Son of a Blitch
Ep. 62 - Cultivating a Charcuterie Empire at Olympia Provisions with Elias Cairo
The culinary landscape is often a testament to the power of passion, heritage, and an unyielding commitment to quality and sustainability. This is the narrative that unfolds as we delve into the story of Elias Cairo, co-founder of Olympia Provisions, and his transformation from a sponsored snowboarder with a penchant for the adrenaline rush of the snowy slopes to a revered maestro in the art of charcuterie. His journey, as discussed in our latest podcast episode, is not just about the crafting of delectable meats but also about building a legacy and fostering a community around a shared love for exceptional gastronomy.
Cairo's roots trace back to the family kitchens of Salt Lake City and the influence of his Greek heritage, where the farm-to-table lifestyle was not just a trend but a way of life. His father's emigration from Greece to the United States brought with it the traditions of the Peloponnese—hunting, farming, and a culture steeped in the appreciation of fresh, homegrown food. It was here, in the family-run Greek American cafes, that Cairo's culinary spark was ignited. But it was his apprenticeship in the Swiss Alps that honed his skills and shaped his philosophy toward food and sustainability. The Swiss mountain ski lodge culture, with its symbiotic relationship between nature and cuisine, played a pivotal role in Cairo's evolution as a chef and artisan, and eventually a world class salumist.
Upon his return to Portland, Oregon, Cairo's entrepreneurial spirit took flight as he embarked on the mission to revolutionize the American charcuterie scene. Olympia Provisions was born out of a desire to create naturally fermented, mold-rich salami that echoed the quality and authenticity of European cured meats. The growth of an empire soon followed, encompassing a production facility and a string of restaurants, each narrating the story of quality meats, family heritage, and community.
The success of Olympia Provisions can be traced to Cairo's unwavering dedication to sustainable practices. From working with a network of trusted farmers to achieve Global Animal Partnership standards to the transparent operations of their production facility, every step underscores the commitment to responsible sourcing and the betterment of the industry. Olympia Provisions stands as a testament to the impact of a business built on ethical principles and the pursuit of culinary excellence.
Eli Cairo's vision for the future is one where his company remains an employee-driven legacy, championing the art of charcuterie and the respect for the entire process—from farm to table. His personal aspirations mirror this ethos, with a life enriched by family, hunting, and continuous culinary exploration. Through his story, listeners are inspired to not only appreciate the complexities of charcuterie but also to understand the profound influence of sustainable practices on the future of the food industry.
The narrative of Eli Cairo and Olympia Provisions, rich with heritage, passion, and an enduring commitment to quality, offers much more than a mere taste of exceptional charcuterie. It serves as a source of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs and food enthusiasts alike, reminding us that the journey of food is as much about the destination as it is about the flavors experienced along the way.
Elias Cairo
OlympiaProvisions.com
IG: "olympiaprovisions"
IG: "eliascairo"
George Blitch
SonofaBlitch.com
MapMyRanch.com
IG: "thesonofablitch"
The culinary landscape is often a testament to the power of passion, heritage, and an unyielding commitment to quality and sustainability. This is the narrative that unfolds as we delve into the story of Elias Cairo, co-founder of Olympia Provisions, and his transformation from a sponsored snowboarder with a penchant for the adrenaline rush of the snowy slopes to a revered maestro in the art of charcuterie. His journey, as discussed in our latest podcast episode, is not just about the crafting of delectable meats but also about building a legacy and fostering a community around a shared love for exceptional gastronomy.
Cairo's roots trace back to the family kitchens of Salt Lake City and the influence of his Greek heritage, where the farm-to-table lifestyle was not just a trend but a way of life. His father's emigration from Greece to the United States brought with it the traditions of the Peloponnese—hunting, farming, and a culture steeped in the appreciation of fresh, homegrown food. It was here, in the family-run Greek American cafes, that Cairo's culinary spark was ignited. But it was his apprenticeship in the Swiss Alps that honed his skills and shaped his philosophy toward food and sustainability. The Swiss mountain ski lodge culture, with its symbiotic relationship between nature and cuisine, played a pivotal role in Cairo's evolution as a chef and artisan, and eventually a world class salumist.
Upon his return to Portland, Oregon, Cairo's entrepreneurial spirit took flight as he embarked on the mission to revolutionize the American charcuterie scene. Olympia Provisions was born out of a desire to create naturally fermented, mold-rich salami that echoed the quality and authenticity of European cured meats. The growth of an empire soon followed, encompassing a production facility and a string of restaurants, each narrating the story of quality meats, family heritage, and community.
The success of Olympia Provisions can be traced to Cairo's unwavering dedication to sustainable practices. From working with a network of trusted farmers to achieve Global Animal Partnership standards to the transparent operations of their production facility, every step underscores the commitment to responsible sourcing and the betterment of the industry. Olympia Provisions stands as a testament to the impact of a business built on ethical principles and the pursuit of culinary excellence.
Eli Cairo's vision for the future is one where his company remains an employee-driven legacy, championing the art of charcuterie and the respect for the entire process—from farm to table. His personal aspirations mirror this ethos, with a life enriched by family, hunting, and continuous culinary exploration. Through his story, listeners are inspired to not only appreciate the complexities of charcuterie but also to understand the profound influence of sustainable practices on the future of the food industry.
The narrative of Eli Cairo and Olympia Provisions, rich with heritage, passion, and an enduring commitment to quality, offers much more than a mere taste of exceptional charcuterie. It serves as a source of inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs and food enthusiasts alike, reminding us that the journey of food is as much about the destination as it is about the flavors experienced along the way.
Elias Cairo
OlympiaProvisions.com
IG: "olympiaprovisions"
IG: "eliascairo"
George Blitch
SonofaBlitch.com
MapMyRanch.com
IG: "thesonofablitch"
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Son of a Blitch podcast. I'm your host, George Blitch, and I just wrapped up an amazing conversation with Eli Cairo of Olympia Provisions. An amazing conversation with Eli Cairo of Olympia Provisions. If you guys don't know about Olympia Provisions, you have to go to their website right now. Make some of the best charcuterie in the entire world. I'm serious. He sent me a sample pack and every single thing that I tried was the best of that I've ever had Best summer sausage, best fankfurter I mean the list goes on and I think I had like eight different things. It was phenomenal. Some of the best cured meat you will ever have, hands down. I even talked in the podcast I think it was.
Speaker 1:Oprah said that his chorizo was the best in the world and you know there's. There's high praise from people all around. There's tons of awards that he and his team have won. They have five different restaurants and a bar out there in the Portland area and there's just so many wonderful things that you can try at each location different kind of tastes and flavors. But I highly suggest you go check out the book that's above me. It's a cookbook, but it kind of tells about his story and how he got involved in his time in Switzerland and you know, being an apprentice and then staying there for about five years and then coming back and starting his journey of you know what was then to be Olympia Provisions, and you know kind of talk about him growing up with his family big Greek family that you know lived off the land for a lot of ways and they ran a restaurant too. So just it's a wonderful history of who Eli is and what he's all about. We talked a little bit about his involvement in the Turkey book above me here the Jesse Griffiths wrote, and Eli has a few different recipes in there too. So yeah, it was just a wonderful conversation. He's such a good gentleman and I think you guys are really going to thoroughly enjoy this and our conversation and make sure you go to the description below and follow those links, follow his journey and make sure you put it in order. We're also going to be doing a giveaway with some books and some of his products there too, so some of you guys can be able to taste those and be able to open up those pages and see some of the beautiful pictures and amazing recipes and give yourself a try at making some amazing charcuterie.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, here is the podcast with Eli Cairo. You guys enjoy, take care. Hey, eli, how are you doing today? Man Good, my friend, how are you Nice to see you. Hey, eli, how you doing today? Man Good, my friend, how are you Nice to see you? Fantastic, fantastic, good to see you too, man, I'm excited to really go into all sorts of conversations with you. I mean, we're going to be talking turkey, we're going to be talking about your restaurants, your book, your journey, your time in Switzerland, everything. But I think the best thing to do is usually kind of start at the beginning. Will you give listeners a little idea of where you grew up, talk about your family, family restaurants, and maybe just kind of the beginning of your love of kind of being in there in the kitchen and perfecting all these amazing foods that you have now and that you have out with Olympia Provisions.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's a good place to start for me. Well, I'm Eli Cairo. I'm the owner and operator of Olympia Provisions. I'm a sausage maker by trade, but a lot of people want to call me a chef. Sometimes I make more sausage and cured meats than I do cook in restaurants, so I tend to be more of a sausage maker than that.
