The National Culinary Review

At Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Adam Kaye and his kitchen crew bone out a pig’s head to make this paper-thin, crisp face bacon.

Thomas Schauer

From snout to tail

The restaurant for which the whole animal, particularly pork, is part of the daily routine, is Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, N. Y. Executive chef/ co-owner Dan Barber is not only among the world’s best-known chefs, but also one of the most awarded, including being named James Beard Outstanding Chef for 2009. Adam Kaye, who came to Blue Hill in 2000 as the meat cook, is now chef/ kitchen director.

to-tail offerings,” he says, “keeping in mind that there are limited supplies of some items, like cheeks, eyes, lips, brain and snout. If I’m lucky, I’ll get a stomach and uterus. I’ll also serve some chorizo, carnitas and crispy chicharone in salsa, and use them in the tacos as a contrasting texture.”

The whole hog

But for many chefs, working with whole animals and using each part is not just about finding novel dishes for their customers. Typical is Kelly English, chef/ owner of Restaurant Iris in Memphis, who was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs of 2009 and nominated this year for a “Best Chef: Southeast” James Beard award.

Unlike chefs who are putting out what to
some may be considered weird cuts of
pork, in Memphis, it is a fairly easy sell.
“We’re lucky to be here,” says English. “If we
were serving something like veal heart, our
customers might be scared. But if pork is
on the menu, people will try anything. Don’t
forget, this is the barbecue capital of the
nation, and everyone is familiar with hogs.”
He stews the feet and serves them with a
vinegar-based sauce, and uses the head,
including the tongue, for head cheese.
Since English is originally from Louisiana,
he makes boudin, using liver, kidneys and
most of the pig’s innards. “The heart I keep
for me,” he says. “I take it home, stew it for
a couple of hours, slice it up and cook it
like a schnitzel.”
“We raise our own pigs here, and use at
least three a week,” Kaye says. “Since
almost 90% of our meat comes in the form
of whole animals, necessity is the mother
of all invention, and we have, over the
years, developed a repertoire of products
that are born out of the need to use every
part of the animal.

“The prime cuts—loin, rack, tenderloin and part of the leg—we serve in a traditional manner, roasting and braising. But then you have all the rest of the animal to work with, and we really go from snout to tail. As you are going down the animal and begin to extract all the different parts, you are generating scrap.

“It’s true that there is no more versatile animal than the pig, but it’s important to celebrate the life of the animal by making sure that all of it is used,” he says. “When I go to a farm and see ‘my’ pig alive, to do anything else would be a waste of its life.”