Going whole hog (and lamb, and...)

First, the bad news: If you think your gas card is taking a hit at the pump, your favorite neighborhood restaurant is getting hit even harder. A recent Farm Foundation report (backed by USDA agricultural exchange rates) points out that from 2002 to March of 2008, the price of corn increased 143 percent, wheat went up 217 percent, rice 199 percent and crude oil 308 percent. The report provides three explanations for the rising food costs: global changes in production and consumption of key commodities, the depreciation of the dollar and growth in the production of biofuels. And the short forecast from economists isn’t exactly sunnier. So what’s the good news? Even though restaurants are paying more for ingredients and fuel, they’re still looking for ways to keep your tab down. And to help do that, a handful are becoming their own butchers.

“When you’re smaller scale and have skilled labor, bringing in whole animals and breaking them down in-house is a great practice and money saver,” says Chris Pandel, chef and co-owner of the Bristol, slated to open in September. Pandel figures that even paying wholesale costs for portioned cuts of pork would run him about $100 more than the same amount of meat purchased whole hog, plus when he brings in a pig, he gets an extra 50 pounds of “fifth quarter,” a butcher’s term for offal, head, tail and feet. Pandel plans to turn those “extras” into charcuterie, i.e. terrines, sausages and mousses, resourceful and uniformly delicious uses historically beloved in Europe and slowly gaining appreciation in the States. Using pig trotters or lamb cheeks is part of the package deal for Pandel, as well as chefs such as Paul Virant of Vie, Jason Hammel of Lula Café and Blackbird’s Mike Sheerin and Paul Kahan. In Pandel’s words, “It’s the right way to respect it.”

Chef Dean Zanella of 312 Chicago points out that yes, it’s a matter of both price and principle, but also quality. “It’s just a better product,” Zanella claims. “We develop a relationship with local farmers, they bring us beautiful pigs and lambs, and we don’t pay a fuel surcharge because we’re giving them fryer grease that they filter and use to run their biodiesel trucks. It’s win-win.” Like many local restaurants, 312 gets its pigs from Wettstein or Slagel Farm and his lambs from either Country Cottage or Mint Creek. Deliveries are made weekly, then Zanella or sous chef Matt Wilde set to work breaking the animals down into primal cuts, planning where parts will end up on the menu as they go. That process stuck with former 312 cook Rob Levitt, and he carried it over to his own restaurant, Mado. “This isn’t some factory-farmed animal,” Levitt says, carefully slicing the meat from the rib bones of a 65-pound lamb, just as he does each week. “The farmers take good care of them and up until the very last moment they lead a pretty happy life…and the best way to respect a good artisan product is to use the whole thing.” In the following pages, we illustrate how these chefs do just that.

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