Speaker 2:I was lucky enough to grow up in Salt Lake City, kind of sandy, the Murray area, if you're familiar with it. My father, he moved from Greece, so he was first generation, or I'm first generation, and he's from an amazing area in Greece called the Peloponnese. It's most famous for olives the Kalamata olives are there in Sparta Real, rural, real, up in the mountains, and from a farming community. They did a lot of hunting and fishing and they grew all their own food. And somebody told him at some point in his later teens, early 20s, that Salt Lake City was the exact area as the Peloponnese in Greece. And so my father decided that his end goal in life was to open up, you know, raise a family in Salt Lake City, utah, and he met my wife, my mother, in Chicago and moved her to Salt Lake and he did everything in his possible you know, in his abilities to make our little two acre house into a Greek operating farm. And, of course, like classic Greek Americans, he opened up two Greek American cafes, kind of like I'm sure you're familiar of them they're real big on the East Coast too but like those awesome Greek cafes where you can get a Denver omelet but at the same time you can get like the best spanakopita you've ever had, or like you'll get a perfect burger alongside with the Euro, um and it, it.
Speaker 2:It was just an awesome little restaurant but I fell in love with it. You know, my dad was one of those guys like I think it's in that old world talent where if you can make it, you did. If it was a booze, we made it at home. We made our own wine. He was always distilling, we would cure all of our own garlic and we'd raise animals every year for the winter and start, you know, preserving them and do all of the things.
Speaker 2:And I fell in love with it. I couldn't leave my dad's side If he was going to the restaurant. I wanted to be in there, the restaurant, with him. I didn't have much for schooling, if you know. It was too slow paced for me. So whatever my father was doing, if it was pulling weeds, shoveling, snow chopping, wood hunting, fishing, cooking I was with him and yeah, that kind of started it how I got into it, fast forward and you know, my father passed away when I was 14 years old and I got my mother had. Really it's kind of one of the most courageous and bravest things I've seen a mother do. She said pretty much hey, you're really bad at school, but you really love nature and you really love this. You should take some time and I took a lot. I took a year.
Speaker 2:At around 17 years old, I dropped out of high school strictly to snowboard and I got sponsored for snowboarding, was able to snowboard for a lot and then, long story short, I called my mom after getting scared and tired of snowboarding that I wanted to be a chef and be fancy and I missed that whole, the whole life of just making food every day. Then, yeah, called my mom, told her, told her pretty, pretty quickly, I want to move back to Europe to do this. And she said you should move to Europe, I'm going to, I'm going to ship you to Greece and you're going to go work in the village. And I was like mom, I love the village, it's really, really fun, but I love running water and I want to be a fancy, fancy chef. I want to go to Paris and she's like I think you should go to Greece.
Speaker 2:It was probably one of the first real arguments we've ever had. And then she said let me call around. And she got in contact with somebody in the Swiss Alps. I got a phone call. They were like we had an apprentice that got injured. If you could be here in two weeks you could start your apprenticeship program. And I, you know I did it. I sold all my snowboarding gear, I sold my Subaru, I sold everything I possibly had and, you know, went to the library. This is pretty, at least me having great access to the internet.
Speaker 2:I utilized this old tool called the encyclopedia.
Speaker 2:The what? Yeah, like I had the name, it was who's saint gallen and I went and I found it and it was like I just clearly remember being ski resort town near zurich, switzerland, famous for meat making and cheese making, and I was so sold, it's all it took. Well, I'll figure it out. And so, yeah, I got on an airplane and landed making and I was so sold, it's all it took. Well, figure it out. And so, yeah, I got on an airplane and landed there and went to the village and I mean I, it was right, I was just pinching myself, just having left snowboarding. It was winter when I got there, a lot of snow call from the village and then I, somebody comes down and gets me it doesn't speak very much English and we take a car up halfway into the middle of the ski resort to this beautiful Swiss hotel. That's just like right out of the books. And I walk in and figure out that I'm the right person. They said you can start tomorrow morning. And this is when it got really, really cool. Of course, I'm already pinching myself. I'm in the middle of a ski resort, being like whoa, these mountains are amazing. The next ski resort being like whoa, these mountains are amazing.
Speaker 2:The next morning I walk into work and I open up a walk-in, like they're showing me around. I open up a walk-in and there's a full ibex hanging in the walk-in, horns on everything, just like just been gutted. And I was like, wow, I've read a lot about these animals in my wildest dreams I never thought I would touch one or be around one. And then they proceeded to tell me what I took from it is that you know bjerger stump, the owner of the hotel. He's a jaeger meister, hunter master and you know he does all the wild game processing in our region. So if you shoot an animal there, you come and check it out at our hotel and we would process this animal and we could some. Some of the hunters would allow us to buy the meat off it, resell it in our fancy restaurant, which is pretty foreign in america, but we would fully process it, making sausage broth, everything, and pretty quickly. I knew I wasn't going anywhere. I was like if I got a chance to eat and taste and cut up wild ibex, and yeah, we would do about on. Really during the fall and big hunting times we do about 200 to 220 wild animals a month, so there's a lot of chamois and ibex and red deer and marmots and all that cool stuff. So yeah, that's where that went.
Speaker 2:I started my apprenticeship. It's supposed to be a six-month long apprenticeship and you know, my neighbors were cheesemakers. I was able to snowboard out of my door. I was learning something unbelievable. I was trying to learn another language. I knew they weren't going to get rid of me. I begged and begged to stay. They said I was illegal. They said if you don't tell, I won't tell.
Speaker 2:We worked another two years together. I begged to go to school the whole time just doing everything I could in the valley. A I loved it. I was fascinated by helping the cheesemakers next door rotating hay, milking cows, and they had a kill plant in the village and we would kill cows on a very ideal setting and process them and chill them and do the whole process, and I was learning how to bake and cook and do all the other stuff as well. I just kind of knew they were never getting rid of me. I asked if I could do a formal education or a true apprenticeship and Annegret said yes. Bjerg didn't say no. So long story short, I snuck my way into school and five years later I was finished up with a culinary degree from the Swiss Alps and a minor I guess you would call it in butchery and charcuterie man what a journey.
Speaker 1:I mean I loved reading through your book, which is available on your website and comes with a nice little sampling of some of your meets there, and it was so neat to hear about your journey. And then also, when you went back there again and kind of you know, captured all this and kind of revisited friends and all these places and you know. So you started out right there in the Swiss Alps at the Alpenrose hotel and that's like Switzerland, it's like the region near kind of Austria and Lichtenstein, lichtenstein.
Speaker 2:It's right in the corner there in Germany, austria, lichtenstein, yeah Right, and that little tiny mountain village up there, really beautiful part of it.
Speaker 1:It was just the pictures there and just it's. So I mean, it's dreamy man, what an amazing spot and you kind of talk about that area having so many different restaurants and you know so many amazing beverages too In that area. Can you kind of describe as far as what was that like with the different uh you know region around there and all the different restaurants, and is it more of a seasonal thing for you know, when people are kind of traveling through? What was it like living there? You know three, 65.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the region itself is it's. It's perfectly located for where Zurich is and the Germany border. They can come over to Switzerland pretty easy and it's also the first kind of mountains that are right there. And they're very, very famous for cheese making. Abbott Seller cheese is the ridge right over, so it's very famous and people always come down there year round to experience the cheese and the proximity to the big cities.
Speaker 2:And in the wintertime which I thought fascinating enough when I was there, you know, in America, I was like that guy that didn't want to go into the lodge. You know I wanted to get as many turns as I possibly could, always pushing myself. And then, you know, kind of the first day I went snowboarding it was with other Swiss people, it was a big dump day, powder day, and I'm, this is gonna rule, and we get up to the top of the mountain. I was like ready to roll and they're like no, no, no, my friend, we're going skiing. We got to go get a fresh croissant and a coffee with um plum liquor in it. It's like nine in the morning and nobody's really rushing out and then, like we took two runs and then we went up to another restaurant that served wild game and had hash browns and wild game and it kind of changed the mentality from yeah, yeah, we're skiing, we're having a great time, but this food and beverage part of this is also unbelievable, and then that's kind of the winner.
