-COLLAPSE
I'm not getting this pick. Micro beer is 25 years old, and the 'special ingredients' story is way overdone. This guy is just slightly more interesting and his beers are just slightly better.