Tickets are now available (get Early Bird VIP here) for 2014′s best meat event, Brisket King of NYC! Taking place at Santos Party House (96 Lafayette) on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Brisket King of NYC will award one chef and one chef only bragging rights as King of Brisket!

If you came last year, you know that this is the brisket event of the year! You’ll get special VIP access to some of the city’s best brisketeers, with three hours of beef, beer, wine and spirits! This year’s confirmed chefs will include:

• Fletcher’s Brooklyn BBQ
• East Village Meat Market
• Duck’s Eatery
• Mighty Quinn
• plus Special Guest and 2013 winner Dan Delaney of BrisketTown will be mingling with partiers!
• Many more to come…

Celebrity judges include:

• Peter Kaminsky (Bacon Nation)
• Stevie Pierson (The Brisket Book)
• Jimmy Carbone, Jimmy’s No. 43
• Jacob Schiffman, The Food Network

Plus Tito’s Vodka and Lagunitas all night long! Additional details to follow.

URGENT BREAKING NEWS…

BRISKET KING OF NYC IS SOLD OUT!!!

No tickets will be available at the door.

Get in on our early bird ticket prices and save. We’re offering both VIP and general admission tickets to Brisket King of NYC 2013 on February 20th, 2013 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Santos Party House at a substantial discount. Put a little brisket in your new year.

Confirmed participants include:

• 2012 Brisket King of NYC John Brown Smokehouse
• John Stage, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que
• Hugh Mangum, Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque
• Daniel Delaney, BrisketTown
• Will Horowitz, Ducks Eatery
• Lee Scheffler, Chef de Cuisine at Sarabeth’s
• Simon Glenn, Tchoup Shop
• Ari White, Pitboss of Hakadosh BBQ & Texas Roadside Smokehouse
• Matt Fisher, Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue Pitmaster
• Chef Paul, MangoSeed Restaurant
• Andrew Burman, Taboonette
• Chef Robbie Richter
• Melt Shop Grilled Cheese
• East Village Meat Market
• Møsefund Farm’s Mangalitsa Pork Brisket will team with a guest chef TBA
• Jimmy’s No. 43 will team with High Point Farms
• Hudson Valley Harvest will team with an upstate farmer
• Adirondack Grazers Grassfed Beef Co-Op will team with a guest chef TBA
• With additional BBQ chefs and food purveyors TBA

This event will be co-hosted by:

• Jacob Schiffman, The Food Network
• Annie Hauck-Lawson, Brooklyn Mompost and “Gastropolis: Food and NYC”
• Jimmy Carbone, Jimmy’s No. 43

Confirmed judges include:

• Matt Bean, Sports Illustrated
• Rozanne Gold, Award-winning Chef and Author
• Peter Kaminsky, “Culinary Intelligence” and the upcoming “Bacon Nation”
• Julia Moskin, The New York Times
• Brian Perrone, Slows Bar B Q, Detroit, MI
• Stevie Pierson, “The Brisket Book”
• Mory Thomas, The Food Network

Exclusive beverage purveyors include:

• Lagunitas Brewing Company, Petaluma, CA
• Asturian Ciders of Spain from Rowan Imports
• Indie Spirits Curated by Modern Distillery Age Magazine including:
  • Cayrum
  • Koval Distillery
  • Tequila Semental
  • Tito’s Handmade Vodka
  • Tuthilltown Spirits
  • Warwick Valley Distillery

And check out Stevie Pierson’s “The Brisket Book: A Love Story with Recipes”:

Happening Tonight – November 28th from 6:30-8:30 p.m.!

Food Systems Network NYC’s annual meat panel Sustainable Meat Distribution: Channels and Challenges, the Second in a Series on Distribution, which was rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy, will take place tonight, November 28th from 6:30-8:30 pm at Brooklyn Winery, (213 N. 8th St., Brooklyn, NY 11211). Moderated by Mary Cleaver (Founder and President, Green Table + Cleaver Co.), FSNYC’s 2nd annual Meat Panel will focus on the relationships and business practices that tackle the challenges of getting grass-fed meat from the farm and into the city.