Speaker 2:It's a. There's three ski resorts, I think. They have like 15 different lodges you could ski and it would be almost impossible to hit them all in one day, even though multiple times we tried to have a beer and ski to every which one of them my younger days. But in the summertime, I think, is when it really really shines is there's so much hiking and climbing to all these cool little pockets in this region and they all are very famous for certain specialties out there, this region, and they all are very famous for certain specialties out there. So everybody knows like you'll go into this region and imagine banging out like a pretty rigorous, steep, eight or nine mile hike, but at the end of your hike you're gonna get, you know, uh, maybe a, a pepper which is a you know, sour brats and made with wild meat thickened with blood over hash browns and like the coldest beer in a pint. Or maybe they ferment their own salamis there. But you're definitely going to have some epic cheese and butter and fresh baked bread. So it was really great.
Speaker 2:And all the restaurants, they're kind of famous. I hit this. There's one, it's called Forella and it's a little bit of a poke to get in there, but honestly, you'll sit down at this terrace and look at these huge mountains. I think it's like a five mile walk in, so not crazy. But you'll order two trout and they'll be like all right, let's go catch the trout. And they have. You know I'm sure they're stalker trouts, don't get me wrong, but nonetheless there's. You know they're catching trout for you and you're sitting there eating charcuterie, drinking Riesling, and they bring over a true troton bleu, which is a trout so fresh that they blanch it in a cork bouillon and the skin turns bright blue and you know they melt butter over the top of it and and there's part of me you're like man, how how do I top this? You know the setting. And fresh, caught, poached trout and it's. It's a really, really great, great place. Yeah wow man season.
Speaker 2:It was kind of my dreamiest time. I was obsessed with climbing um bjerger and his friends were hunting enough and I snowboarded. But I was just like living in the middle of the mountains and I and I do think it's a big reason why I stuck with it was, you know, if I was in a city at that age in my time I would have probably been really distracted and girls and partying and all that stuff. But here I was, there to work.
Speaker 2:And in Switzerland if you're doing a culinary apprentice, you start in the morning, usually around seven o'clock, you work around 12 in the afternoon or after the lunch rush, one o'clock. You have three hours of seamer student and then you come back for dinner service, usually six days a week. So you're really focused. But you get those three magical hours in the day where you can get on your mountain bike or get to a climbing crag or go snowboarding or run to a top of a mountain. You can kind of reboot. Yeah, that was an amazing time and learning the language and getting to see the culture and the traditions and how they migrated their cows up to the Alps. It was real, real fun. I feel like I'm doing a lot of talking. Is this okay?
Speaker 1:for it. This is absolutely okay. No, I mean, I want to know all I can and and you know, when you mentioned also too, like with the Ibex and working with the Jägermeister there, were you doing any hunting Is it? What kind of environment was that like for you? Cause I know that you've, you know, obviously still hunt these days and you know obviously still hunt these days and you know we'll jump into that too. But I was curious, you know, being in such a magical new place, is that something you had access to? I know you've done some fishing and stuff too you mentioned.
Speaker 2:But yeah, let's talk about that for a sec. Yeah, the only time I was able to go hunting is with with bjerger, so that after a year or two and I really learned the language and he caught ground, that I spent a lot of time in the mountains and my father was a hunter and all the things and I was a hard worker he invited me a few times to go hunting and it was. I mean, everything to me it's just been so long. But getting up, getting to the top of these beautiful peaks before sun up and starting to glass these beautiful things and you know they're very, very, very specific with which animals can be taken down to the exact, it almost seems unreal, but you know we would pass on 30 to 40 chamois any you know a day. And I just please, I really want to do this in my lifetime like pull that trigger. And you know we'd go up and look with the other jaegers and go count ibex and they knew that I climbed and so if I saw a cool ibex that was missing an antler or a horn, excuse me. And we'd be like, hey, there's a, there's an ibex over on this wall, over here, that's in there. It looks like it's kind of in its um, and so I communicate to bjerger and bjerger would tell his other hunter friends where it was. And you know, just being up there so much, I got obsessed with watching these beautiful animals move around. It's an interesting thing.
Speaker 2:So there's a part of my book I'm not sure if you read that part about how Bjerger received one elk in his life, and so he got to that level where they're like Bjerger, you're the Jägermeister of this valley. Here's your elk. Follow it Like this is yours, and he got it at a spike. And he follow it like this is yours, and he got it at a spike, and he followed it for 12 or 13 years, I'm not sure, but he got every match set off of this elk that was in his valley and towards the edge of his life. He got kicked out of its herd and pushed over to the austrian side, and then the jaeger from there was like hey, bjerger, I think your, your bull elk, is in my field over here in our valley. Come over and shoot it. And it's like a beautiful story. He's followed him for, you know, 12, 13 years and shot this one bull that'll ever shoot in his valley. And then, of course, has the mount, and it's how rare. Have you ever seen 12 match sets, let alone the yeah, the one animal. And so you see all of it, and it's he.
Speaker 2:They have a big respect for it, it's, it's quite, it's the the eating culture. This is a fun. It, it's, it's quite, it's the the eating culture. This is a fun part about the Alpenrose as, as, like a restaurant, you know, you could come there during the fall season and you could order, like a chamois steak, like a back of a chamois and a Steinbuck and a deer and an elk, or possibly a marmot sausage by the ounce, and so you could be like, oh my gosh, I'd like to have four of these different types of animals that I'll probably never going to have, and I'll take the perfectly foraged morel mussels cooked, or morels in a demi-glace with whipped cream and hash browns, and that's your meal. It comes out on a copper plate and it's like three or four wild steaks sizzling in a pan while you're, you know, having endless demi-glace and morels. It's, it's quite, quite, quite amazing, yeah I think it's a.
Speaker 1:It's a good thing we did this after lunch, because I don't know if I would have been able to even make it through this part of the podcast. Oh my goodness, I mean, and you have these amazing pictures and and you talk about this respect and I mean just the people in Switzerland there and like they're hard working people. There is a meticulous nature to this. So whenever you know people are having their own specialty and what they're making, um, what they're curing it, whatever it is if it's meats, it's cheese you know you kind of give a nod and respect to that. And I think you know you talk about kind of bringing in that kind of mentality.
Speaker 1:When you came back here and just kind of shifting into, you know, your move back home one, what was it that made you decide, okay, my time here is up and I'm ready to go and take on this new journey. And what was that timeline between then until you started with OP and wanting to kind and take on this new journey? And what was that timeline between then until you started with OP and wanting to kind of take that to that next level? Yeah, that's a good question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I say this often and it's kind of it was a piece of just pure naivety. That is so beautiful is when, after six months or so working with my neighbor that made cheese and I saw him transition to his cows on grass and was caring about how the cheese that it dawned on me that there's a certain group of people that can make a livelihood out of making a product and I don't know how. That never dawned on me in my lifetime. I just kind of especially being around food and what my father did and everything you would have thought that at some point in my life I would have been like, hey, I should make meat for a living. I just thought I was going to be a chef. It wasn't necessarily a product obsession, but then as I got to know them more and they would just see how obsessed they were about their products and how much the town respected them and how the actual government protected some of these people's practices, and I started toying with my head, as I love being a chef. I practices and I started toying with my head as I love being a chef. I love cooking, I love making people happy through food. But man, that's got to be an amazing reward to be able to work your whole life at a product to get better at and no, it's not going to be mastered and I meet sausage makers and salami producers that had this deep down passion for it. And I was lucky enough to meet a gentleman that killed beef in Graubünden and I was pretty sure that's where I was going to retire, up in this real steep mountain valley, just air, carrying beef seasonally, so killing cows in the fall and drying them throughout the outside in the winter and bringing them into the house and finishing them and selling them in high end stores. I was like that's, that seems like a good life for me. I'm going to do this, you know, guaranteed six months big or six weeks vacation and all the Swiss benefits, access to all the beautiful European areas. I was like this is pretty good.
Speaker 2:And at this time my sister had moved from Salt Lake city, um, to Portland, oregon, and of course, we started missing family. I'm Greek and we. You know it's it's, it's we're, we're. We started missing family. I'm Greek and we're tight. It started seeping into me. It's like, you know, portland's a really beautiful place. All the people up here really talk about food. We get salmon runs. I know you haven't had salmon. There's Dungeness crab everywhere. There's a region. All they talk about is wine and beer and coffee and chocolate makers and all these things that I pretty much eye rolled, being like, come on, I'm in the Swiss Alps, this is as good as it's going to get.
