Feast Portland 2013 Day 3: Whole Foods Best Butcher and Fishmonger

Disclosure: I was granted a Bloggers Pass for Feast Portland 2013, and asked to help promote Feast but they did not require that I write this post and I am not otherwise being compensated. 

Even though I already posted about the Feast Saturday High Comfort event, it was not the only event I visited on Saturday. Another huge event for Feast Portland 2013 Day 3 was the Whole Foods Best Butcher Contest and Fishmonger Faceoff competition at Directors Park. Of course, there was the Whole Foods Best Butcher and Fishmonger competition to watch. Also, I was able to stop by some of the various producers who were offering free samples during this free event, and my Bloggers Pass also got me entry into a VIP area where I saw the most beautiful bloody mary bar in my life.

 

But first, the informative stuff.

I had previously written about Butcher Contest and Fishmonger Faceoff in a countdown post noting what happened last year (answer- it wasn’t here!) and also the day before the event listing out the competitors coming from all the regions to compete, and a little bit about the Whole Foods Markets meat and seafood program.

Despite the on again, off again rain, many people still braved the weather to cheer on the various participants. It was amazing to watch the butchers and fishmonger really show their craft in knowing the anatomy of the product and their samurai like skills in slicing and dicing to prepare cuts in mere minutes. At the event, 22 regional winners of butcher and fishmonger contests now vied for the national title. Between the competitions, live music by Redwood Son kept everyone in good spirits.

Whole Foods Market® crowns champion butcher and fishmonger at FEAST Portland – See more at Whole Foods Market Newsroom

In the end, Hector “El Jefe” Yedra from a San Franscico Whole Foods representing the Northern California region and 25 years of experience won the title of “Best Butcher”, beating out the defending champion Armand “the Arm” from New Jersey. Meanwhile, Frank “The Italian Slayer” Ficarra from the Florida region took away the “Finest Fishmonger” crown, flexing his 30 years of experience.

It was amazing and intimidating to see these men and 1 woman (a female fishmonger!) at their craft. Butchering and fishmongering are centuries old craft, and something that is often behind the scenes as you may purchase your surf and turf already packaged from the coolers or only think of them as being behind the case to wrap up your purchases. It was humbling to see their skill, when I am barely evenly cutting up vegetables. On a related note, Whole Foods is going to continue to cultivate and honor this traditional line of work with not only the training they already provide to their current team members, but announcing the launch of an intensive 18 month Apprenticeship Program to further foster new generations of experts.

One of the vendors I was able to speak while at this event was Creminelli Fine Meats. There, I was able to chat with Cristiano Creminelli. You can’t import the Italian salami, so they imported an Italian man instead! Cristiano’s family have been cured meat artisans working with fine meats for centuries (generations and generations of recipes and skill-passing from father to son which they can trace back to at least the 1600s!), including his father and his brother still in Italy!

They source their meat from local ranchers and family farms in Iowa (their base of Utah isn’t really a source for pork) from animals that are 100% vegetarian fed with no antibiotics, which is why Christiano believes actually the salami they are producing here in the US is even better than what you can get back there because of the incredible quality of meat they work with! Look how beautiful it is. Yes, that is Christiano jumping with excitement in one of the photos. Apparently since it wasn’t past lunchtime yet there had not been enough time since he probably shaved that morning to equal the natural super manly shadow you can see on the banner on the left of his booth, heh.

Creminelli Fine Meats is available at Whole Foods, so check them out! Although I adore my local Portland providers Olympic Provisions and Chop, I rest easy knowing that when I travel to other cities and states, I can still put together an incredible delicious picnic for a hike with impressive sandwiches while supporting old world tradition and great animal husbandry practices at family farms just by stopping at a local Whole Foods.

As more people started to arrive I wasn’t able to spend as much time speaking to all the vendors, though there were a few I wanted to highlight. From Ocean Beauty Seafood I learned about this new product, a beautiful caviar that is less salty because instead of using salted water they used soy sauce: what a gourmet appetizer to put together, requiring only simple assembly of cracker, smoked salmon, a little whipped cream cheese or creme fraiche or even yogurt and a 1/4 teaspoon of this caviar. Want an easy dinner to go with a great red or beer? At Whole Foods you can purchase these mussels already in a tomato and garlic broth and pre-cooked- you just need to steam to warm it up and add your garnish of Parmesan and you’re good to go!

Meanwhile, American Homestead Natural Pork sampled uncured wurstmeister natural smoked sausages, including bratwurst and this jalapeno german sausage. No nitrates or nitrates added, raised with no added hormones or antibiotics and vegetarian friend at family farms. And look at that gorgeous Bacon Wrapped Scallops from Raw Seafoods Inc. These were only a few of the complimentary bites for anyone that arrived at Directors Park for this FREE event with FREE samples! If they repeat this event next year, you MUST go!

Finally, the most beautiful Bloody Mary bar I have ever seen.

One special VIP treat I was able to enjoy with my Bloggers Pass was the Bloody Mary bar crafted by Elephant’s in the Park. It included New Deal Distillery Portland 88 vodka, a rim using The Meadows Mesquite Smoked Sea Salt & Black Sea Salt, and a base mix that included lemon, worcestershire, Cholula, and tomato juice for a spicy kick!

Meanwhile, there was a huge table on either side to create our own skewers from various vendors that are also available at Whole Foods. So you could totally do some of these yourself for your own bloody mary bar!

The Surf Skewer Menu included options such as

• Seared Yellowfin Tuna and Cold Smoked Atlantic Salmon from Blue Circle
• Patagonia Blue Mussels Mediterranean Style from Ocean Beauty Seafoods
• Ceviche Bay Scallops from Raw Seafoods Inc.

The Turf Skewer Menu included

• St Louis Smoked Pork Rib from American Homestead Natural Hampshire
• Beef Italian Style Meatballs from Colameco’s
• Campfire Salami from Creminelli Fine Meats
• Chicken Meatballs from Northwest Farms & The Original Brat Hans
• Rib-eye Steak from Panorama Organic Grass Fed Beef
• Original Tom Tom Turkey Snack Stick and All-Natural Fully Cooked Bacon from Wellshire Farms
• Pork Chorizo from Whole Foods Market

There was a Vegetable Skewer Menu too, but I didn’t have any more room on my skewer. But talk about decadent! So I had to have two. The first one was very meatball centered, while the second one I stepped it up to a meatcentric steak and rib garnish!

Whole Foods also provided a few more bites to help us with our Bloody Marys…

Disclosure: I was granted a Bloggers Pass for Feast Portland 2013, and asked to help promote Feast but they did not require that I write this post and I am not otherwise being compensated.  The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own, and I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences regardless of whether they were complimentary or not. 

Also check out my recap of Day 1 Sandwich Invitational and Day 2 Oregon Bounty Grand Tasting, as well as the other Day 3 event of High Comfort Recap. You can also check out Portland Monthly’s slideshow of the event.