Anyone who visited The Craftsman restaurant in
Minneapolis, or Chet’s Taverna in St. Paul back in
the day, knows that chef Mike Phillips is a wizard
at creating delicious, ingenious meat dishes.
But with Red Table Meat Co., his latest venture,
Phillips brings a whole new level of inventiveness
and food awareness to the Twin Cities.
“The IQ of our local food scene is about to
skyrocket,” says Seward Co-op Meat & Seafood
staff member Karl Gerstenberger, about Red
Table Meat Co.
That’s because most local food enthusiasts can
shout the names of three local pork producers
faster than you can say “Michael Pollan,” but how
many local charcutiers can you name? How many
know what salumi is or what lonza or coppa are?
Red Table Meat Co. specializes in exceptional
charcuterie, that is, cold cuts and other prepared
meats, some of which you have simply never tasted
before. Seward Co-op was lucky enough to be
among the very first grocers in the Twin Cities to
carry Red Table Meat Co. meats.
While Red Table Meat Co. may be new,
charcuterie is as old as fire and hunting. It was
originally just a method of food preservation,
not a culinary art, but things changed when, as a
matter of public health, French meat guilds in the
15th century were separated into butchers and
cooks. Because charcutiers could no longer sell
raw cuts as butchers did, they began creating
new pre-cooked pork products such as bacon,
sausage, terrines, galantines, ballotines, pâtés
and confit to keep their businesses alive. And so
modern “charcuterie” (French, the “cooking of
meat”) was born.
Red Table Meat Co. approaches their charcuterie
with that same tradition of creativity. Certainly
there are the familiar cuts (lonza is a loin cut and
dissolves like butter on the tongue; coppa looks
and tastes a lot like prosciutto), but Red Table is
offering new recipes, too. The “Extra Vecchio,” for
example, and the “Francois” are both salami-style
sausages that were inspired by Phillips’ 77-year-old
teacher Francois Vecchio, a Swiss butcher
and master of charcuterie who travels the world
educating chefs in the ancient art.
“All our salumi [with ingredients] are subtly
spiced, the way Francois Vecchio taught Mike,”
says Liz Hancock of Red Table, “so that the pork
can actually be savored.”
Vecchio’s teaching matched perfectly with Mike
Phillips’ philosophy regarding his farmers. He
wants his customers to taste the pork and the
farmers’ excellent work.
Regarding his farming partners, Phillips says, “We
pay them what they need, what they ask for. We
want to make sure they’re making a living and we
want everyone to be in business and to win.”
“Mike grew up with farmers, [and] knows how
hard they strive to create such excellent product,”
Hancock says. “So he has long-time
with these farmers, has visited their farms, and scratched the
pigs. Minnesota and Wisconsin offer great pork, and Mike
wants his customers to taste for themselves how good those
farmers are at what they do.”
Hancock says buying local pork heightens Red Table’s transparency, as well. “You know how far this meat traveled to get to you, from Afton and one-stop in Northeast Minneapolis before it comes to Seward. Good food is a celebration, and we want everyone, Seward Co-op shoppers included, to feel part of this.”
“Those guys are great,” Phillips says of the co-op’s Meat & Seafood department staff. “I know a few of them very well, so we’re excited to have [Red Table] in your store.”
Red Table meats can be found at the Seward Co-op Meat & Seafood counter. Ask any of our knowledgeable staff which cuts are right for you.