Speaker 2:And I came and she took me right to the Portland Farmer's Market downtown and man, I'm unapologetically American. All of a sudden you realize that when you come back you spend five years away and you step off it and everybody's a little bit more open and they're so excited and you're like, oh, this is me. I can have a bonfire on the coast and not pull a permit, or you know, I can. The freedoms that come along with it. It felt really, really great.
Speaker 2:And she took me to this farmer's market and I'm walking around and I'm seeing all of these unbelievable vendors like organic moshes and these great farmers and Native Americans were smoking meat and they had all the salmon run from the Columbia River and there was this blue cheesemaker. He's very famous now it's Rogue River Blue. He's a blue cheesemaker in Southern Oregon and he had a line, I kid you not, it was like 70 people and I was like what is this? And Michelle's like it's a blue cheese. It's unbelievable. Do you want to wait? And we waited in line and I got this cheese and it was just mind blowing. It was real molded cheese. Crazy. You know all of the things. I'm like wow, this many people want this blue cheese here. Let's get salami, michelle.
Speaker 2:I've been working in these salami plants and covering them with mold and wild animals and I had all these grand ideas I'm gonna cure elk and do all this stuff. And she thought I was a crazy person. But we went to a specialty store. I tried salami and instantly I was. It was.
Speaker 2:It was like a very harsh awakening. You know, the first thing I saw is I, you know, I believe really in crazy, wild, active molds. You may have seen this on my salamis. They have crazy colors and they're they're more different. I see these salamis behind the case and they're these bright white, all uniform, all what it is. I was like what in the world is that? I tried them and I was like this isn't mold. It looks like rice flour or milk flour.
Speaker 2:I tasted the meat and I was like man, this tastes like depression and just horrible. It tastes like depression, told her right then and there, if there's not a meat maker in Oregon, I'm going to come back and I'm going to make salami the way I wanted to. But yeah, I came back completely broke, borrowed money from my sister, lived in her basement and she told me I'm not willing to open up a USDA meat plant yet. You should probably get a job. So I used the culinary background to get a chef job while I was working with the USDA on the weekends and the nights to eventually, what would it take to open up a naturally fermented, never heat treated, shelf stable salami plant?
Speaker 2:Slowly but surely worked through that In 2009,. It's kind of a fascinating little fact on it. I was a one man employee. I think it was 700 square feet meat plant and I did about 200 pounds of salami a week, or sausage and salami a week Tiny, tiny, tiny production. But I was the first person in the history of the state to be able to do that make fermented salamis and ship it over state lines. So yeah, that was pretty fun.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man, I mean.
Speaker 1:And I like how she said I'm not ready to start the USDA meat plant yet, like she believed in this idea that you had, and eventually I mean y'all business up, partnered up and I know there's some other friends and that have you know kind of like family that have joined since then and kind of that, the culmination of this idea. And then you kind of took it to another level because I mean, what was it? So you had this, you know 700 square foot, you know spot first, and then there was quite an evolution of spaces and places and then restaurants. So if you can maybe walk me through that timeline of the business development and kind of how that continued to grow, and also maybe you know what was that like for you know the community around you, as you were kind of bringing in a product that was totally different in the sense of like it didn't taste like depression, it tasted like true happiness and bliss. So yeah, I'm curious about that kind of that timeline and how that kind of shifted and moved about that's a great question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in that first year in that little tiny plant, I got way over my head. I didn't have any money, as we've stated. I didn't have enough money to hire employees or so on, and we connected it to a restaurant that was right next door in this real industrial area in inner southeast Portland, and I was doing all the butchering, doing all the cutting, doing all the USDA work, working the farmers markets, trying to help out in the restaurant whenever I could, at the same time still not making any money. And I was kind of on my like very last straw and I went to my sister and I said, you know, I don't know, maybe I should just be a barista or go back to being a chef. I'm not sure if what's going to happen here. And she mentioned this amazing award group called the Good Food Awards, and the Good Food Awards is an amazing organization that not only do you have to produce food, but it has to have a positive impact in your community or environment or have something. It just can't just be delicious, it has to be trackable that it's done the right way. And I was like I'm never going to win that, like that seems so I was just in a bad place, right? You work that hard, you do that much, you see no light. You become a different human being.
Speaker 2:And my sister entered four of my products of it. Long story short, I beat everybody in my category. I swept the category. All my products won.
Speaker 2:I borrowed more money to go to San Francisco to sell the product at the Ferry Building and it was like right out of a beer commercial or a movie and it was just like people coming up to me wanting to buy all of my product. I sold out in two hours and had a stack of business cards like that big, of people being like hey, can I get a wholesale app? Can I X, y and Z? And I came back to my sister and it's like look at this, they love it, it could work. And she saw it, she believed in me and she's like well, what's the next step? Mind you, she's brilliant. I haven't even began on that part. She has a master's degree in business. She is so hardworking, she's so freaking smart and at this time she was running the finances for the power company up here. So big job, big money doing the thing. And her little brother has this hobby kitchen making sausage and she believed in it.
Speaker 2:And we did some more strategic stuff borrowed money from my mom, got another one, moved to my next plant, hired my first two employees that year, josh and Paul, which are with me still to this day and we kept going and we kept building and every year we kept winning more awards and building bigger companies, bigger companies. My sister was very adamant about how idealistic I am and what my product's weird and how I can have positive impact and stay to my core values of quality first, and she's like you're not the guy that wants to bring on outside investors. She clearly said that she's like you should really really focus on profitability and being smart with the money that you get and we should invest it back in. As soon as I moved to that new plant, I was getting crazy press. I couldn't believe where it was coming from. Like Oprah Winfrey said, I made the best chorizo in the world, which is like pretty good, pretty good, right, like that helps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, of course, my website crashes. I was on CNN, I've been on, you know. I think my restaurant won best dish in America at Southeast for a Riat hand pie. It was like I couldn't lose and I also couldn't keep up with any of the business side, and so my sister was kind of harping on me, being like hey man, your website crashed and you have all this meeting, you're missing all this opportunity. And I was like you know, I think our website crashed.
Speaker 2:She's like what are you saying here? I was like I can't do it. I mean, I'm great at making sausages and I can talk and sell and I love it and I can organize a USDA meat plant, keep it clean, but I can't do the backend stuff. And she fricking quit her job and moved into the meat plant with me in this little tiny restaurant and walked away from a real salary. And it's been the two of us plus my business partners and everybody. But we've been here every day ever since building this thing as it goes.
Speaker 2:And to fast forward to where we're at now, I'm in a 58,000 square foot meat plant. I do right over a million pounds of salami and sausages a year I export to Canada, japan, puerto Rico. I have six restaurants, we have about 160 employees and, out of all that, we're the nation's leader in good food awards now in any category. We've been able to do this scale and surround ourselves with the smart, hardworking people that have kept our quality and everything that we keep winning awards. But yeah, dang, that was the whole story right there. I hope it didn't bore you.
Speaker 1:Didn't bore me, man. I'm almost moved to tears. Man, it's beautiful. I am so, so stoked for you, for your sister, for your you know, your business partners. I mean that's, that's a feel good story, man, just to and and I will say this, and we talked about this before we hit record you sent me a care package and every single thing that I tried was the best version of that that I've ever had.
Speaker 1:I had a buddy the other day. He goes, man, you know what I wish I had? I wish I had a real good hot dog. I was like I know where to go. I know what you need to do, frankfurter, order it right now. And I sent him the link and he's just like whoa, and I showed him the picture that's in the book. It's like a centerpiece where it has like all the different types of dogs that you have and like that you can make with it. It was the best hot dog I've ever eaten in my life and well, you know proper term, frankfurter, but it was. It was phenomenal, man, and every single thing that I've had. So I can only imagine the things I haven't sampled yet are probably going to be added to that list.
Speaker 1:So when you talk about it leading these. You know good rewards and being at the top of the class and you getting this type of uh, attention and you know really a community, you know following of what you're doing. Um, it's amazing, and you've created so many businesses here. I love it, man, and uh, I, I, we can go on on that. But you mentioned in there, too, your six restaurants and I want to make sure that people in your region who want to come in and check this out in person where are all these restaurants? What are they? How do you identify each one and is there kind of a difference in flavor and type of each one, its own ambiance or its own style, or you know specifications and maybe kind of walk me through that real quick?
Speaker 2:For sure. Well, thank you for the compliments. It's not lost on me. I really really appreciate it and I get a lot of credit for a ton of the hard work that everybody that does around me like. It took a ton of people to keep this quality and do this, and the people I surround myself are unbelievable and I'm forever thankful. But thank you yet.
