FRENCH PIG ~ The Butcher & the Cook

French PIG- an intensive hands-on and demonstration workshop with Gascon farmer/butcher/charcutier Dominique Chapolard and American cook/writer/teacher Kate Hill of the Gascon Kitchen. Together they offer the intricate art of butchering traditional French pork cuts and the preparation of authentic charcuterie recipes for professionals, cooks and food lovers alike. French PIG is an exceptional opportunity to learn the basics of traditional and authentic French butchery and charcuterie in America.

April 16- Friday  Napa CA.  The Fatted Calf at the OXBOW Public Market. Evening participatory demonstration-$195     Booking info coming soon.

April 17- Saturday Sonoma CA. Kelley & Young Winery. Full day hands-on + demo workshop plus PINK: Porc & Rosé Tasting Dinner. $395 http://frenchpig.eventbrite.com/

April 24- Portland OR.  IACP conference session “Meat Revival”, w/ Michael Ruhlman & Adam Sappington. SOLD OUT

April 25- Portland OR Portland Meat Collective sponsored at Robert Reynold’s Chefs Studio. Hands-on, limited to 12 participants, includes a generous share of fresh pork. $250 9:am-1:pm Book here: http://frenchpig.eventbrite.com/

April 26 Woodinville WA  The Herbfarm- Two part workshop: #1-French Cut Seam Butchery Demo, #2-Authentic French Charcuterie Preparation plus Lunch Discussion “Seed to Sausage”. Full day workshop plus lunch- $395.  (Part 1 & Part 2 workshops: $150 &$250, lunch $45.)  Booking info here: http://theherbfarmfrenchpig.eventbrite.com/

May 5- Los Angeles CA location to be confirmed-  French PIG for the homecook- Cooking Only Class

The Butcher- Dominique Chapolard, his wife Christiane and his French family, three brothers and sister-in-law, run a ‘full circle farm’ in Southwest France, a pig farm in Gascony. The full circle is an apt description of how they run their not-so-traditional family farm. They grow the grain and cereals that they feed their own breeding stock, those classic pink and spotted pigs- Large Whites and Gloucester mix. They slaughter (at the local cooperative abattoir) and butcher in a white-tiled, pristine cutting room housed in an old barn on the farm; they transform and cook in an adjacent European Union approved kitchen. Then, four days a week, donning red aprons and black berets, Dominique, his wife Christiane, and youngest brother Marc drive their pork-laden market wagons brimming with fresh rôti, côtelettes, ribs, sausage, saucission, ham, boudin, ears, tails and pieds du cochon to four village farmer’s markets, each week. All year long. That’s about 450 pigs, 135,000 pounds of meat and 280 markets a year. Direct from producer to consumer.

The Cook- Kate Hill first met butcher brother Marc Chapolard and then the rest of the French clan as one of the consumers while shopping and cooking her way through an entire pig, from brains to tail. Each week at the farmers market, Kate would stand in line and listen to the ample orders of the older generation of French housewives and bachelors asking for ‘le beret, des traverses, la couenne,’ while she contemplated her usual pork chop or tenderloin request. One day Kate asked Marc how to cook boudin noir or blood sausage. The conversation that followed held up the market line, confounded the locals and challenged the American Cook to become more French in her shopping and cooking. Twenty years on, she teaches her cooking clients and students to expand their limited horizons beyond the center cuts and embrace the tasty lower cuts of hock and collar, belly and jowl.

Now, the family of French farmer/butchers, wives, kids, pigs and dogs and the American cook are close friends. As Kate began to field requests at her Gascon Kitchen School from young chefs looking to learn and apprentice with French butchers and charcutiers, she naturally turned to the Chapolard family at their farm, Baradieu- the Charcuterie Farm. Together they have created a unique apprentice program based on hands-on butchery, charcuterie and marketing balanced with study, language and cooking. Invited to present a Butchering seminar with Michael Ruhlman and Adam Sappington at the spring 2010 Portland IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) international conference, Chapolard and Hill are also offering independent workshops while on the West Coast. April 16-21

FRENCH PIG is a traveling preamble to the longer study program at the Gascon Kitchen School in Southwest France and offers curious and interested students, cooks and professionals an opportunity to learn the basics of traditional and authentic French butchery and charcuterie with Dominique Chapolard and Kate Hill. For information about our French programs- www.kitchen-at-camont.com.

The programs:

FRENCH PIG- Hands-On-Knife Butchery Workshop featuring traditional French Cut Seam Butchery and Authentic Charcuterie Recipes. Dominique and his 3 butcher brothers prepare 8-10 of their own farm-raised pigs each week. 52 weeks a year. That’s a lot of experience. On the farm side of the equations they grow all the grain and food that the pigs eat for their entire 12 month old life. Each week, the humanely killed carcasses are transformed into French fresh cuts( roti, cotelettes, jambon, jarret, etc) and charcuterie cuts (noix de jambon, filet, tete, pied, etc). In the morning workshop, Dominique takes you through the steps to transform the entire carcass into premium French cuts. In the afternoon, Kate and Dominique transform basic cuts into traditional French recipes: fresh, cooked, cured and dried. You go home with inspiration, knowledge and pork.

A full day workshop, broken by a tasting lunch in which students learn the necessary anatomy, knife skills, professional techniques, meat hygiene and safety to butcher a farm-raised pig, a tasting lunch and discussion period of French Full Circle Farming, followed by an afternoon charcuterie workshop teaching a repertoire of traditional charcuterie recipes, using fat, curing and storage techniques. Students will receive a generous share of the pork to take home.

once again, these fabulous pix are by co-conspirator Tim Clinch

at www.clinch-hill.com