In high regard
Vegetarian butcher focused on respecting process, pleasing customers
There aren’t many occupations more aligned with the literary version of Chicago than the butcher, thanks to Carl Sandburg’s “Hog Butcher to the world” description. But it’s doubtful Sandburg’s butcher was a Buddhist. And it’s even more unlikely he was a vegetarian.
But that may be because Sandburg never met Robert Cardenas, a long-time butcher and current meat department manager for a Jewel market in Chicago, who em bodies the butcher-Buddhist veg et ari ant rife ct a.
“I get some grief for it but it’s all just joking around,” Cardenas says. “I can’t really say I’ve ever met another butcher who’s a vegetarian. Those two things don’t seem to be aligned too closely.” But to hear the soft-spoken Cardenas explain his job and his philosophical leanings, they’re more than aligned. In some ways, he unintentionally makes them sound almost ethically inseparable.
Cardenas, 50, says when he began his career with Jewel 32 years ago, he worked with “hanging cattle,” a quarter of a cow — “it looked like the meat Rocky was punching,” he says — that was delivered to butchers at locations throughout the area. Cardenas says that carving up the large piece of meat helped him sharpen his cutting skills, helped him learn to use leverage when doing the work and helped him learn how to separate the entire quarter of the cow with such intricate knowledge that if needed, he’d be able to put it back together. “Cutting meat can be something that involves the entire body,” says Cardenas. “And if you do it correctly, you’re not hacking away at the meat. You’re taking care to do it the right way.”
The right way, Cardenas believes, is one that pays proper respect to the animal, an approach he began subscribing to when he was an art major at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, and a meat cutter’s apprentice in his home town of Waukegan, Ill. That was when Cardenas’ girlfriend, who is now his wife, gave him a cassette of The Smiths to listen to — just for the music, Cardenas points out — while he worked. “I was listening to it on my Sony Walkman as I was cleaning up one night. I always had sort of a hippie vibe anyway and I was really soaking in philosophy in school and really beginning to appreciate Buddhism, so I was probably ready to be a vegetarian. So as I’m listening, ‘Meat is Murder’ comes on and I’m listening to Morrissey singing about how ‘this beautiful creature must die’ and that song pretty much did it,” he says.
Still, Cardenas says his decision then and now to not eat meat is personal, and not one that he would ever impose on others. “I’m a butcher so obviously it’s part of my life,” he says. “But it’s a balancing act. It gave me relief that Buddhists would eat meat but they would never kill it or want it killed for them. They respect the animal. They respect the meat. That’s how I approach it. I want to pay respect to the animal.”
Minding his art
Cardenas says there is a real craft to meat-cutting, skills he began learning when he was 18. He joined the meat cutters union local 1546, which today is part of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), and began a three-year apprenticeship. “There’s a lot to learn — a lot of regulations you have to follow,” he says. “Butchers work with poultry and fish too, so there are many facets to what butchers do.”
Cardenas speaks fondly of his apprenticeship days. “I think I was the third Mexican butcher in the Waukegan region. Everyone else was Italian, Irish or German. It was a good group — there was a lot of camaraderie. There still is,” he says. “Some of these guys were so dedicated to what they did and it had a big impact on me. When I’m cutting meat, I think about the family who will be enjoying it while sitting at their table during dinner or the neighbors who will be eating it in the backyard with friends after cooking it on the grill. That’s important to me.”
Cardenas’ degree in art comes into play as well. “As far as craftsmanship and presentation, a lot of what I studied still applies, even if it’s indirectly. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a need to create something that’s aesthetically pleasing when I work, so my background definitely factors into that,” he says.
Making adjustments
The selection and marketing of meat has changed since Cardenas began his career, usually to cater to the realities of smaller families, working parents, healthconscious consumers and more. “Trends in meat, whether it’s pre-cooked chicken, smaller portions, pre-seasoned cuts or anything else, follow what customers want. You don’t find the big bone-in pot roasts like before. Now it’s a lot of single servings,” he says.
The tastes and needs of customers also vary from store to store, depending on the neighborhood. Cardenas has to stay on top of local needs to be sure he’s meeting the needs of his customers. “There are people who need something for a quick meal so they pop in, grab what they need and head home,” he says. “But there are still people who come in and want to talk about what they should serve for dinner or for a party. I love that part of the job. I love meeting the customers and helping them find exactly what they need.”
The job has its challenges, mainly on the business end. “Managing means you’re going to have a lot of paperwork, some personnel stuff — all the usual issues with any business,” he says. “It’s retail, so you have a lot of part-time employees and a lot of schedules. It all comes together, though.”
But there are part-time workers, Cardenas says, who truly enjoy what they do. “And those are the people you tell your bosses about,” he says. “You see those part-time employees who are good at their jobs and who get what we do, so you try to keep an eye on them and help them move ahead when it’s possible. It’s a great job for someone who likes hands-on work, has an appreciation for the craft of butchering and likes dealing with customers.”
Cardenas says he still loves what he does 32 years after he began. “I like the camaraderie, the company, the store and the union,” Cardenas says. “And I like what I do. Even when I retire, I may go be a butcher for a one of those little hipster, artisan shops somewhere. Talking with people and giving them meat that they’ll enjoy serving to their family and friends? That’s a good way to make a living.”