LONDON - On the east side of London’s diverse range of stores and restaurants, there’s a commercial kitchen providing a cultural experience difficult to replicate in this part of the province.
“As a kid I was tugging on my mom’s apron” says Carmine Ianni-Alice. “I was always interested in how she was preparing breads, pastries, lasagnas, or Italian sausage, it's why my sister and I opened the store.”
Carmine and his sister Angelina are the proud owners of C’Angelina Meat Catering, a catering company where all the dishes are Italian inspired.
“Our goal is to MEAT your needs”, says Angelina Ianni-Alice. “From porchetta, to lasagnas, meat pies, everything we make is from simple, fresh ingredients.”
Besides the home cooked meals available, Carmine says what really sets C’Angelina’s apart is that they also offer artisan sausage workshops and meat cutting demonstrations.
“From farm to table we want people to see how their food gets to that plate.”
On this day students from the St. Joseph High School hospitality program out of St. Thomas, are learning how to break down an entire pig.
“This is a 10 out of 10 for our students,” says Kent Cherevaty, Culinary Instructor at St. Joseph High School. “For them to see the whole process from beginning to end, where their food comes from and seeing the different cuts it's a great learning experience.”
This field trip is one students won’t soon forget, as they not only learned how to make sausage, but also how much meat comes out of just one pig.
“Pork is so versatile,” said student John Crissan-Diaz.
According to John, he has a new appreciation for how pork is produced.
“The way farmers raise pork, they do it in a way that it is clean, it’s a great food raised with care so that people will benefit.”
Student Zoee Epple said the meat cutting demon was an extremely valuable experience.
“This showed us just how pork is really one of the best meats,” says Zoee. “We learned that you could get so many different types of cuts from different parts of the animal, I learned how to wrap the meat which was really cool.”
By the end of the day the students will have learned how to cut up pork chops and make sausage - life skills Carmine says they could never get in a classroom situation.
“Seeing the enthusiasm from students gives me a great sense of joy, I’m happy to teach them.”
It’s a life lesson where Carmine isn’t just teaching knife skills, but where he's curating and guiding the next generation of culinary experts.
Watch highlights and the interviews from this meat cutting demonstration here on Ontario Pork News.
Source : Ontario Pork