Talkin' Charcuterie With Austin Chef Lawrence Kocurek

This story is part of the Food Republic Butchering and Charcuterie Series, which will run through the spring.

We put so much faith in chefs these days that we're willing to shell out $75, $100, $150 per person on dinner at the better restaurants out there on a regular basis. It'd be nice to think that the chefs preparing these meals know every ingredient intimately, but how many know how to butcher a whole animal, for instance? 

Lawrence Kocurek does, and this Austin chef puts this knowledge to use for diners at Trace in the W Austin Hotel, where for the past year-plus, the menu has featured meats coming from all parts of animals, as well as responsibly sourced vegetables and other ingredients. As he tells us in this interview, he learned how to butcher animals growing up in a Czech household, then would learn to put his skills to use curing meats for charcuterie. He's even got a hobby raising snails.

Here, Kocurek tells us how he transitioned from New York City chef to hopeful small business owner to the man giving Trace's name added meaning in his role as executive chef in the alluring Austin dining room. 

What made you want to give up your dream of owning a charcuterie business to go back to the kitchen?

We were running into a lot of hurdles with the USDA [the United States Department of Agriculture]. My wife and I wanted to open up a wholesale shop in Austin, but the more we got into it we found out the hoops we had to jump through as a small-time producer for the USDA was something that we just didn't couldn't do it. 

So what happened next?

We knocked our heads around for about three months and finally made the decision to go back to the fields we were in previously. My wife's a somm. She's the somm at Jeffrey's here in Austin. So it's easy for us to transition back into being in restaurants. That was nice that we already had that background.

Did you go into Trace saying that you wanted to incorporate charcuterie into the kitchen?

Absolutely. That was something brought up during the interview process. Trends come and go, but charcuterie is a word people don't shy away from anymore. Now it is in a lot of restaurants, with chefs adding it as a way to use byproduct.

What about charcuterie appealed to you?

Sausage-making uses every part of the animal, especially the Polish and Czech/German as well as the Italian and Spanish style. It was sort of necessity for these cultures to be able to use everything and not waste it, and I liked that aspect of it. I wouldn't say I'm a food historian at all, but I'm a food history buff, and I like to know how these chefs used everything, because back then you didn't throw stuff away. That's what charcuteire is: You turn something that people would consider inedible into something approachable.

Do you have a dedicated space at Trace for it?

We have a butcher and when I got here I trained him on the charcuterie I'd done. He was a new butcher for us, somebody who was just promoted to butcher, but he picked it up quick — he had to. Doing whole and half hogs on a regular basis is really good for a butcher. Most chefs don't do that: there's so much waste, but if you know how to use it, you can make stuff out of everthing. It's good to have this dedicated spot in the kitchen where the charcuterie is made. The sausgae stuffer is there, the grinder. Everthing's in that one spot.

How did you learn to butcher?

Both sides of my family are Czech. My [uncle] was a full-time butcher from age 20 to age 60. I've always been around it. It's almost an osmosis thing: I wasn't aware of really knowing how to do it, but when I started geting interested in charcuterie in 2005, that's when I was like, I remember how to do this. Whereas most chefs, it's kind of trial and error: they call it butchery for a reason. I didn't realize how much I knew about the anatomy of pigs. I grew up hunting, dressing. It was always present in my life. Being able to break down pigs is a trade that does definitely take practice. 

When I interviewed you onstage last year at the Food Republic Interview Lounge at the W Austin during Austin Food and Wine Festival, you schooled me on snails, another of your passions. How'd you get into escargot?

My wife and I were kicking the idea around for about two years to get into that as a business as well. The snails we were raising multiplied so fast that we thought it could be viable. We don't have a lot of foraging opportunities in Texas. I forage for wild pineapple sage and rosemary flowers and things like that in spring, but snails are readily available all the time. We started collecting snails and then figured out how to do things. I probably know more about snails than any non-scientist should, but its' definitely something you have to research to know which ones are safe. It's a cool little side hobby, and I've had the oppornunity to do some specials [at Trace].

How do you know which ones are safe?

I was just Googling edible snails in the United States and X would pop up. There are snails that you're not supposed to eat because they carry certain bacteria.

Okay, last question and off topic, but sinceyou've spent a lot of time living in both cities, what's better about Austin vs. NYC and vice versa?

There's a lot of New York license plates down here right now, so there's a bit of overlap of people coming and going. For me, the best thing about it is the housing situation, having lived in Manhattan where we paid $2100 for our 550 square foot efficiency. Sure, we were living on the island, but it was very hard. Here, I own my own house and my mortgage is $1400, so that's a big differnece. We are a touch behind on some of the food trends but there's a lot of progressive chefs —myself included — that try to keep that in the forefront and push the issue from local chefs getting their own products to curing their own meats, making crème fraîche...

As far as what I miss about Manhattan, it is that liveliness and being able to jump on the subway and go wherever you want and not have to sit in traffic. That was also my time to read, on the subway. I don't really read now. That's something I miss, the way a larger city truly feels like it has a heartbeat and a pulse. Austin definitely has a heartbeat but it's not that vibrant city that runs 24/7 the way Manhattan does.

Trace Restaurant at W Austin, 200 Lovaca St., Austin, TX 78701, 512.542.3660, traceaustin.com