We Need More Sausage Makers and Fewer Investment Banker Cupcake Makers
I know I'm probably the only person in the world who read the Sunday New York Times stories on cupcake-making career-changers and the closing of Kurowycky, a beloved East Village butcher, and connected the two pieces in any way, but bear with me for a moment.
Serious Eaters, of course, had reported Kurowycky's closing well before it was in the Times, and I loved the outpouring of grief and rage I saw on the thread. But I was struck after reading the two stories back to back (though they were in different sections) that we live in a weird world that glorifies seemingly infinite numbers of cupcake bakeries owned by investment bankers and ignores a great, and I mean great, Polish-Ukrainian butcher.
Do we need more cupcake "concepts" coming to a mall near you while true food artisans like the Kurowycky family are forced for financial reasons to close up shop?
Don't get me wrong. I like a good cupcake as much as the next fella (though most cupcakes are too sweet, too dry, and lack flavor), but we as a culture seem all too willing to cast our lot with sweet fashion while simultaneously letting go of important things like artisanal sausage makers of all stripe, whether they're Italian or French or Polish-Ukrainian.
Many years ago I had lunch with Heritage Meats co-founder Patrick Martin, who was at the time the head of Slow Food USA. I told him then that if Slow Food wanted to do something really helpful it could adopt as its principal cause in the United States the saving of family-run artisanal food shops threatened with extinction, be they latticini or sausage makers or bread bakers. Those are the places in our culture worth saving, worth promoting, and worth calling to our attention.
That must have been five years ago, and every time I read about things like the proliferation of designer cupcake shops, I think of that conversation. Not much has changed. Slow Food USA still feels like an organization looking for an actionable cause to get behind as artisanal food makers continue to fall by the wayside, the victims of changing tastes, economic conditions, and an inability to adapt. We need more investment bankers becoming butchers and sausage makers. I think we have enough cupcake bakers in this country.
Every time we lose a sausage maker, a bread baker, or a mozzarella maker, we lose a little piece of our food heart and soul, our gustatory generosity of spirit. Those are precious commodities in our culture, and we should do everything we can to preserve them.
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12 Comments:
I couldn't agree with you more. Of course, I cannot remember when I last ate a cupcake . . . it's been a year or two. But then, in all fairness, I do not generally care for sweets.
On the other hand, I love good meat, good cheese and professionally made breads.
Where I live in Maryland I can find dozens of "sweets" shops, but have much difficulty finding a good butcher shop or delicatessen.
And I don't care how big or fancy a supermarket may be (take Wegman's for example), they do not compare with the small independent meat and cheese purveyors.
You're comments on the subject are, in my opinion, right on!
DocChuck at 8:51AM on 06/04/07
One year ago I left a 30 year career as a dress designer , because I wanted to pursue my love of baking. I took classes, gained 10 lbs., and thought I would be the next cupcake maven. After much research, and a trip back to reality, I discovered there were too many of me out there. Now I'm sorry I didn't take sausage making!!
Mich23 at 9:13AM on 06/04/07
just last night at dinner w/ my parents and my boyfriend we were discussing how both of our grandparents used to grind their own sausages at home (my grandma got the recipe from her local sausage maker). i'm surprised at how quickly that has been lost in only 2 generations. when i was a kid we didn't do any eating out. we picked our own berries and apples, and canned things regularly, but that was about it. i'm a sad city slicker now, and on occasion i do hit up the cupcake boutiques when there's not time to bake my own.
j at 10:42AM on 06/04/07
Being a savory more than sweet person & a huge fan of any encased meats, I totally agree! There are too many cupcake shops. I'm sorry Mich23 didn't get to fulfill their dream, but the market is just saturated. We need more sausage makers.
gwenpentland at 12:01PM on 06/04/07
Here Here!
I don't think people realize how close we are to losing a lot of our food traditions in this country. I hope to pass on the traditions in my family to my kids and a love of home made foods.
NTSCBlogdotcom at 12:14PM on 06/04/07
I have to wonder how much of this phenomenon is due to the fact that it's a lot harder to make a sausage/butcher an animal than it is to bake a cupcake (at least one of the too sweet, too dry ilk). When so many people today barely even cook anything, maybe all those investment bankers-cum-cupcake bakers just think it's beyond them to learn more complicated culinary skills. Which is hogwash, I know, but this culture is real fond of taking the easy way out of everything...
msmla at 1:54PM on 06/04/07
Another reflection of the WASPification, gentrification and changing tastes of Manhattan. Ed really nailed the juxtaposition of opening/closing trends here.
As you lose the old neighborhoods to young affluent professionals who can afford redeveloped areas, you lose a taste for traditional foods like this. Meat, cheese and bread are no longer in fashion. It's a salad, cottage cheese and baked sinless chicken breast world... and as Ed pointed out there is simply more demand for cupcakes and mochafrapachinohalfcafvanila lattes, or whatever they sell at that place which shall remain nameless.
blech... it's a cruel and twisted world.
(musical sidenote on a similar tip: still morning the closing of Tonic)
Abe Froman at 2:01PM on 06/04/07
In a perfect world, someone would open a joint that featured kielbasa and killer cupcakes.
fileunderyummy at 2:40PM on 06/04/07
I not only agree, I'm going to do something about it.....as I prepare to leave my current position at a food company and open a specialty grocery store, I can;t wait to be able to support the local farmers and encourage them to not only raise heritage animals, but to DO something with them....
there is no reason why we can't fatten pigs on acorns and chestrnuts in the US, and make comparable quality proscuitto's as the good stuff we can't even import from Italy.....
anyone who wants to sell me domestic, artisinal cured meats, post your em-mail and I'll get in touch!
Seriouspoorcook at 2:51PM on 06/04/07
"In a perfect world, someone would open a joint that featured kielbasa and killer cupcakes."
or ham cupcakes with kielbasa icing?
Abe Froman at 3:51PM on 06/04/07
"In a perfect world, someone would open a joint that featured kielbasa and killer cupcakes."
I'm not sure about kielbasa and cupcakes, but someone did open Burgers & Cupcakes on W. 23rd St. A friend and I sampled 2 different cupcakes -- both were no better than a 2 out of 10. The burgers were on offer for $2 a burger (cheaper than the cupcakes, actually) but I couldn't think of any reason to actually try one.
I'm not sure who's behind this place but I have my doubts as to it being a mom & pop shop.
akash_g at 3:10AM on 06/05/07
I lament the closing of Kurowycky, but I will truly be devastated if the same fate befalls the East Village Meat Market, otherwise known as Baczynsky, on Second Avenue between 8th and 9th... and the parallel applies, as it is only a couple of doors down from the useless Max Brenner, purveyor of not-good chocolate (a notion I hardly knew existed).
East Village Meat Market is a great establishment, with house-cured bacon to rival anyone's, and many other great prepared meats and sausages, as well as being a fine neighborhood butcher shop. Long may it smoke.
danlevy at 6:32PM on 06/05/07