Butcher, baker, BBQ maker: Win tickets to the Sound Opinions BBQ
By Louisa Chu
Beef joint at The Butcher & Larder WBEZ/Louisa Chu
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Beef joint at The Butcher & Larder WBEZ/Louisa Chu
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Butcher, baker, BBQ maker: Win tickets to the Sound Opinions BBQ
By Louisa Chu
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Tuesday on Eight Forty-Eight, our very own Tony Sarabia (whom you also know as host of Radio M, but did you know Tony was also previously a pastry chef?) talks about the butchery renaissance with The Butcher & Larder‘s beloved Rob Levitt (whom you saw last week with Julia Child’s cow udder); as well as third-generation meat cutter and author of The Art of Beef Cutting, Kari Underly; and yours truly. We’ll link the audio to this post shortly after the show.
Our friends over at Sound Opinions have also given me a pair of tickets to give away to their sold-out End of Summer BBQ, which will be held tomorrow night, Wednesday, August 22, on the WBEZ terrace at Navy Pier. More on that below.
Back to the meat of the matter for a moment. While Chicago may have once inspired Sandburg’s “Hog Butcher for the World” and Sinclair’s The Jungle, our city is now home the new breed of butcher, cutting meat the old-fashioned way.
But in a whole new way. The Butcher & Larder was the first (and to date, the only) sustainable, all whole animal butcher shop in town (Publican Quality Meats breaks down whole animals when possible). Food & Wine included B&L in a feature on “Cutting-Edge Butcher Shops” across the country. (But F&W didn’t include Brooklyn’s Marlow & Daughters, much less Marlow Goods, which sells leather goods made from cow and pig hides, from animals served in their three family restaurants.)
The new old butchery trend seemed to first flare up in the American food media in 2008, including this “Meet the Mavericks” story, again in F&W. Though legendary Italian butcher Dario Cecchini has been doing his meat opera in Chianti for 35 years now.
Rob also teaches classes on butchering and charcuterie, while Kari works with industry professionals.
Which brings us back to our Sound Ops BBQ tickets. What’s the oddest food you’ve ever barbecued yourself or eaten? And for this, we’ll be open with our definition of BBQ, including grilled or smoked, with wood or charcoal — let’s just say open. Like B&L’s grilled chicken heart at the Green City Market BBQ. Or if I were to submit a contender: moose ribs in Alaska. I had no idea how to cook them, and couldn’t find a reliable recipe online, so I called my BBQ life coach and pitmaster, Gary Wiviott. He talked me through a dry rub and low and slow smoke, which made moose ribs so good, I believe songs are still sung of them.
So, what’s your oddest Q? Submit your entry in the comments below by midnight Chicago time and I’ll pick winners Wednesday morning. Good luck!
