I met Brent Young about 2 years ago at Belmont Butchery. Brent amazed me with his creativity. His creations were anywhere from amazing to toxic. Last summer, Brent took off to Brooklyn and was quickly brought on to work at one of Brooklyn’s thriving restaurants- Diner. More recently, the owners opened a butcher shop called Marlow & Daughters and Brent has been able to take his time in Richmond and put it to good use. Brent was kind enough to take some time to answer some questions
Would you mind giving us the story about your cooking journey? How did you get here?
I started cooking in restaurants since high school. It was a little pizza place with a garden out back and we grew our own vegetables, it was great. Then I mistakenly got a liberal arts degree and realized that I was better off cooking than trying to teach. when i wanted to take cooking seriously, I dropped out of my masters program and started working at the Belmont Butchery with Chris Mattera. I was looking at butchering as part of my culinary education, however it has taken off in the past two years and I’m still able to learn new things everyday.
Jalapeno & Cheddar Sausage: Roasted Jalapenos, Cracker Barrel Cheddar, Texas Pete Hot Sauce, and Budweiser. If you don’t like these things, I don’t like you.
I’m actually just waiting to get discovered in the butcher shop. I try to sing and dance as much as possible in the shop, just in case some broadway producer happens to stop by. Recently been doing a lot of Lion King numbers. If that doesn’t work out, I think I’ll keep cutting animals for the next couple years… until i start tap dancing.
Okay, butcher man…where do you think I could get some sweetbreads…. I am feeling brave (not brave to eat them, brave to make them.)