Chefs respected pig farmer Newman

Mark Newman farmed hogs in tiny Myrtle, Mo., but his name was known by top chefs around the country.

“We went to New York together a few years ago, and the respect he got was amazing,” said Memphis chef Ryan Trimm. “He’d walk in the room, and people would be like, ‘Whoa, that’s Mark Newman.’”

Mr. Newman, 58, died early Wednesday of a heart attack at his home.

His Heritage Berkshire pork raised at Newman Farm is served in many Memphis restaurants, and he and his wife, Rita, are well-known to customers of the Memphis Farmers Market and the Tsunami Winter Farmers Market.

“We started coming to Memphis about seven years ago, at least twice a week” Rita Newman said. “We had a distributor for a while, but then Mark said, ‘I think it needs to be you or me making deliveries. The chef needs to see your face or my face making their delivery.’”

Ben Smith, chef/owner of Tsunami, met the Newmans at the Memphis Farmers Market.

“I was thrilled, I mean absolutely thrilled, to find a local pork producer,” he said. “I’m mostly a seafood guy, but I like bacon at home, too.

hen Smith started the winter market, Mr. Newman volunteered to be a vendor.

“Of course, I jumped at the chance to have him,” Smith said. “I was absolutely flabbergasted by this guy’s work ethic. He missed two markets, and one was when he was snowed in in Missouri, and the other was when he was in New York at James Beard.”

Mr. Newman started farming hogs when he was a teenager, and though he left farming for a short time, he worked as a consultant for the pork industry. He saw pigs being raised free range in England, and he decided to sustainably raise the Berkshires that would make his name.

“All he ever did was work with pigs in some fashion or another,” Rita said. “The kids and I were saying last night, ‘If there’s a hog heaven, he’s in it.’”

Mr. Newman began selling the Berkshire pork to big names in the food business like Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali and Daniel Boulud before it ever made its way to Memphis. Reny Alfonso, who was at Chez Philippe, heard about him and started using the pork there.

“He wasn’t just locally active,” Smith said. “He was coast to coast. He was all over. And wherever he was, he was the biggest voice in the room. This is a tragedy. He was such a shining star in the sustainability movement.”

Trimm purchases a hog from the farm regularly, as do Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen and Hog & Hominy. After the farmers market, Mr. Newman would visit the bar at Next Door.

“He’d come in every Saturday for a Maker’s and water,” Trimm said. “If I went out there to talk to him, I’d end up getting caught up out there and couldn’t get back to the kitchen to work. But I loved it.

Mr. Newman’s funeral will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday at Oaklawn Cemetery in West Plains, Mo. Robertson-Drago Funeral Home in West Plains will handle arrangements. In addition to his wife, Mr. Newman leaves his sons, Chris Newman and David Newman, and daughters, Susan Newman Foster and Courtney Newman Gunte.