Speaker 2:So all the restaurants we have here are in Portland Oregon and we we've decided to kind of initially, at one point I think pre pandemic, I had seven different types of Olympia provisions. So there was like Olympia provisions X, y and Z and they were kind of all over and listening to the people, they found it pretty confusing because they'd come from wherever it was and they wanted to go to the olympia provisions. So in the last uh gosh, four years now we've really done, we really took it upon ourselves to change each one of the restaurants to have their own identity. So there is one olympia provisions that is the original one and it's two blocks down my uh, uh, two blocks, two blocks down from my rest or my meat plant right here and it is amazing, it's open all day. You get tons of charcuterie, big, big epic wine list and it kind of leans a little bit more on the french mediterranean style of the cuisine. It's we can't. It's one of those ones it's in the restaurant world. If you start hitting the year 15 and 16, I feel like that's when they hit their stride, like they bang if you stay on attention and it kind of bangs out. All the rough spots is when it gets better. But I think it's just one of those awesome places. I love it to death.
Speaker 2:Ate there last night, it was very nice. Love it to death. Ate there last night, it was very nice. What'd you have? Sweet breads with morels and peas were to die for like unbelievable. I know it was so good, yeah, I was so happy. The chef down there is an amazing human, matthew, big shout out uh. And then we have one on division that's alpen. That is more of a homage to the swiss alps, which is like all alpine food you can get the, the, the deer steaks with uh, traditional sausage, jaeger, arten and hash browns and fondues and raclettes and sausages and beer and has a huge alpine wine spirits wine and spirits that are kind of hard to find in america. We have an amazing wood fire uh restaurant, all beautiful hearth. My business partner, nate Tilden, made just epic Spanish food over wood fire. We have an Italian place that is really high end, awesome Italian steakhouse, super traditional, and then that ties into a more laid back casual bar. All right, one, two, three, four, five, five, five plus a block there you go.
Speaker 1:Wow man so what is? You mentioned the number before but I don't want to take an incorrect stab at it. How many total employees do you have with in the meat plant, all the restaurants? It?
Speaker 2:fluctuates. Yeah, right now, I think, as of today, we're at 156, but as the summer comes on in Portland and we do we still do tons of farmer's markets and we have a big, a pretty good size event are probably in a couple of months we always butt up right around that 200 mark sometimes and we'll see how this year goes. But yeah, it's a lot of awesome people.
Speaker 1:Do you have plans to expand it even further to that next level, or you ever see yourself kind of moving out of the industry, or is it better to keep it close by so you can kind of watch your children grow?
Speaker 2:The restaurants. You know we toy with it. You know I'm lucky. It's this interesting situation we get ourselves in is you surround yourself with so many epic, talented people that you have to show them growth, and it's not always financial growth. You can lose talent to people that just want it harder and more challenged. So I would never say we wouldn't, because if we find the absolute right operator that is so aligned with our core values and is driven like this and they have an opportunity that they're eager to do, we could.
Speaker 2:It's not big on my to-'s to move to LA and spread across every every which way that I could. We've had tons of offers and we've entertained it and it's, as of now, it's easier to keep them here. Um, but my, my, my main focus is in the meat plant personally as an operator and building my network of farmers and just keep getting better and really kind of showing America what a quality meat company can do from a responsible sourcing area and having positive impact. And there's a pretty big narrative right now that meat is so bad, and I agree with this in a lot of the sense. The current way A lot of the pork and meat industry, dairy industry, is raised. It's not the way we can do this sustainably. So I'd really like to be able to focus on that and get that narrative out there that there is a proper way and a good way and you know you can support positive agriculture with the right farmers and the right meat makers. So that's kind of where I'm really focusing and growing on, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, and I know that you know, when you talk about those core values and making sure you're having the best ingredients for the final product and that best experience for that end user, and there's so much that goes into that. But you know, I've seen you talk about seeing some posts and even reading in your book. They're talking about the idea of, you know, starting with that of the best ingredients and getting the best products. And you, you know and I guess it kind of ties into where you know you like you were talking about the award too they want to be able to trace back what that's done within the community, and it's not just something that's delicious, but it's a it's and it's not just the feel good, it is good like bringing in the best ingredients. And so talk to me a little bit about how you've done some of your sourcing of of some of these ingredients, the meats that you're pulling in, that you're working with. And then I want to dive into what happens within the meat plant, because I'm fascinated with that too.
Speaker 2:So if we can kind of maybe string that thread there and we can kind of go from there, no problem. Yet A good place to start is this is my first two original employees, josh Graves and Paul Opelger, when they first. They have a meat background and they're amazing human beings and they really latched on to what we were doing when we agreed to try to make the best meat in the world not only america, and there's a huge history of quality meats that are the best in the world. And if you take spain, for example, if you're familiar with the birico pork and the amazing protection, what you go into, that raw ingredient, you know they're pasture, raised, single breeds, protected and raised under these beautiful acorn trees or oaks to eat acorns. And what it would really take to make the best in the world would go to that practice, to be able to have pigs that live borderline, a wildlife with a supplemented diet, that are you know the genetics are done and they have positive impact and that we've always strived to Like.
Speaker 2:And you step back and you look at where the meat industry is in America for the pork industry alone right, it's, 98% of all animals are raised in confinement. They never see the light of day. They don't have much room to turn around. You have to use antibiotics and I understand I don't mean to poopoo any farmer out there that's just like. You know. That's hard living and that's what that is. But what people? Some of the perception that people are getting is that they're getting, that they're getting this pig on a pasture from a small farm and they're just getting dope. And so a lot of our life is to really try to change that narrative, to show, hey, this is what a transparent meat company can. And so, ever since 2009, I've been working with small farms trying to get them up to size. They're failing a lot, trying harder, working with Whole Foods, working with bigger partners to kind of get this up to scale.
Speaker 2:In my local kill plant here, carlton, and now I have quite a great network of farmers up here that are all GAP for Global Animal Partnership. That is an auditing body that goes in there and says that the farmer is doing what they're doing and they have their pigs on pasture and they're using them to improve their farm, their land and also, in the end, making me the best product I've ever made in my entire life in a big step forward, which is just so happy. And one of the things you said that's unique about my meat plant here is um. You know, the meat industry is very, especially the charcuterie industry and the value added meat industry. There's a lot of them that are um specialists at one thing, like you may be a really great sausage maker, you might be a really great salami producer, or you might be a bacon producer, but there's very few that are doing everything in-house. So if you come into my meat plant which I can't wait to show you around, george, it'll be great.
Speaker 2:There's huge smoke houses. We're dry fermenting thousands and thousands of pounds of meat. We're making pates, we're brining, we're grinding, we're butchering. It's kind of what you would think a meat company would be, and this has really allowed me to be a flexible meat company in that way. You know, I don't know of very many meat companies in America of this scale that are doing it all. The vast majority of them are using a co-packer and putting their brand all over stuff. But what that's really happened for me is pushing ourselves to fully utilize and not waste and have the capacity to grow these networks.
Speaker 2:It's kind of a unique thing in the American industry to be able to be like a full carcass utilization on a charcuterie plant that's hopefully producing the highest quality as well. Doing it the most responsible is kind of amazing. I mean I have a 50 horsepower, 50 amp grinder here that looks like a Volkswagen bus that I grind every piece of bone, skin, feet, head into a puree and stuff into casings and dry them out for dog treats. So I don't waste anything from these farms and I don't. I don't know of a fancy meat maker that's doing, I would say, silly, borderline silly things like that, but trying to make it a viable you know viable effort so I can actually promote these farmers and do these types of things. So yeah, it's this meat plant.
Speaker 2:I think I say a little bit in my cookbook I've always built it that I wouldn't mind taking anybody that taught me anything to kind of walk through my plant and be like, wow, this is awesome. You made it quality first, not margin first, not speed first. If we can make it better, we would. You know, I don't use liquid smoke because we know what that tastes like. You can make a frankfurter in a natural casing and smoke it over real applewood and distribute it across the nation. We've proved that I can make a summer sausage that's slow, fermented, hand dipped in wax and sell it across the nation. Those are the products that really inspire us to work harder and do the things that we do. I get less inspired if somebody ever comes to me and is like, hey, hit this price point and don't worry about the sourcing for it. To me that's died immediately and I don't even know how to do that.
