Edible Sacramento Summer 2022

IN THE KITCHEN

Knives Out! Representing America’s best, two Sacramento butchers share how anyone can master the art of butchery. WRITTEN BY DEBBIE ARRINGTON PHOTOS BY RACHEL VALLEY

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minutes to break down a side of beef, a side of pork, a whole lamb, and five chickens, then create a themed retail display including a variety of specialty cuts and three kinds of gourmet sausage. “It’s intense,” Johnson says. “This is an educational forum for us. Butchery is thriving right now. This is an excellent opportuni ty to see it in action.” What better occasion to hone your own butchery skills?

t’s time to sharpen your scimitar. For two days, Sacramento will be the red-blooded center of the carnivore universe. The biannual World Butchers’ Challenge (WBC) —aka the “Olympics ofMeat” — is coming to Golden 1 Center on Sept. 2 and 3 for a competition like no other. Exhibiting innovation as well as speed, teams will demonstrate the art of butchery while racing the clock. “We’ll have 16 countries competing all at the same time,” says U.S. team captain Danny Johnson, owner of Taylor’s Market in Sacramento. “It’s like 16 butcher shops on the floor of Golden 1 — and every one of themwill be di‘erent. We all have our own style.” This is meat cutting as a spectator event. In the Sept. 3 main competition, each team of six butchers has three hours and 15

Johnson and Paul Carras, the team’s vice captain and also a Taylor ’s Market butcher, o‘er their advice to help home cooks tackle meat and poultry with confidence.

From left: Paul Carras and Danny Johnson of Taylor's Market in Sacramento show o their butchering skills with a half hog from Rancho Llano Seco

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