Meatopia Madness

If you’re a hard-core carnivore, Meatopia is pretty much as good as it gets. This year, the event will feature an epic number of chefs – 45 to be exact.  The gluttony will take place on Thursday, July 23rd, at Brooklyn Bridge Park.  This is an all-star line-up of culinary talent and meat-inspired dishes, paired with free-flowing beer.  There will be live music, butchering and even ranching seminars.  Yes, really.

Chefs include New York’s own, April Bloomfield (The Spotted Pig) and Michael White (Marea) as well as Sean Brock of Husk in South Carolina and Naomi Pomeroy from Beast in Portland, Oregon and this season’s Top Chef Masters.  And that’s just for starters.  It wouldn’t be Meatopia without some of the country’s best barbecue masters.   If you want to get it on the feast, you can buy your ticket at www.meatopia.org.

We caught up with the founder of Meatopia, Josh Ozersky, to get the scoop on this year’s event and get his take on all things meat.

How do you prepare mentally and physically for such an intense meatfest?
I find that a regimen of roast beef sandwiches, scrapple sliders, and adderall is useful, washed town with gallons of diet iced tea.

What meaty offering are you most excited about?
I’m almost ecstatic over all of my chefs, but I am still trying to convince Ignacio Mattos, the Uruguyan grill-master, to do a whole calf. It’s terrifying though, and not very good. So he might end up doing whole racks of veal ribs and sweetbreads in the Argentine style.

Are there any chefs who are first-timers to the event?   Old-timers?
Well we couldn’t have Meatopia without Seamus Mullen, who has cooked most of the Meatopias since the event started. And I don’t get up in the morning if Joey Campanaro is not somewhere nearby. Scotty Smith and Robbie Richter are like brothers to me, whether manning pits or not, so they’ll be there. But I went wide this year too, and brought in the great meat chefs from outside the city, the ones I met travelling for Time. Guys like the Animal boys from LA, and Naomi Pomeroy and Adam Sappington from Portland, and Chris Hastings from Alabama, and the great Sean Brock. Those guys have me super turned on.

Have you tasted all forty-five chef dishes already?
No. Many have never been served before. But I have faith in my chefs and if the dish they suggest sounded like it might be grody, I nixed it. Is Naomi Pomeroy going to forget how to make beef cheeks? Or is Floyd Cardoz going to lose his ability to cook goat? I don’t see it happening.

Any idea what will be on the menu for the night?
Oh, do I. We’ll be releasing it soon enough….but I can’t give it up on the first date!

Are you cooking, smoking or just hosting?
None of the above. It will be a frenzy of troubleshooting, shmoozing, glad-handing, and problem solving. I need to give my all to make this event a success.

Would you rather have great sex or a great piece
of meat?
It depends on who it’s with! (And what farm.)

If you were a piece of meat, what kind of animal would you be and
what cut?
Prime deckle from Rib No. 5.  We all know that. 

Have you ever gone back for seconds or thirds at a Meatopia station?
I ate like five of Franklin Becker’s country ribs last year. I just couldn’t help myself. Once I’m there I can’t stop….I did it at many stations. It’s true. Maybe this year I will exercise some self-control.

What’s your least favorite piece of meat?
Brisket “flat” or second cut. I could go the rest of my life without eating that. It’s worthless.

Most favorite?
Sizzling, salted lamb fat. No question.

What’s the best single thing you ever put in your mouth?
I don’t know, Danyelle! That’s a tough one. God. I can’t answer it. But among the nominees might be Michel Rostang’s epigram of lamb, Eric Ripert’s escolar with brown butter miso, Michael White’s fried testa, the slider at the now-defunct White Diamond of Linden, the pastrami burnt ends at RUB, the egg with the caviar at Jean Georges, White’s pigs in blankets with alto puff pastry….God, I don’t know!

What’s your ideal dessert to end the evening or is there no room at all?
Pudding! Always pudding! Kozy-Shack Chocolate pudding. Because, as the man says, “if you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?”