Butchers: New Rock Stars of Culinary World

Aug. 14, 2009— -- A new generation of butchers is cropping up in kitchens across the country. Wielding the same knives and saws as their traditional counterparts, these younger butchers also use their tattooed, muscled forearms to break down beef, lamb and pig.

It's such a primal, dangerous act that some have started calling butchering "hot."

"I'm sweating ... it's definitely hard work. Especially if you do it the old-fashioned way ... with a cleaver and a handsaw, it's a lot of work," said Seamus Mullen, chef at Boqueria, a New York City restaurant.

But, as first reported by New York Magazine and the New York Times, that raw appeal has led some to call butchers sex symbols.

"I would definitely not consider myself a sex symbol," said Ryan Skeen, executive chef at Allen and Delancy in New York City. "If you would see me at the end of a service, I definitely don't think anyone would consider me a sex symbol."

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"I think more people would be grossed out by someone cutting up an animal, a carcass, than be aroused by it," Mullen said.

But Josh Ozersky, national restaurant editor at CitySearch.com and a self-professed meat guru, said that people have a gut reaction that draws them to the gore, the blood and the violence of butchering.

"Let's face it, there's something very erotic about seeing whole animal carcasses cut up," said Ozersky.

The popularity of training to be a butcher started to fade in the 1960s when pre-cut meats arrived in grocery stores. Butchers were relegated to the back of the supermarket -- often just slicing bologna.

But now, butchers have emerged as the rock stars in the culinary world. With their faces plastered in magazine spreads and their names on meat products, the once little known group is gaining fame and, even, groupies.