2018 Instructors
Adam Danforth
Adam Danforth is the James Beard award-winning author of two books, published by Storey Publishing, about slaughtering and butchering livestock. Adam trained at the professional meat processing program at SUNY Cobleskill, one of the only such programs in the United States, before going to work at Marlow and Daughters and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, both in New York. He leads experiential workshops worldwide on butchery and meat science for venues such as Stone Barns Center for Agriculture, the James Beard Foundation Chefs Boot Camp, Google, and the National Bison Association. Adam also consults and provides education to restaurants including Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, Bazaar Meat, The Perennial, and Maude. He is the American ambassador for the Butchers Manifesto and a board member of the Chefs Collaborative and the Good Meat Project. Adam lives in Ashland, Oregon, USA.
Camas Davis
In 2009, Camas Davis, a ten-year veteran magazine editor and food and travel writer, traveled to Gascony in southwest France to study the art of butchery and charcuterie with a family of pig farmers and butchers. Upon her return she founded the Portland Meat Collective, a one-of-a-kind meat school and culinary resource that has changed the way citizens of Portland, Oregon, think about their food, their community, and their local food economy. In 2014, Davis launched the Good Meat Project in order to spread Meat Collective-style education across the country. Camas continues to write about her experiences in the world of meat, including stories for the radio show, This American Life and Elle magazine. Davis and the Portland Meat Collective have also been the subject of media stories from the New York Times Magazine to Martha Stewart Living. She is also the author of Killing It, a memoir about her adventures in the world of meat. Camas lives in Portland, Oregon.
Derek Wagner
In 2002, at the age of 24, Derek Wagner opened Nicks on Broadway in Providence, RI, with an ongoing focus on seasonally inspired, locally supported, integrity and soulfully driven food and sincere service. Derek has developed and fostered relationships with local growers, producers, farmers, fishermen and artisans. He has also developed a successful and thriving whole animal butchery program at his restaurant and travels around the country to teach other chefs how to incorporate similar programs into their restaurants. Derek’s passion for food, community, collaboration and a strong desire for his work to have a positive and meaningful impact lead him to join Chefs Collaborative, where is serves as a national board member. Derek has been nominated for The James Beard Rising Star Award twice and Nicks has been named “One of the World’s Best Restaurants” by Fodor’s International Travel Guide.
2018 Schedule
Sunday, November 4 (Morning)
From Life to Meat: A Hands-on Experience
(SOLD OUT)
Time: 9:00am – 12:00pm
Location: Polk’s Folly Farm, located in the East Mountains near Sandia Park
In this hands-on, on-farm slaughter workshop, Adam Danforth, James Beard award-winning author of two books about slaughtering and butchering livestock, will guide participants through the experience of transforming a live sheep into meat. Throughout the process, Adam will emphasize the animal’s well-being and will walk participants through the ways in which proper, respectful, humane slaughter and further processing effects the flavor, texture, and overall quality of the final meat that arrives at our tables. The workshop will take place at Polk’s Folly, a multi-species farm in the East Mountains.
Class Size: Limited to 15 (Chefs Only)
Cost: $50 for Chefs Collaborative members, $100 for non-members. Includes lunch catered by The Grove Cafe.
Monday, November 5
Whole-Animal Butchery and Utilization: A Chef’s Philosophy
Time: 9am – 2:30pm
Location: Three Sisters Kitchen, 109 Gold Ave SW, Albuquerque
Chefs wield immense influence over consumers, through their menus, through the media, and, more recently, through advocacy and politics. Sourcing locally and utilizing humanely-raised whole animals is a superb way for chefs and butchers to reduce waste in our food system and to support healthy community foodsheds and regenerative agriculture. Yet, bringing whole animals back into restaurants can be challenging, especially when uninformed customers often reject products and dishes prepared using unfamiliar parts, e.g. tongues, tails, heads, and organs. Changing consumer habits is challenging, but chefs are the perfect ambassadors for a new model of meat production and consumption. With this in mind, in this hands-on, whole animal butchery and utilization workshop, Adam Danforth, James Beard award-winning author of two books about slaughtering and butchering livestock, and Derek Wagner, chef and owner of Nicks on Broadway restaurant in Providence, RI, will collaborate with an intimate group of chefs to break down animals in a manner that can support a restaurant’s bottom line and its food philosophy. With a comprehensive list of value-added products in mind, students will have the opportunity to break down three whole lamb carcasses together. Once we have broken down the animals, we’ll sit down to a lunch that will incorporate some of the cuts we worked on, and Adam and Derek will lead a discussion about the economics of whole-animal butchery programs in restaurants. Students will also go home with their share of the meat we work on in class.
Class Size: Limited to 15 (Chefs Only), 5 observer seats (food professionals).
Cost: $75 for Chefs Collaborative members, $50 for observer seat. $195 for non-members, $100 for observer seat. Includes lunch catered by Rosebar.
Sunday, November 4 (Afternoon)
Discovering the Unknown Flavors of Meat: A Whole-Animal Butchery Experience
Time: 3:00 – 6:00pm
Location: Three Sisters Kitchen, 109 Gold Ave SW, Albuquerque
What contributes to incredible flavors in meat? How do we increase flavor and achieve palatable tenderness? What conditions during the life of the animal impact the quality of the meat? These questions (and many more) are answered as Adam Danforth, James Beard award-winning author of two books about slaughtering and butchering livestock, breaks down a whole mutton carcass, isolating individual muscles, and describing each of them in terms of function, flavor, tenderness, and potential for incredible food memories. In this unique format of experiential education, Adam routinely challenges the many stigmas surrounding meat and will challenge consumers, farmers, homesteaders, and culinary professionals alike to rethink their own relationship to producing, serving, and eating meat in a more responsible manner. The workshop concludes with a blind tasting of contrasting muscles, reinforcing the core workshop concepts of prioritizing flavor over tenderness and the direct correlation between an animal’s welfare and the nutritional and emotional potential in its meat.
Class Size: Limited to 25 (Open to the public)
Cost: $25 for Chefs Collaborative members, $80 for non-members
Monday, November 5
Steak Flight Tasting Dinner
Time: 6pm – 10pm
Location: Farm & Table
Carnivores unite for a unique tasting experience! This incredible dinner will feature five identical tasting courses, representing four different beef producers: Susieville Cattle Company, Ranney Ranch, San Juan Ranch, and Alameda Farms. Local wine will be paired with the tasting for a true taste of New Mexico terrain and terroir.
This dinner is the culmination of workshops and demonstrations led by the Chefs Collaborative, Meat Matters initiative—educating and inspiring local chefs and food professionals to become change makers in the culinary world.
Proceeds will benefit Chefs Collaborative education programs and the Southwest Grassfed Livestock Alliance.
Cost: $95, not including tax or gratuity
RSVP by emailing reserve@farmandtablenm.com.
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