For more details please visit the FSNYC website announcement.

The Meat Hook’s butcher, Sara Bigelow, hosted a small gathering in the snow last night, carving 1/2 steer for chefs to cook at tonight’s Modern Beefsteak & Spirits Celebration from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at Hudson Terrace.**

The steer was sourced from Adirondack Grazers, a Washington County co-op of grass fed beef farmers. Representing the co-op was Sarah Teale, who regaled the group with stories about the various farmers in the cooperative (some family farms, hipster farms, old time farmers, etc.). Brooklyn Brewery donated some of their Oktoberfest (which went well with the carpaccio treat that Sara offered participants). Brooklyn Kitchen owner Harry Rosenblum and Jimmy Carbone rounded out the hosts, helping explain the transition of Meat Week NYC from an event to help farmers to an event to raise hurricane relief funds for the Rockaways.

If the pictures below are any indication, tonight’s spread at Hudson Terrace will be amazingly delicious!

**You can no longer buy tickets online, but you can pay $45 cash (or check made out to Rockaway Beach LLC). Hudson Terrace is located at 621 West 46th Street. 100% of tonight’s proceeds go to hurricane relief in the Rockaways.

Butcher Sara Bigelow breaks down 1/2 steer as Jimmy Carbone, Harry Rosenblum and Sarah Teale of Adirondack Grazers look on.

Beef Carpaccio! Delish!

Last year, Food Karma Projects created Meat Week NYC to support small livestock farmers upstate after Hurricane Irene tore through the region. Now post-Hurricane Sandy, we’re turning our focus to those in desperate need in the Rockaways.

Harry Rosenblum of The Brooklyn Kitchen/Meat Hook and other summer Rockaway Beach concession operators (Roberta’s, Rockaway Taco) are desperately raising urgent funds now for people in the Rockaways who have lost everything. Our meat will be purchased from Adirondack Grazers, a small co-op of grass fed beef farmers.

Among upcoming events, we’re committing all the ticket proceeds from our Modern Beefsteak & Spirits Celebration (Thursday, November 8^th) to their efforts.

Please support the meat farmer and NYC establishments that have been struggling in the devastation from Hurricane Sandy. Great attendance at these events will help get local businesses back on their feet!

It’s time for carnivores to come together and celebrate sustainable meat! From November 3^rd-11^th 2012 NYC will celebrate all things beefy (and porky, lamby… oh, you get the idea). Celebrate local chefs, butchers and regional farmers by joining us for:

• Sara Bigelow of The Meat Hook will break down ½ side of beef from Adirondack Grazers Cooperative on Wednesday, November 7^th at The Brooklyn Kitchen.
• Several meat-centric dinners including an all-beef dinner at Jimmy’s No. 43 (Monday, November 5^th).
• Food Systems Network NYC’s annual panel “Sustainable Meat Distribution: Channels and Challenges” at Brooklyn Winery (RESCHEDULED for November 28th).
• Modern Beefsteak & Spirits Celebration! On November 8^th, at Hudson Terrace join Time Out NY and guest chefs Mary Cleaver, Ian Kapitan, and others TBA, for:  
  • A walk-around tasting event, featuring food prepared by five chefs working with the ½  steer broken down earlier in the week at The Brooklyn Kitchen;
  • 12 indie spirits curated by Gregg Glaser (Modern Distillery Age);
  • Craft beer and live music from SisterMonk!
  • For an additional donation, take the Joios Blind Tasting Challenge!
• East Village Meat Market will be sampling cooked/smoked meats on Saturday, November 10^th.
• The Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, NY, will conduct several sustainable-meat-related tours on November 3^rd-4^th and 10^th-11^th. 
• General meat demos at places such as Union Square Greenmarket, Brooklyn’s The Meat Hook, and Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, among others.
• Beginning November 12^th, Food+Tech Connect presents “Reimagine, Prototype & Build the Future of Meat.” Join the online conversation, “How can information and technology be used to hack (or reimagine) meat?“
  

One of the key events of Meat Week NYC will be working with Adirondack Grazers Cooperative, a co-op of grass-fed beef farmers in Washington County, which will be bringing meat to several of the events including Modern Beefsteak & Spirits.

