I was introduced to San Francisco’s The Whole Beast by accident at the annual Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. We were all sitting on a blanket when someone in our group said, “holy moly, what is that? It looks like he’s eating a large bird or something or ….?” as he pointed to a shirtless man who was gnawing at something meaty and massive. It turned out to be lamb on the bone…a whole lotta bone and a whole lotta lamb.
I meandered over to the food stalls where I found the culpret who was quietly serving massive amounts of meat on a massive messy bone: chef John C. Fink who is behind The Whole Beast. (left).
No waste is produced – they use and cook the whole beast. From pig, lamb and cow, to fish and fowl, they personally choose and cook the whole animal as part of your event or in this case, on order at a festival. If you opt to bring them on for an event, they provide several cooking options, including open flame, Hawaiian imu pit and oven roasting. Fink gets his meat from local farmers and has what he calls Fink’s Preferred Farmer List.
From Aqua, Postrio, Ondine and Silks Restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental in San Francisco to the L’Orangerie at the Arizona Biltmore and Kuleto Estate Winery in Napa, John aims to create transformational dining experiences.
He began his culinary journey as a dishwasher, eventually completing his training with The Cordon Bleu. Prior to that, he worked his way through an engineering degree at Embry Riddle by fishing commercially for scallops, tuna and swordfish in the North Atlantic. John pursued commercial fishing further in Alaska, obtaining his Able Bodied Seaman license while fishing Alaskan king, tanner and opilio crab.
By focusing on animal husbandry, John believes the taste and quality of his food achieve a rarefied character. He personally visits each farmer and tours their facilities, asking how and where the animals spend their day, what they are fed, where they sleep and how they are finished. In the end, John seeks to walk in each farmer’s footsteps in order to bring out the best taste in the meat and influence the final flavors that emerge from his dishes. Below is the massive lamb on a bone he gave me with a smile.
And, do I look like a happy camper right before I was about to dive in or not?
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
