It’s not every day you see a pig indoors. But walking into a butchery class at ICE, that is exactly we saw. Along with a group of 16 eager recreational students in ICE’s demonstration kitchen, guest Chef Instructor Gaetano Arnone, Sous Chef at Salumeria Rosi and former butcher at Eataly and Dickson’s Famstand Meats, led us through breaking down an entire 170-pound pig. And amazingly, not a bit went to waste.
Gaetano first became interested in pig butchery while looking for ways to cut corners at his family’s restaurant in Southern California. He quickly realized that by buying whole animals and cutting them down himself, he could drastically save on his foods costs. The only problem was he didn’t exactly know how to properly breakdown an animal. He laughed, “My first pig took me four hours. I destroyed it.” More…