Speaker 1:Go ahead, no, no please, I was going to say it sounded like like you growing up and with your family and having the restaurants and then going. I mean, you knew you were going to have, in some capacity, this once you decided to say goodbye to Burton and move on and, you know, get out there to Switzerland. But I think the enrichment of you know probably your family life and then going in and seeing all these people working to such a meticulous, hardworking lifestyle there and perfecting sometimes, like you had talked about in your book, there's sometimes this person made this the best and that was their, that was their one like niche, like that was the best thing that was in that region. That that person made it was this, whatever it was, you know, and I'm just baffled by the ability of you to then come back here and have you know, I don't even how many, how many total products do you have that you have going out.
Speaker 2:I think, I think we're like the 85 SKUs, separate SKUs here. That's a lot of products.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a ton, but you you put that meticulous, you know focus on each one and really you know you talked about it too in the book. It's like, once you've got kind of the recipe on this, it's not about like it's, it's this, and you're making sure that every single time someone takes a bite out of that, whether it's now, a year from now, it's the same thing, and you're you're reproducing this quality to just the nth degree. And I just find that so fascinating that what you've turned around to do and I guess let's, let's roll this into like the idea of like the meat plant there, what, what does it look like? I mean, you have different things curing at particular temperatures, is there things that are sectioned off? You know you're walking through the front door. Walk us through, like what that looks like, and then maybe we can supplement with some pictures so people can like maybe get a visual cue on this.
Speaker 2:Oh, for sure, there's plenty of videos of this place, for sure, you know you, you walk into the front office it's beautiful and then you step into a uh, a staff kitchen where we, we, we feed everybody breakfast and lunch and they get a beers after work and they get meat to go home with the family. And then you kind of step into this plant and it's like, ah, you know it's. I've always said when you, when you think of a lot of meat plants I mean there's that famous quote you never want to see where politics or sausage are being made. I think this is definitely the plant you want to see where the sausage is being made. It's like a real big, beautiful kitchen there's, you know it's music's playing, there's stuffers going, there's smokehouses blaring.
Speaker 2:You know we're still handpicking herbs every single day for our sausages. If we're grinding spices, you're grinding the morning of. There's walk-in coolers where we're hand butchering everything and making sure it's nice and organized and QH checks and fancy machines, packaging. And then you walk into these big other rooms where meat is fermenting and you know that could be up to 8,000 pounds in a day of just fermenting sausages and then you step into the next one that could hold 50,000 pounds of salamis covered in live active molds and a crazy wild environment, and then it's just a.
Speaker 2:I think there's a lot of. You gotta be obsessed with manufacturing and how things come to market to be able to stick to this thing, cause I often walk back there and I'm pinching myself all the time of like wow, we're actually doing this under the guise of the USDA here daily and the silica audits into those high safety standards and it's happening and people are happy and saying please and thank yous and the morale is pretty positive and it's just a fascinating place. I'm very, as you can imagine, I'm very proud of it. It's the mentality. We have our shop here where we do all the stainless steel, aluminum welding and we do all the wood cutting for the restaurants, and it's a lot of a lot of making is being done behind these doors.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow and it tastes really good, yes, the best ever. I'm telling you, man, I I've just blown away. And we were at the ranch, we were on a hunt and we took a break and we're like, all right, we're going to try this. And then I just remember we just sat there and just silenced. My buddy and I were just looking at each other. We're like this is like it was the summer sausage. And then there was one that had cheese inside it. I forget which sausage it was, but it was like it was again. It just it was just amazing. And I was just blown away.
Speaker 1:And I realized right then, and there too, I remember calling my wife and telling her like hey, we are going to go make a trip to Portland. I want to see this all in person, try some of these things, you know, as fresh as we can, right from the restaurants. And I'm just blown away, man, I'm so glad we got in touch with each other because I I mean just to hear your story and you know, for those who might not know, it's like jesse griffiths, we have a mutual friend um, he was one who's like hey, you need to contact my buddy, eli, y'all need to have a conversation. I want to hear it. And so I was like great, and I'm coming into this blind. And then he kind of sent me a couple links and then I was like, oh okay, you have like the leading charcuterie, like I mean this business, that I started reading reviews and like you're saying too, like Oprah and other people, like it was just left and right, people were saying the same things that I had felt, and just learning more about you and reading this book has just been fascinating.
Speaker 1:And I kind of wanted to turn it back to Jesse too, because you know, I just had a podcast with him and then with Jody Horton talking about the Turkey book. Um, and that was a journey of a bunch of hunts that happened last year and, uh, you were a part of this book and this process too. And you have some recipes there too, of which I'm going to be cooking one, cause I just got a bird two days ago, so I'm going to try to do one.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. I'm going to do one of yours, one of, uh, jean Paul's, one of Brad's, you know, and just kind of do one of each person was involved, but I wanted to kind of maybe, you know, have you talk a little bit about you know that, that process and being part of that hunt and that book and and you contributed towards that. If you don't mind real quick, oh, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:I was a huge fan of Jesse's, of course, as a person that's made food your whole life. You get to watch a lot of cooking hunting videos happen out there and some of them you're like man. They need to focus on shooting and not necessarily cooking and that's just. You know, you just see it, it's, it's in you, you know you cook your whole life. You're like that is uh unique if you see jesse cook or you see jesse make something and you can be like man, that guy. There is no fake in it, in that gentleman that dude has been. He was woken up since he's been a little kid and made very delicious things and he eats, sleeps and drinks it and it was very it was.
Speaker 2:I. I felt personally like as soon as he came on to that television of cooking wild games the way he did, I was like, oh, it is elevating, this is what we do. We need to find people like jesse that can cook this an unbelievable and take it to that next level, and so I was always a huge fan. And, uh, we have a mutual friend, kevin harlander, that uh reached out to me and said, hey, jesse's doing a turkey book. I know you love turkey hunting. Would you be interested to talk to jesse? And I was full blown.
Speaker 2:Jesse plug your ears like nervous, you know like I was like oh yeah, like if I gotta go hunting with jesse and I gotta cook for him or you gotta cook for me, like that would be a super awesome experience because I love, I love that. And uh, yeah, he called and we talked about hit it off instantly. We started. He started with a very simple question of uh, uh, what's your thoughts on cooking a whole turkey? And I responded back I just don't think it's a great idea and I'd say you're wasting a turkey. And we were like off to the races what's's your favorite way? How do you do it? What do you utilize? What's your thing? How do you? You know, and two hours went by, in two seconds. I don't think we talked about necessarily hunting once more. So what we do with it. And you know I, I love getting around that guy. I mean, I've been around so many amazing chefs and talented people but there's a very few that I could say that are of Jesse's caliber for, of course, execution, but love of food, like he absolutely loves it. He loves every detail of it and that shows through his food and it's it's, it's it's honestly like it re-inspires me often because I can get caught down in the drudgery of what's, you know what's cool or what's next, and new restaurants, and then you meet people that it's so deep in their soul cooking. You're like that's why we do this, to make just people happy through our food. And boy, he is, if not the best, one of the best chefs I've ever had been lucky enough to eat with or cook with in my life.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, then Jesse decided to come up in the northwest, to come turkey hunting, which was so awesome and I think it was really funny because we had this amazing communication, kevin, that lives out where we did it in eastern oregon, an unbelievable hunter like so much better of a hunter than I will ever ever dream of being like let's just say that right away guide and such an amazing human being. Uh, we had this conversation. Is it too early to do it in April? And he's like, nah, we got it. It's very rare it snows up here and you know mid-April it'll be beautiful, we'll be picking morels and you know, t-shirt hunting and we were super stoked.
Speaker 2:But he's like there is a chance it might be snowing. And as the day kept coming, he's like it's dumping out here, gents, like it keeps getting more and more snow. There's a real fun text message going on. I'm like, hey, eli, do you have group text with jesse and everybody? Hey, do you have little snowshoes? You can bring jesse some and jesse's like snowshoes. What are we gonna go to a larder to get like bear fat to, you know? Yeah, so we, you know, we got here in the first morning. It was really really cold and knee deep snow and you know it was just everything I wanted to see as a Jesse, I kind of out of his element but embracing it and having so much fun and figuring out how to navigate real loud snow and calling turkeys it's, it's awesome so y'all ended up.
Speaker 1:Y'all had some good success there, did you, did everyone get a bird? That, that, uh, that turnaround.
