Locavore Adventures: One Chef's Slow Food Journey

Chapter 9. Salumeria Biellese

Salumeria Biellese A definition of happiness: to be a restaurant owner with a space to fill. That’s where my fiancée Kim and I found ourselves in 2006, about six months before our wedding, as we looked at the empty space we were already imagining as Tre Piani’s small-plate and wine bar, Tre Bar. Our restaurant had already earned a reputation as a supporter of food that’s “good, clean, and fair.” Now our wine-bar menu had to reflect the same philosophy of authenticity and quality. Besides, if you don’t have a clear idea of what you want to serve, you will probably end up with the wrong equipment and a space that doesn’t work very efficiently. So we had a menu to script, and it was time to hit the road for some serious research. We knew one of our must-haves was a great salumi selection. “Salumi?” you ask. “Aren’t you spelling it wrong? You mean salami, right?” Actually, no. In the United States, we’ve come to call nearly every dried and salted meat salami, although that word really refers to a specific subgroup of cured meats that are usually made of beef or a beef-pork mix.The appropriate term for the complete family of cured-meat products is salumi; and in pursuit of it Kim and I made a thirty-five-mile hop into the heart of Manhattan to visit one of the oldest and greatest salumi businesses in New York, Salumeria Biellese. In 1943 Ugo Buzzio assumed ownership of a small deli and salumeria on the corner of Eighth Avenue and Twenty-eighth Street. The roots of his business can be traced back to the small town of Curino, just outside Biella, an old textile town that lies at the foot of the Alps in northern Italy. Here Ugo learned the art of butchering and salumi making from Mario Fiorio.Working alongside him was Mario’s son Piero; and when Ugo decided to move to New York, Piero soon followed. Eventually, Ugo, his son Marc Buzzio, Sergio Gabrielli, Piero Fiorio, and Ugo’s son-in-law Paul Valetutti established the Salumeria Biellese, a deli, catering, and artisanal salumi shop. Today the company is owned and operated by Marc Buzzio, Paul Valetutti, and Paul’s brother in-law, Fouad Alsharif. In the late 1980s, they also opened a restaurant: Biricchino, at 376 Eighth Avenue. 9  87  Both are located just a few blocks south of Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. Salumi is meat that has been preserved with salt. You’re probably familiar with many of the better-known salumi, such as the many varieties of ham, salami, pepperoni , and soppresatta. Like many time-honored food traditions, salumi making was born of necessity and then developed into an art form. Traditionally, it was a way to deal with a basic problem of meat raising: when you slaughter a pig, you’re left with too much meat to eat at one time. As a way to preserve meat for consumption during the winter months, the process reaches back to ancient Rome. Not only did the Romans enjoyed eating dried meats, but they even wrote laws on how to regulate production. Today, from four-star restaurants to farmers’ markets, supermarkets, agritourismos, and small family homes, southern Europe abounds with thousands of varieties of salumi. Like great cheese, salumi is a natural pairing with wine.This trio goes together well for reasons that are both as obvious and as mysterious as nature itself. Each 88  Locavore Adventures Salumeria Biellese in New York City Photo by Jim Weaver expresses the unique terroir, or taste of the place from where it came. That means that a salumi or a cheese from, say, Italy’s Piedmont region will have the subtle characteristics of that soil and climate. What’s more, each of these ancient foodstuffs owes its depth and personality to the natural artistry of time rather than to hypedup production schedules and emulsifiers. Both wine and cheese are the natural outcome of fermentation, whereas salumi is the natural outcome of salt curing. Kim and I have had great salumi all over southern Europe, where it is part of daily life for many people. We first tasted Iberico ham—the holy grail of ham—in the Las Ramblas market in Barcelona.To make it, special pigs...