FEATURES
Jose Fuentes breaks down a heritage breed
Randall Lineback, a rare and endangered
breed of cattle, at Restaurant Eve.
of Apulia. Like many urban chefs, Jackson
finds it difficult to use large whole animals.
Meshelle Armstrong
“In New York, space is the biggest
constriction.” she says. “I have a friend who
got a small veal calf, and I was in his walk-
in with him, and it was sort of like the dead
horse in the dean’s office. We just don’t
have the room to work on large animals,
or the space to store. So we do a lot of
smaller animals—a few kids a year, boars,
goats. I like doing that, because I like to
know where everything comes from, and it
gives a certain respect for the ingredient.”
Berryville, Va., where Joe Henderson raises
Randall Linebacks, America’s rarest—and an
endangered—breed of cattle. Specially bred
100-200 years ago to feed on pasture, the
cattle have a finely grained meat with little
intramuscular fat.
Restaurant specials include a Randall
Lineback chop with bruléed fig and roasted
baby onion with pecan truffle shaved on
top, pan-roasted Randall Lineback on a rye
crisp with baby carrots and Dublin spiced
jus, head cheese from the veal, and fried
testicles dusted with flour and fried and/
or prepared with butternut squash ravioli,
squash purée and veal glace.
This is an issue that Chefs Collaborative’s
Perry is trying to address. “It may be
somewhat difficult to get going, but chefs
can find another restaurant and share the
animal. Maybe one needs ground meat and
another wants the larger roasts,” he says.
“We buy the whole animal,” says Armstrong.
“Head, liver, testicles—everything except the
lungs or tripe. We weren’t trained in butchery,
and when we started doing this, we basically
said, let’s just buy one and figure it out,
because the only way to learn it is to do it. It’s
surprising how little new chefs know about
all this, and I guess the way we all learn it is
through bravery and brazening it out.”
SPACE CONSTRAINT
Patti Jackson is executive chef at
I Trulli, one of New York’s iconic Italian
restaurants, opened in 1994 by the
Marzovilla family and featuring the cuisine
“There is definitely a whole-animal
movement,” Jackson says. “I kind of
attribute it to Fergus Henderson’s The
Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating (Ecco,
2004). We even see it at staff meal, where
our employees are fighting over the brain.
Butcher skills are definitely resurgent.”
With three restaurants, Armstrong needs
an in-house butcher. He singled out Jose
Fuentes, who came to the U.S. from El
Salvador, and trained at Washington, D.C.’s,
Vidalia before joining Armstrong’s team.
“I’ve never seen anyone process so fast and
so efficiently. He’s like a Rumpelstiltskin—
you give him straw and he weaves it into
gold. It is just incredible,” Armstrong says. “ “It’s surprising how little new chefs know about all this, and I guess the way we all earn it is through bravery and brazening it out. — Cathal Armstrong
USE IT UP
Ryan Farr is a San Francisco chef who has
discovered novel ways to solve the whole
animal utilization issue. He has been called
a nomad butcher, one with no restaurant or
cafe. He gives butchery instruction to sold-out classes, makes sausages, operates a
meat CSA (community supported agriculture)
and is on call to roast whole animals on
request at various venues and events.
