MASTERS OF MEAT
New shop aims to take charcuterie to the next level
When people ask me to describe the local food community, I often explain its growth in terms of bench strength. In the last 10 to 15 years, our city has seen ever more food leaders move into the culinary rotation, adding to the overall complexity of the game in Edmonton.
The city has a great culinary school in NAIT, churning out new talent for growing numbers of independent restaurants. New specialty retailers, such as olive oil shops, cheese and fishmongers, artisanal bakeries and wine stores, are opening regularly. We have dozens of food-focused events year round — from farmers’ markets and outdoor long-table suppers to pop-ups promoting new concepts. Numerous festivals — from Northern Lands to Taste of Edmonton to What the Truck?! — enrich the culinary landscape.
Adding to the culinary excitement recently is a flurry of folks who make a specialty of handprocessed meats, including the very passionate likes of Will Kotowicz. So far, meat lovers must visit restaurants such as Clementine (11957 Jasper Ave.) to sample Kotowicz’s fare. But within the next six months, Kotowicz and his partners (chef Peter Keith and business developer Glendon Tan) are opening a retail outlet called Meuwly’s. It will be located downstairs from Northern Chicken at 10704 124 St.
Food lovers in Edmonton who are on social media may already be familiar with Kotowicz’s work, as he has a popular Instagram account called Secret Meat Club. Secret Meat Club is also a side business for Kotowicz and Keith, a subscription service that supplies 50 customers (there’s a waiting list of 150) a monthly box of charcuterie and other artisanal products.
Chef Roger Letourneau of Clementine has Kotowicz’s products on his menu because he thinks they are exceptional. What he serves depends on what is available, but you might find a custom-made jambon de Paris, delicately flavoured with pepper and star anise.
“To be honest, I don’t think anyone else understands charcuterie as much as Will does in the city,” says Tourneau.
“It’s a pretty complicated thing, and there are so many factors that people overlook. There is this romantic idea that it’s just simple salt and meat.”
In fact, salt and meat is just the beginning, and it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the number and variety of processed proteins that populate the world of charcuterie. Kotowicz, a former savoury chef at Duchess Bake Shop, is largely self-taught when it comes to cured meats, but has worked extensively in the field at spots including Sangudo Custom Meats as well as with renowned charcutier Craig Diehl of Charleston, N.C. He prides himself on the use of Old World farmstyle techniques, steering away from commercial preparations such as spray-on mould starters that yield a uniform flavour.
“We have flavour profiles that don’t exist in commercial starters,” says Kotowicz. “We’re making everything from air-dried hams and fermented salamis all the way to fermented cooked deli meats and summer sausage, and hot dogs and smoked ribs.”
Most of the meats in the planned shop will be processed (it’s not a butcher shop per se). But Meuwly’s (named for Will’s grandfather) will also sell sauerkraut, salad dressings and spice rub mixes. There will be a separate commercial kitchen for teaching classes and making products such as pickles.
Only the imagination limits what can be done with charcuterie.
“We can make you salami with skittles and jelly beans,” says Kotowicz. “We can make hot dogs more meaty, more dense, sweet, spicier. We can smoke meat with different woods — that level of development for the customer is an advantage that we have.”
Until Meuwly’s is open, charcuterie fans can find Secret Meat Club products on the menu at District Coffee, MEAT, Duchess Bake Shop, Three Boars, Highlands Golf Course, Iconoclast and La Boule.