Natural Gourmet Institute Partners With Dickson's Farmstand Meats To Offer Sustainable Meat Certificate Program

Leading health-supportive culinary school partners with NYC’s premier whole-animal butcher for an innovative new class

New York, NY (PRWEB) - Natural Gourmet Institute, the leader in health-supportive culinary education, is partnering with Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, New York City’s premier locally-sourced butcher, to offer a Sustainable Meat Certificate Program this spring. Led by industry experts, the course is designed to give students hands-on experience in the burgeoning fields of ethical meat sourcing and artisanal meat products.

The Sustainable Meat Certificate Program will consist of a two-day farm visit and eight days of hands-on training at Dickson’s Farmstand Meats’ Chelsea Market facility. The program will provide students with a thorough understanding of grass-fed beef and pastured pork farming. “Since Dr. Annemarie Colbin founded the school in 1977, Natural Gourmet Institute has been pushing culinary boundaries,” says Anthony Fassio, CEO of Natural Gourmet Institute. “With the launch of the Sustainable Meat course, we’re encouraging and preparing our students to be leaders in the realms of ethical meat production, local agriculture promotion, and sustainable ingredient sourcing.”

In the butchery portion of the course, students will learn fundamental knife skills, whole animal breakdown, and specialty cut preparation. Students will also tackle the production of value-added products like charcuterie, paté and sausages. The program will demonstrate how to raise animals with integrity, how animals fit into the ecology of the farm and the environment as a whole, and how animal proteins fit into human health and diet.

Seamus Mullen, famed New York City chef and friend of the institute, says, "This is a great opportunity to learn directly from the experts at NGI and one of the best butcher shops in town. Like most chefs, I firmly believe in the importance of the quality and provenance of our ingredients, including our meats – the more we understand how responsibly-raised meats can positively affect our environment and our health, the more we can effect change as consumers. The tide is slowly but surely turning against factory-farming and industrial foods, thanks to more and more programs like these."

Click here to learn more about the course.

Farm Stay: March 19 – 20, 2015 Dickson’s Farmstand Meats: March 23 – 27; March 30 – April 1, 2015.

About Natural Gourmet Institute

Founded in 1977 by Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D., Natural Gourmet Institute (NGI) is the leader in health-supportive culinary education. Natural Gourmet Institute’s Chef’s Training Program is a comprehensive and professional program that trains students to meet the growing demand for culinary professionals who are able to make the connection between food and health. NGI’s interactive and dynamic Certificate Programs are designed to give students first-hand experience and expertise in the areas of Writing for Food Media, Sustainable Meat, Culinary Tours, Culinary Nutrition, Sustainable Farming, and Food Entrepreneurship. Natural Gourmet Institute also offers public intensives, hands-on instruction, demonstrations and lectures for the healthy cooking enthusiast. On Friday night, the school is transformed into an intimate dining room, where Chef’s Training Program students and instructors prepare a three-course vegetarian Friday Night Dinner that is innovative, delicious and beautifully presented. http://www.naturalgourmetinstitute.com

About Dickson’s Farmstand Meats

Dickson's Farmstand is a neighborhood butcher shop in Chelsea Market offering artisanal meats and house-made charcuterie. Their beef, pork, lamb, and poultry are sourced from small, family farms in upstate New York that are carefully handpicked for their humanely-raised, high-quality animals. Dickson’s strives to use every part of every animal - from nose to tail. All of their meat is raised without added hormones, prophylactic antibiotics, or animal by-products - and is always 100% feedlot/CAFO free.