Speaker 2:No, just just jesse. Actually, to be honest with you, we had, uh, we had multiple, multiple opportunities and things kind of went one way or the other. But Jesse shot at two and got one and, yeah, it was plenty of adventure for the amount of snow and navigating, and it was a public land hunt, which was kind of new to him as well. You know it was sharing chunks of property with the masses and trudging through snow and cooking and doing all the, all the great stuff. But he, he really loved it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and now you you contributed some recipes to this book, right? How many total did you do?
Speaker 2:it's a great question. I think I did four total. Yeah, there was one, it was a, a cheater highlight one was because we had a. It's the uh, the old hole with the Marsala sauce and toast. Um, he wanted me to do some kind of opal sauce or something along those lines and I was very excited to excite. I love this opal. Just use the heart, the kidneys, the livers and the gizzards and all of the stuff and uh, dice it up in Marsala and tons of it.
Speaker 2:But we were in the midst of a big snowstorm and we got back to the car like yes, it's really hard to get after them when it's winding and snowing, and we didn't want to drive back to town and we had the idea of starting a nice big fire and we had whiskey for hot toddies after hunting, and so we had a fire and we're using uh time to make a hot toddy and honey and we're making these warm whiskey drinks and had a big fire going, which is already cheating. You can't get better ambience and better food than being outside turkey hunting with your friends in a snowstorm which is foreign enough for them, you know and having this warm fire and then you make a big gravy of marsala and gizzards and livers and hearts and butter toast, and you're sitting out there and I mean's that's some of those things.
Speaker 2:It's not really the recipe as much as it is. Hey, man, like go ahead and replicate this anywhere. Yeah right, that's right. Yeah, it was fun. I love that stuff.
Speaker 1:The improv too sitting around a fire while you're hunting, just cooking and enjoying it beverages yeah, it's the best it really is Absolutely, man, the camaraderie and friendship, having something that you just, you know took care of the right way in the land and eating that. Um, along those lines, let's say, like you got a Turkey, if you were to be making one dish, you know it doesn't have to be one of those four that you contributed there. If you're going to be making one Turkey dish to share with your friends and family, do you have one that is kind of like a go-to or like, hey, that's the first one I'm doing off of that bird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I, I really love that Avocado Lemonade dish that is in there, that recipe, that lemon chicken stew. I know, I know it's very nostalgic for me because it's what my, my family fed me. For any bird we shot, it doesn't matter what it was, and we would always make this and there's a part of it. It's just like part of health, like it. It feels very nurturing, it's undeniably delicious and it's very unique to have that and it's very lemony and dill and it's an egg custard and it's got feta and onions on top of it but it feeds a lot of people with it. You know it's, it's a.
Speaker 2:It's a real bright, nice way to uh get to share a lot more of the bird and you're going to use the carcass for broth and it's. It's a good way to utilize everything um and uh. My wife loves it, so it's like it's my go-to in all times. Points immediately, uh. But I, I just love turkeys too. I mean, they are some of the most unbelievably delicious, any which ways you can kind of get it. They are. They are so fascinatingly delicious.
Speaker 1:I love them well, and you just came down to texas here and did some hunting here with jesse as well, kind of packing on to that. Well, tell me about that experience for you. Is that your first time hunting turkeys in texas?
Speaker 2:sure? Well, it's first time hunting in texas? Yeah, I've never been like. I've been to austin, of course, for work and a few other places, always on the selling. And I think I've been on travis lake one time and saw turtles and was baffled by it, and I've always been really into the idea of getting out to that countryside and, man, I loved it. I had so much fun. It was everything I could imagine. I nobody told me how pretty texas is in the spring, like holy smokes those wildflowers were. It was so unbelievably green and just fields of blue and unbelievable flowers and these cactuses and the oaks and just everything.
Speaker 2:It's like you know you I'm sure you've done this many times in your life you you kind of picture what a hunt will be like or or where it's at, and you have it built up but you try to keep it under wraps, like you don't want to get too excited and over promise what it is. And like the second we started driving out to where we were going and it was just way prettier, way cooler, everything about it. Like the food was better, the tacos were better, the camaraderie was better, everybody got turkeys. They were gobbling like crazy. We had tons of opportunities. We all got birds, you know, and we were frying them in beef fat at the end of the day, drinking delicious wine. It was. I don't know how I would do it better, jesse. I'll tell you the truth. Jesse, if you listen to this five stars I'll go on your Yelp page.
Speaker 1:Texas turkey hunting tours with Jesse Green. There you go.
Speaker 2:Highly recommended, oh man.
Speaker 1:It's been fun to kind of see everyone right now because obviously we're right in the middle of kind of our turkey season and seeing all my friends, you know, have some successes and you know kind of what they're doing, and I have one bird leftover, uh, in the freezer and then a new one I just added to it. So I'm very excited to try that. So I think I'm going to try the dish you just mentioned there as well. Um, I'm going to go with Jesse's fried turkeys. I had that when he talks about that being his, you know, birthday and death row meal, and so I cooked that, uh, with one breast.
Speaker 1:I had just to kind of give a quick sampling of it as soon as I got the book. So I was like, okay, he says this is the go-to and cook that and I was like, oh my gosh, it's the best wild turkey dish I've ever had. And you know I've done a lot of kind of chicken fried stuff and things that weren't. You know I never really jumped to that next level of really trying these amazing dishes and that book is by far kind of an all-star cast of ingredients and recipes. So I'm I'm excited to kind of go through that and wanting to get more turkeys is try out all the different recipes, because every one I read is like, okay, now it's that one. No, okay, this one too.
Speaker 2:So it's exciting what a brilliant idea he had with that book, you know it takes an amazing humble human to be to surround yourself with like a bunch of really talented chefs and hunters and be like, hey, there's so much to learn in this. The book is just going to be a masterpiece forever. I can't believe the writing he does. He's so humble, he's such a great storyteller and, of course, he can incorporate food and writing so it wins on everything and the, the chefs and the people you ate with. He did such a great job of capturing the recipes and promoting what the dishes are and gosh, it's like a mouth-watering hunting book. You know where you just want to sit, read and cook and repeat and get you excited for turkey hunting and like it's, it's, it's sitting next to when.
Speaker 2:The last time I had a cookbook literally on my nightstand. Yeah, I want the stories like they're usually in the kitchen or where I'm going to study, to learn like this thing is just a read, the beautiful story that's getting me like I read the you know hunting books before hunt all the time because I get so excited about it. But this is one I before going turkey hunting in five days here it's when ours starts you're already reading this book is like just fun for a hunt and then you get into the recipes, which are five stars and some of the most delicious food I've ever seen from all sorts of talented chefs. So yeah, it's, it's an amazing book, it's. I want to go ahead and say I better win some awards, let's go people, oh I.
Speaker 1:If it doesn't win another james beard award, like the hog book did I, then there's something wrong or there's or there's something really good out there too, cause this is hands down, it's, it's just one of the best.
Speaker 1:And I was lucky enough too, because when you sent me your book I also had like the Turkey book right around the same time, so those backpacked each other Like I was one and then to the other, so I had cookbook on my nightstand for like three weeks and even when I finished one I picked up the other and then I went back to the other, like it was. I read them both, cover to cover, twice and just was blown away and it kind of it inspired me to try to up my game and whatever I'm doing, I was just like man, these two guys are doing so many amazing things, putting out some of the best stuff out there in the world that I can imagine. And and you know I was just. You know I'm so happy that you sent me that and we got connected. Man, it's, it's been uh enriching to kind of learn more about your journey and to be able to sample the best damn meat that I've ever had. I mean you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you. Yeah, what Jesse's doing with his books and making that food is it's so important for what America has going on in the cooking wild game world. It's like I want him to keep doing them in every which way. Man, I don't, I mean, I'm sure I know, you know pretty well, but I'm, I'm, I want to start a campaign for him to do a freshwater fish book. That gentleman and his excitement for fishing freshwater and the way he goes about cooking it is like if he did that I would, it would change the game in what people are eating out here, because he is just has such an amazing ability to make food taste so good that's caught and gosh.
Speaker 1:he loves to fish himself some fresh water and oh, yeah, oh yeah, no, no, I thought I'm, you know, hearing about like with the wild bookscom and hosting both of their, you know those books that they've been a part of through St John press and him and Jody, and just you know that there's more coming and I'm just so excited to see what's next. But you know it's like simmering in and what this is now and you know, getting to see the success of this book taken off has been great and, um, you know I'm, I'm hoping to, uh, that you know our listeners, I want to get some of your books in their hands too. So, hoping we can kind of maybe do some type of giveaway with that and have people because it it is, it is something that I, I love that your book.
