CRAZY ABOUT CHARCUTERIE
SAIT program continues to grow
Locavores, foodies interested in food which is locally grown, raised and processed, have been driving the culinary and food retail scene in Canada for several years now.
In 2015, the Calgary Farmers’ Market drew 1.7 million shoppers, up 30,000 over 2014.
Add a Canada-sized appetite for red meat and you’ve got a recipe for a burgeoning on-site butchery and hand-crafted charcuterie scene.
Meeting the growing demand for skills in advanced butchery and meat science is SAIT’s butchery and charcuterie management course, a year- long, full- time course currently in its second year.
“The course is one-of-a-kind in Canada” says instructor and trained chef Desmond Johnston. “We weren’t seeing a lot of demand for just butchery, so we decided to change the course based on industry need and consumer interest by adding charcuterie and curing.”
The course encompasses carcass breaking, sausage making and preparation of charcuterie such as salami, bresaola and prosciutto, undertaken in the facility’s state-ofthe-art protein science “meat lab.”
“There’s a chemistry to charcuterie as well as a craft” says Johnston. “You need to understand both to produce meat that’s flavoursome and safe to eat.”
Demand for places on the new course has been “dramatic,” with more than 60 applicants for just 15 spaces this year. Past students have come from all over Canada and as far afield as the Maritimes.
“We’ve got 17-year-olds leaving high school, retired people, trained chefs and even oilpatch workers looking to get into a totally different industry. We’re not necessarily looking for people with existing skills, just people with a lot of heart, a lot of stamina and a lot of excitement.”
Stamina is particularly important as students are expected to get hands-on lifting carcasses such as lamb, hog and beef quarters; which can weigh as much as a healthy adult.
“A lot of restaurants these days are ‘ locavores-wards,’ using a whole animal product, which is creating really exciting dishes and it’s also a more cost-effective way to cook. I recently ate at Model Milk and the server had to check with the kitchen which cut of pork was on the menu that night because they’re using the whole hog.”
But to use a whole animal carcass, chefs need to know their way around a meat cleaver, something Charcut and Charbar co-owner Connie DeSousa understands all too well. It’s why she joined the advisory board for the revamped butchery course.
“The restaurant business has changed a lot in the last few years; consumers want to know where their food is coming from and how it’s been processed. I think we’re going to see a lot more restaurants looking for in- house butchery skills. It’s important that courses like this are catering to that.”
Charcut’s entire menu is whole animal or nose-to-tail dining and also farm-to-plate, cutting out the middle man in the supply chain. DeSousa says a nose-to-tail approach is not only more economical, for restaurants and home cooks, but also “more respectful” of the animal.
“Whatever doesn’t go on the rotisserie, gets made into charcuterie. There’s very little waste.”
Diners’ appetites have also sharpened for cured, salted and fermented meats, which is driving interest and employment in the field of charcuterie.
“Ninety per cent of the people applying for jobs with us are looking for experience working with charcuterie. Training is incredibly important in that department for food safety so it’s great there’s a formal qualification here in Calgary.”
DeSousa is part of a growing minority of women taking a keen interest in butchery and meat preparation. Currently, women make up only five per cent of the butchery trade in Canada but 25 five per cent of SAIT’s butchery and charcuterie students are female, indicating that a change is afoot behind the meat counters.
“That’s really awesome to hear,” says DeSousa. “I think women definitely bring a more delicate touch to the kitchen. which is particularly beneficial in charcuterie preparation.”
Butchery for retail is also an indemand skill set in Canada, with the Canadian Meat Council complaining of a “severe and chronic shortage of Canadian butchers and meat cutters.”
“There’s always jobs coming out of this course” says Johnston.
Thirty-nine-year-old former financial controller Derek Stickle graduated from the inaugural course last year and now works as a manager at Inglewood’s Bite Groceteria.
“I sort of fell into accounting, but I really always wanted to work in the food and beverage industry. It’s what I studied originally and I finally reached a point in my life where I could consider it again,” says Stickle.
“I see a big difference between being a meat cutter and a butcher; a butcher is someone who’s really well-rounded, knowledgeable and can educate the consumer. Shoppers these days want to know where their meat is coming from, how was it raised and what the farmer’s name is. That’s the part I love, getting to deal with people, not spreadsheets.”
Stickle has ambitions to open his own shop someday, but for now he knows he has a job for life in the meat market.
“If I left. I’d walk straight into another job, for sure. And the wages are pretty decent, too.”
Applications for the 2016-17 course are currently being accepted.