We’re happy to announce that two small farms will be sourcing pork and rabbit for the upcoming Meat Week NYC events.

Cascun Farm 

Clawhammer Farm

In celebration of the farmers, markets, and chefs who bring sustainable meat to our tables, Meat Week NYC (November 4^th-10^th) will feature tastings, parties, butchering and cooking demos, market tours, panels, and much more. As a preview to NYC Meat Week, Slow Food NYC will be producing Women Know Pigs, on October 23^rd at 6 p.m., bringing together a woman pig farmer, a woman butcher, and a woman chef talk about the swine they’ve known working in traditionally male-dominated professions. Join pig farmer Becky Mumaw of Clawhammer Farm, butcher Sara Bigelow of The Meat Hook, and Chef Julia Sullivan of Haven’s Kitchen (where the event will be held), for a fun and delicious, educational event.

Half a humanely raised, heritage breed pig will be butchered for practical education and the other half will be prepared for gustatory enjoyment.  The pig will be accompanied by local wines selected for the occasion. The butchered cuts will be auctioned at the end of the evening for taking home (cash, checks, and credit cards accepted).

Proceeds from Women Know Pigs will support the programs of not-for-profit Slow Food NYC, including the Urban Harvest program of good food education for New York City kids at schools in the South Bronx and Harlem, on the Lower East Side, and in Brooklyn and at a summer urban farm in East New York. More than 1,000 kids learn about the importance of good, clean, and fair food to their health and well-being, the health of their families and communities, and the health of the planet.

Haven’s Kitchen is located at 109 West 17th Street (between 6th & 7th Aves.), and tickets can be purchased here.

photo by Juren David

If you missed our Meat With A Twist party, you didn’t get to taste some amazing food/cocktail pairings. Worse yet, you missed WNYC’s Leonard Lopate announcing the first-ever Local Meat Hero Awards. The three recipients came from all over the country to be acknowledged.

First up was Daniel Hogan, of Heritage Foods USA, who has been key to getting policy changes enacted to benefit these independent meat farms, along with bringing more than $20 million into small, agriculture-related business.

Also receiving a Local Meat Hero Award was Dan O’Brien of Wild Idea Buffalo (outside Rapid City, South Dakota), who was quoted as saying, “There are many books written about the history of buffalo. They tell the story of the species’ rise to dominance of an entire continent; its subsequent fall from grace, and the beginnings of a comeback.” Dan has turned ranching into an environmental cause (which doesn’t mean his buffalo tastes any less amazing!).

Finally, Leonard introduced Chip Alleman, Chairman of the Board for both Glynwood and Local Infrastructure for Local Agriculture. Because the USDA requires use of one of its facilities, finding a USDA slaughterhouse that holds the same values as the sustainable meat community can be extraordinarily difficult. Chip and his colleagues have developed a unique and revolutionary modular mobile slaughterhouse, which they dub MHS: Modular Harvest System. In the spring of 2010, Glynwood and LILA launched the first mobile slaughterhouse to operate east of the Mississippi. Employing a pioneering design of four modules that come together to form a “mini processing facility,” the MHS is the first mobile unit of its kind.   The MHS meets all USDA requirements — including for humane treatment of livestock — offering farmers the certification necessary to reach the broadest spectrum of markets in which to sell their products.  It is a real-world model that demonstrates an innovative solution to address the acute need for accessible, humane, and high-quality slaughterhouses in the Northeast.

Congratulations to these Local Meat Heroes!