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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
A TASTE FOR THE WHOLE BEAST E
Megan Cole Reporting
Oak Bay News reporter Megan Cole finds a food cure that whets Oak Bay’s appetite
arly morning hours are often reserved for farmers and bakers, but before the doors are unlocked and eager customers approach the counters of Oak Bay Avenue’s The Whole Beast, owners Cory Pelan and Geoff Pinch are busy mixing and stuffing sausages and preparing pork to be dried and cured. After joining forces over their combined love of the traditional European methods of preserving meat, Pelan and Pinch opened The Whole Beast in the summer of 2011. “In hindsight I wonder to this day how our businesses would have turned out, or where we would be, if we had opened our shops separately,” said Pinch. “One of us would have gone down,” Pelan said with a laugh. Even though Pelan and Pinch had similar interests and were both coming up with plans of opening their own individual shops highlighting their cured and smoked meat products, it wasn’t until the two were introduced by a mutual friend that they decided to join forces. “We both had the same kind of idea. It just made sense to combine and we doubled our product lines immediately,” said Pelan. The pair – both chefs – came to their love of cured and smoked meats through different paths. For Pinch, his interest in sausages and curing began when he was growing up on a farm, although he may not have known it at the time. “Back at the farm we made lamb sausage and as a chef in kitchens, you used to get larger cuts of leg and we would try to use up the trim by making sausage,” he said. It wasn’t until he was between restaurants, going to school to learn cabinetry, that Pinch really became immersed in the world of cured and smoked meats. As a loyal customer of J N and Z Deli, located on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive, he decided to ask the owners to take him on “bottom dollar” just so he could learn how the products are prepared and the business is run. PLEASE SEE: From farm to table, Page A5
Sharon Tiffin/News Staff
From household staples like bacon to regional favourites such as chorizo, Whole Beast owners Cory Pelan, left, and Geoff Pinch paired up to bring Europeaninspired meats to the region.
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