Meat the chef

COLIN HOLT opened his high-concept butchery four months ago but he isn't a butcher. He's a chef, who's worked in Sydney's finest kitchens from Chez Oz in the '80s to Claude's and Bistro Moncur.

In 1995, he opened his own restaurant, Bistro Pave, picked up two chef's hats in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide and ran it for four years. He bowed out of fine dining to manage a string of pub kitchens for the Icon company.

Based in Five Dock, the former chef would cruise the local Italian butcheries and wonder why there weren't more like these across Sydney. He was also smitten by the spontaneous abundance of nearby Ranieri's Continental Delicatessen. That's when he got the idea for Hudson Meats.

There is no Hudson, it's just a name Holt dreamt up, much like the notion of assembling cookbooks, couscous, cheeses and easy-carve lamb legs in one shop. He also dreamt up the handsome warehouse space with the bulbous ponytail palm near the entrance, dark shelves for dry goods and a stainless steel counter for the cash registers.

Blackboards above the meat and charcuterie cabinets look like a classic bistro menu. The Christmas hams are cooked by Kaczanowski. The aged beef is from Cargill and Jim Graham; both finish their black angus on grain. Grass-feed beef comes sporadically from Sarah Clay at Tara Springs, who phones Holt when she is ready to kill another beast.

Holt is a novice to the cut and thrust of butchering and has employed two full-time, trained butchers who gently mock him while they run the band saw. Holt's role is much like a head chef: he serves, writes recipes and organises the suppliers.

The banter rings out over a background of African groove music as people come in, sometimes just to window shop. A young chef type wanders around gathering Italian Garofalo buffalo mozzarella, Lescure butter, Meredith Dairy feta and Spanish jamon.

Restaurants run the length of Crown Street and the area is a focus for architecture, advertising and public relations firms. Blokes in black who appear to fit the bill come in to buy rib-eye and oyster blade fillet. Women who look as if they've dropped off the kids at school are here for organic Burrawong chooks and Jonathan's sausages from Melbourne, including the toulouse.

Straight meat cuts sell on the weekend. Value-added is big during the week: ready to cook options such as butterfly quail with rosemary, tomatoes and garlic or chicken breasts stuffed with prosciutto, celery and French tarragon are based on Holt's recipes. The cafe de Paris butter is Damien Pignolet's recipe, which Holt would have made a thousand times at Bistro Moncur.

High concept doesn't mean high prices, however. Holt keeps expensive and cheaper versions of everything, from pasta (Rustichella and Garofalo) and Italian rice (Enoteca Silena and Dragoni) to butter (Lescure and Lurpak), and his meat prices are keener than some. Holt says: "I didn't want to have any attitude, in the staff or in the stock."

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/12/17/1197740159015.html