Speaker 1:I feel like it takes, you know, the idea of someone going into making, you know, charcuterie and and curing some of these meats.
Speaker 1:It's a if you haven't done that and you've just cooked stuff before and this idea of a whole new process.
Speaker 1:It can be very, you know, overwhelming, I think, for some people to take that step, and I think you break it down in such a way that, um, it almost invites the listener and the reader to take, you know, a journey with it and be like, okay, I'm going to try this.
Speaker 1:And I guess you know I was curious too. There's gotta be people that have come to you with that Like, hey, I want to try to have my hand at this, knowing they're not going to make it to that nth degree of you know this perfection, but they want to, you know, dive into this new way of like curing these meats. You know, dive into this new way of like curing these meats. And I was kind of curious if there are certain things that you'd point them to and I know you kind of mentioned in the book, but just for listeners, um, that you would say, hey, you know, this is a something that you guys should try, and maybe some of the kind of one-on-one stuff that maybe you want to give people, as far as you know, instructions on what it is that they need to know and think about along the way. And just maybe, you know, kind of speak to that for a little bit If people who are ready to they're on that edge and they want to take take that next step in that journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, I think the most common thing that somebody says is they're hey, I want to make prosciutto or salami and they've yet to make the more simple things. And the way I laid my book out is I really wanted people to understand that there's almost as much craft, if not as much craft, in just the basic charcuterie and it's way more enjoyable than dealing with fermenting and drying and building dry spaces and smoke houses. All that stuff's amazing. But right out of the gate there's so many easy ways. If you take all the romance out of a charcuterie maker, at the end of the day you are a value-added meat maker. You're just adding value to the meat and salt and preserving it. The most simple thing is a roast beef is still charcuterie, roast beef just salt and a roasted beef to your sandwich meat liking is charcuterie. So I mean I tell plenty of amazing deer hunters out there that a top round, roasted or smoked to the right temperature, makes a really good deli meat that you almost are never going to beat for the rest of your life. That's a nice place to start and you know what you need is some salt and an oven. You can start very basically and then learning the facts of preservation with curing in a confit and using animal fats to slowly cook tough cuts and turning those into a pate. And if you eventually get to the grinder operation, make a few pates there's nothing wrong with utilizing offal and making the texture and failing You're not risking anything and then eventually get yourself into a stuffer and then maybe start making yourself a bratwurst or a breakfast sausage and then start casing those and then, if you still get to it, then go ahead and put them on the trigger or get a smokehouse and start smoking sausages and slowly but surely like enjoying that process of curing meats. You're going to learn a lot more than jumping right into the most difficult task of fermenting salami and dry curing a product that's going to take you a year to enjoy.
Speaker 2:Where there's a way to learn in there, it's definitely the Karate Kid approach. Let's go wash some windows before we go doing all the good stuff. And there's so much enjoyment, it's so easy. I'd rather have somebody preserve duck legs than a. Maybe they only use the breast off of a duck and they have an opportunity to make a pate that will blow people's mind, probably more so than the salami will. That could potentially get them sick or could just have so many chances of going wrong. Just make a perfect confit. Learn that art, start there and put it into your you know your bag of tricks, then go on. That's kind of kind of fun, for sure no, yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:You know, well said man and I I've I'm learning in the game. I had a buddy who was like he. Uh, we did a country pate this last year and using, I think you know, four or five different animals that we got from the ranches and the hunts, and it's just a fun thing to do, like being okay, cool, we're going to try this and you know, knowing, hey, it could fail, we're going to find out, and it was just delicious and it just kind of re-inspired me to take another step with that too. So I'm I'm very, uh, I'm very excited to be trying out a lot of things in in your book and I've already got some that you know little sticky notes on on the book back here and you know I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go to this pay, I'm gonna do this. So I'm I'm very excited and I know listeners, you guys got to go check it out Um, you know I got heard a lot about what you've talked about with.
Speaker 1:You know family, um, and you know this connectivity to, you know this ethos of of what you're bringing to the table with uh, olympia provisions and you know from all your experiences there in Switzerland and and then now, uh, you know, being one of the top producers here in the world of what you got going, and I wanted to kind of get your idea of like legacy and your personal legacy that you hope to leave behind, and your professional like how do you want people to remember you in this? I know it's we're still young men, but as far as like, what you're doing now is going to have an imprint on the rest of your life and those around you too. And I was just kind of curious about you know what is your thoughts on legacy in that personal and professional setting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, great question. Yeah, you know, I think professionally, in my ideal state, I would love people to recognize that there's just a different approach to meat making in America, recognize that there's just a different approach to meat making in America. Being able to look that quality definitely ties directly to more sustainable farming practices Like that would be quite remarkable to be able to say, hey, you're never going to get as great as you potentially could and feel the actual joy you get from food if you're not treating the animals and the farmers that work with you with respect. That would be the greatest thing. My sister definitely built this company that we don't necessarily want to sell it to the highest bidder.
Speaker 2:In my ideal state, I would love that the employees that surround me, we put enough core values around it and the parameters are there and the infrastructure is there that my employees can continue to be an employee run operation. That would be an ideal. To change the narrative in america what a charcuterie company is and have it be employee run would be quite, quite ideal. And personally I I ideally working in the meat industry and making my livelihood off of it, leaving it with a clear conscience and allowing me to, you know, hunt chuckers with my dogs without any regret in it would be quite ideal situation, but being able to go and spend hunts with my family and do all the things that I get to do and not have any regret about how I got to that point in my life would be quite, quite nice. Not stepping on Harmon on anybody and leaving pretty positive impact would be would be the best case scenario. Did that answer your question?
Speaker 1:I think so, man, and I already know you get a positive impact I mean, it's it's true in your product and the people around you. You know, when you bring in two people to start this and they're still there, that says something you know, and you have people who believe in you and they're willing to take, you know, a risk. You know with your sister, like leaving her company and coming back there's people surround that idea. No-transcript. One of the best nights of my life, you know that's.
Speaker 1:I surround myself with a lot of experiences in my life that are around an open fire at the ranch, at a dinner table with my family, my wife making some of the best damn Italian food, like and sauce and what it takes, and the smells of, you know the kitchen for days, and you know those things are always remembered and uh and remarkable and um, yeah, so I, I, I definitely feel like you answered that question well, cause I know that you're you're making an impact and you will continue to, and you know you, you have the best damn product out there, like I said every one to. And you know you, you have the best damn product out there. Like I said, every one of the things I tried was the best. I highly encourage people to go check it out and follow your journey and with that can you go ahead and give me some websites and maybe even list off some of the restaurant names for those who may be kind of local there too, and how people can follow you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, um, the company is Olympia provisions um. Olympia provisions on Instagram, um. Olympia provisions on Instagram Olympia provisionscom to go shopping or just to see what we offer the restaurant, olympia provisions, alpenrausch, grand, amari, little Bitter Bar and Bar, casa Valle and, of course, olympia provisions as the restaurant as well. And I'm on Instagram as Elias Cairo.
Speaker 1:Nice. Well, everyone, make sure you go and follow those places, Go to the website and place your order and you know we'll talk a little bit more here after we sign off. As far as doing some kind of giveaway and making sure people can maybe get a little sampling in their hands, because I'm sure they're hungry and excited after listening to this.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you. Thanks for listening. Thank you Thank you so much. I really appreciate you joining me here today. Uh, you know, I'm going to get you down here to Texas again. We'd love to show you around the ranch and I definitely want to come visit out there. So you know, this is just beginning of a friendship that I'm so glad that, uh, you know, jesse introduced this man.
Speaker 2:Yeah me too. Thank you, Jesse. Thank you for taking the time. I really, really yeah me too.
Speaker 1:Thank you, jesse. Thank you for taking the time. I really, really appreciate it. Yeah, I can't wait to get back down to Texas. I've never shot a whitetail. I know that's like crazy to some, but I've never even had the opportunity or a tag in my hand for a whitetail in my life. Well, I can help fix that. We've got two ranches in my family, one's not far from the Austin area and I'd love to have you out there and host you man.
Speaker 1:God, that'd be amazing. I got to do it. All right, let's make it happen. Let's make it happen. I'm in All right.
Speaker 2:I got sausage and will fly.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it Well, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in once again to the podcast and and, like I said, go to the description below, check out those links, follow Eli and his company and all the wonderful things. And once again, thank you sir.
Speaker 2:No, thank you, so much it was great.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it Cheers man, you too Cheers.