On today’s installment of The Main Course, Patrick Martins is covering cooking and sourcing with Union Square Café’s Executive Chef Carmen Quagliata and Joseph Hubbard, sustainable lamb and goat farmer. Hear about Carmen’s affinity for whole animal butchery, and how the quest for better ingredients can sometimes hurt a restaurants bottom line. How has dining in New York City changed since Carmen’s start at Union Square Café, and how has the dining experience altered the restaurant’s menu? Find out if Department of Health regulations hinder burgeoning cured meat traditions in the kitchen. Joseph explains how he works with restaurant’s to provide animals of different qualities depending on chefs’ recipes. Find out how ranchers and farmers can maintain their land by raising a wide variety of livestock! This program has been sponsored by Cain Vineyard & Winery.

“The challenge over the years is to make better food with better ingredients, while keeping our food costs the same.” [32:10]

“I’ve learned more about lamb from the people who raise them than butchering and eating it myself.” [33:15]

— Carmen Quagliata on The Main Course

“Small producers’ prices are affected by the imports, because they can import lamb cheaper than we can sell them.” [38:00]

— Joseph Hubbard on The Main Course