By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

WOOSTER, Ohio — Cattlemen, top chefs, and special guests from around the world gathered in New York City to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) brand.

“It’s amazing the kind of publicity you can get when you wear cowboy hats in New York,” said John Stika, president of CAB, LLC.
On the first evening the group gathered at the Bull & Bear Steakhouse in the Waldorf=Astoria Hotel (which serves CAB) for a media reception. Stika and others were interviewed by Fox Business News and visited with guests from Cooking Light, Family Circle, Redbook, Parents and others.

Day two featured a dinner at the James Beard House, prepared by a team of six world-class chefs. The James Beard House is a renowned “performance space” for visiting chefs; just as musicians have Carnegie Hall, the best of the culinary world have the Beard House.

Michelle Brown, executive chef at Jags Steak & Seafood in West Chester, Ohio, was one of the chefs selected by Scott Popovich, corporate chef for CAB.

“It’s like the Super Bowl for chefs to be invited, and it was probably the biggest honor in 17 years of cooking that I’ve been asked to do,” said Brown, who later recreated her dish at a dinner at Jags.
Popovich, who orchestrated the dinner, had assigned one course of the six-course dinner to each chef. Brown prepared the first course, which was morel-dusted CAB brand natural cap of ribeye with truffle compound butter, shaved black truffle, wild mushroom risotto and caramelized artichoke heart.

During the dinner the producers had an opportunity to educate New Yorkers about cattle production.

“It was a tremendous opportunity to interact and visit with media people,” said cattle producer Bill Davis, of Sidney, Mont. “The people wanted to know about the production end of the business, they wanted to know just what we did and what CAB was.”

Steve Olson, from Hereford, Texas, said he had misconceptions about New York City and the people he met had misconceptions about production agriculture.

“They thought cattle were mistreated in feed lots,” Olson said. “I told them the cattle get three banquet meals a day while they’re there. The weather is bad sometimes, but it is bad on the range, too.”

Both men called the trip a fantastic experience. Davis added “they knew us when we left.”

After Brown left, she recreated her course for a charity dinner at Jags, where she talked about her reasons for using CAB.

“I like the consistency, the quality, the marblization,” she said. “Knowing that each time I open one of my steaks it is going to be quality, it’s going to have great marbling and I know my customer is going to enjoy it.

“We opened six years ago and I tested a lot of different meat companies, a lot of different kind of product, and CAB definitely was the most consistent, so I picked it and have been happy with it ever since.”