The Dames of Meat

This is a picture of me (on the right, the one who needs to have her roots done) and Cathy from Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen (the sassy redhead, whose hands smell like pancetta) and we are deliriously happy to tell you that we are in The Washington Post Food section today. Check it out.

We are so blessed and completely blown away that Charcutepalooza has gotten so much attention from people wanting to participate and cure meats at home, sponsors willing to give away products and discounts and trips to France, and the press finding us interesting enough to write about.

A special thanks to Bonnie Benwick, deputy food editor at the Post, who totally looks like Sally Field and when I was terrified and mumbling incoherent responses to all her thoughtful questions, I pretended I was just hanging out with Sally around a kitchen table, eating pasta. I felt better.


Bonnie would probably never say this, but I completely butchered a phone interview with her prior to meeting her at Cathy's house in DC last week. She asked a perfectly insightful question about Twitter and what a powerful medium it was and I said something like, "Blogs posts tend to be very composed. You can hit the delete button, but people are who they are on Twitter. Some people have amazing blogs with great recipes, well-written stories, beautiful photos, but on twitter they grumble and complain and really expose their real selves."

I was just talking. Out of my ass.

Then Bonnie said, "Well, who? Can you give me some examples?"

That's when my tongue swelled up.

"You mean like on the record?. Like naming names?...Um, uh...um..."

It went on like this. Very sad. If this had been a live interview on Good Morning America, I would've been a YouTube sensation by lunch.

But really, Bonnie's article is fantastic because she said something about Charcutepalooza that neither Cathy nor I even considered - that this is "already a prime example of new culinary education where pros don't lead the pack, newbies aren't afraid to join in, and no classroom time is required."

She nailed it. Charcutepalooza is an intimate and immediate way to learn to cook something. Old school techniques in the most cutting edge of classrooms. It's about where we are going, not where we were. How amazing is that? I told you Bonnie is good.

For those of you still not convinced that you should join us, I urge you to learn about our end of the year grand prize, our monthly prizes, our incredible sponsors and the panel of esteemed judges If you want to join us for some titilating chat on Twitter, pull up the hashtag #Charcutepalooza. Something is always happening there.

And at the end of the day, it's not really about the prizes anyway. Whether or not you win the trip to Gascony, if you do the challenges, you'll have at least learned to do some incredible things by the end of the year. Things that will make you feel great, maybe even invincible, and it will not have happened in classroom, but in your own kitchen, with your own hands. That's pretty cool.

Thanks for being here.

xo YM