Certified Humane: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Yesterday was rather surreal but delightful. I found myself seated in the waiting area of Slanted Door at the Ferry Plaza building in San Francisco with two of the funniest guys I've been around in a long time, sipping beer and wine, and feeling hilariously unchic. (And not caring a whit.)

They both happen to be chefs, and they were my plus-ones at a press event held by CertifiedHumane.org, an organization committed to more than organics, more than sustainable, and specializing in ranching. As agribusiness dilutes the integrity of the word "organic," and so-called "organic dairies" engage in factory-farming and inhumane conditions for livestock, ranchers who actually care for their animals and the land put their heads together to come up with the newest, and best, standards for the meat industry.

Yesterday's event was held in two rooms on the second floor of the Ferry Plaza building, with one room overlooking the bay. Representatives from Prather Ranch, Knee Deep Cattle Company, Redwood Hill Farm,  and others brought beef, goat cheese, and lamb for several participating chefs to demonstrate their magic.

Traveling all the way from Virginia, C-H's Director of Outreach, Holly Bridges, introduced Doug Stonebreaker, manager of Prather Ranch, who gave a speech outlining the vision and accomplishments of the ranch. In his words, "Organic ranches can mistreat animals. Grass-fed cattle can be abused. Free-range chickens might still be cooped up. What the Certified Humane label ensures is that your rancher cares deeply for his animals and the land." Third-party certification involves an expert to visit the ranch and look at all aspects of the operations: from birth to death.

Essentially, the message is that it our moral imperative, if we are going to eat meat, to eat meat that has been raised in a humane way. No factory feed lots, but pasture and fresh air, with room to roam and grass to eat.

Chefs and participating restaurants included Chris Cosentino from Incanto, Thomas Mitchell from Paradise Bay Restaurant in Sausalito, Mistral Rotisserie Provencale, DELICArf-1 (Japanese deli at the Ferry Plaza building), and Michael Dotson from Evvia in Palo Alto. DELICArf1 (what's up with those italics, huh?) offered their lamb curry, Mistral served prime rib in rosemary au jus, Paradise Bay had short ribs in an Asian glaze on pineapple (just fabulous), and Cosentino had two dishes, both housemade salumi, both delicious. Redwood Hill Farm offered some of the best goat cheeses I've ever tasted.

The show stopper for me and for the chefs I brought along, though, was Michael Dotson's housemade salumi. The quality was spectacular, so much that I begged for some samples to bring home to my sweet Bob. 

Speaking of these chefs, let me give them names. Justin Severino, formerly sous chef at Manresa, and his best friend, Michael Moran, met in Kentucky, where Justin lived for a year.

I met Justin through rancher Jim Dunlop, who tipped me off to Justin's desire to source local and sustainable everything. Jim said, "His grandfather is an Italian butcher who can weigh meat with his hand. They slaughter a pig every year, and use the whole thing." Justin had acquired all the Old World knowledge about making sausages, mortadella, salumi, head cheese, you name it.

Justin and Mike have been producing sausages and charcuterie for the Santa Cruz Farmers Markets, and the word is out. They sell out of hundreds of dollars of worth of pork products every single market.

And that's how and why I invited Justin and Michael to the Certified Humane press conference. I had also invited a friend-I-haven't-yet-met, Ore Dagan, whose culinary path led him from the Slow Food's Master Italian Cooking degree at the School of Italian Regional Cooking to staging at Al Vedel in Colorno, near Parma, learning the craft of making salumi. Normally I wouldn't send traffic to eGullet, but Ore basically blogged his entire ten-month experience there, and has tons of photos, too. Some months after Ore's return to the United States, Paul Bertolli's newest venture, Fra' Mani, came across my radar. I e-mailed Ore with a heads up, and lo and behold, Bertolli hired him to help create salumi in the Italian tradition. Ore has a new blog, Potential Gold, which is a play on his first name (actually pronounced Or'-ee, like the first two syllables of Oreo.)

Ore couldn't make it, but he invited us to come visit Fra' Mani soon for a private tour. That might happen as soon as next week, with a trip to Palo Alto to see Chef Dotson, too.

I wrote Chef Dotson to ask about his recipes/technique, which Justin had pronounced superior in every way.

Michael Dotson describes his dishes:

The Lamb Prosciutto is Anderson Ranch lamb leg that is salted for eight days with kosher salt, then rinsed, dried and rubbed with either rendered pork or lamb fat and a coarse mix of black pepper, fennel and coriander are adhered. It is then wrapped in 3 layers of cheese cloth and hung for about 5-6 months.

The vitelloni (the heart shape, pictured above) is top round loin that is marinated in dry red wine, preferably Greek, for about 6 hours. Then generously rubbed with salt, paprika, nutmeg, clove, coriander, cinnamon, aleppo pepper. Wrapped in parchment paper for 7 days and then dried wrapped in 2 layers of cheese cloth and hung for 3-4 weeks.

I'm never happier than when I'm match-making.

Go visit CertifiedHumane.org and find out where you can buy these products.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: We must never relinquish the vision of a humane society and a humane world. — Kjell Magne Bondevik

Thanks for visiting.

Comments

[haddock]

Tell me more about this bio-mass burning stove please.

[Joanne]

We noticed the Certified Human sign at Redwood Hill Goat Cheese 's booth at a local event yesterday. I think it's a great idea! This was a great post!

I didn't find a source for Fra'Mani on Certified Humane's website though -I had to go to Fra'Mani's website. I also noticed that the Certified Humane shopping/store list is likely very out of date as the Santa Rosa stores are "Food For Thought" which were bought and converted years ago by Whole Foods.
I'll be excited to read your post after you get to visit Fra'Mani!

[Bailie]

Hey Tana!

I am so jealous! What an awesome experience. Did you have a chance to talk to Chris about his yummy Salumi. I almost did my externship at his restaurant, but chose Acquerello instead. Please let me know when you are in town again. I would love to meet up with you at the FM!!

I can't wait to learn more about Certified Humane. Thanks!!

[Ore]

When are you coming by?!?

[jackee]

i want to learn more about Certified Humane please tell me when you again in our town. so know many things about these things also about beer and wines.

[bbelle]

Redwood Hill is awesome. The Bices love their goats and take wonderful care of them - if you didn't already happen to know it, they have several national champions, beautiful animals beautifully cared for. And of course the cheese is wonderful/