COLUMBUS, Ohio — On June 26, the Ohio Pork Council is offering the first in a series of events for Ohio chefs. The elite education event titled “Energize Your Menu & Sales with OHPork,” focuses on how restaurants can gain additional value and increased revenue from pork.

Renowned American meat cutter, Kari Underly, is the featured presenter. Underly, the CEO of Range Meat Academy, will spend the morning explaining how to maximize the value of a pork carcass to a gathering of Ohio chefs. The afternoon will feature two roundtables. Participants will hear from Ohio pig farmers and local chefs who feature pork on their menus.

According to Ohio Pork Council Marketing Director, Breanna Barker, the June event is a unique effort for OPC and serves as the initial program promoting the industry. “This is the first event of a series of events that we plan to throw — but this is the first time we’ve thrown a chef education event like this.”

The idea emerged through the pork council’s constant efforts at promoting the industry.

“We try to reach out about pork to as many people as we can,” Barker said. “Since we hadn’t had as much contact with chefs or the restaurant industry, we saw an opportunity that we would love to reach and get more engagement,” Barker added that the event is provided free of charge for participating chefs.

The all-day program will be held at The Ohio State University Meat Lab in Columbus. The cutting demonstration will be held inside a meat lab kept at 40° F, and chefs are encouraged to bring a jacket. 

“The first event will be here in Columbus, but the locations will change based on what venues we can secure,” Barker said. “Since we don’t have many connections in this industry it’s hard to find a location. “The next one will be cooking-based, so we’re looking for a culinary academy somewhere throughout Ohio.”

“We’re starting at the beginning, so this one will be about cutting and making the most out of the half a hog that you buy as a chef, made sense,” Barker said. “From there, we will change topics and bring in new educational speakers to talk about things like the 145 messaging and stuff like that. 

The 145 messaging is the officially acceptable temperature at which cooked pork is safe to serve. That’s the same temperature recommended for serving beef, veal, and lamb, and is 15 degrees cooler than was previously suggested.

The OPC has maintained relationships with Ohio chefs in the past through representation at regional events and competitions designed to promote and educate Ohio chefs about pork and the Ohio pig farmers that raise them with the goal of the participating chefs using and championing pork at their locations. 

“We send a chef to the Midwest Pork Summit every year which is an educational event/ competition and we’ve held chef competitions like Our Taste of Elegance which we did for several years,” Barker said.

Upcoming events may be found on the Ohio Pork Council website: www.ohiopork.org.