Checkoff Trains Asian Chefs on Using Chuck and Round

Seven leading chefs recently returned to their Asian restaurants armed with checkoff-funded information to help them profit form underutilized beef cuts purchased from the United States.

The chefs came to Texas and California for a week-long program on underutilized cuts created by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) and the Texas Beef Council (TBC). The objective was to encourage the chefs to add chuck and round cuts to their menus by teaching them to prepare these meats.

In the last five years, the value of U.S. chuck and round cuts have decreased greatly, while the value of middle meat cuts like T-bones and ribeyes have increased. Building foreign demand for these end meats will help raise the value for those end meats that make up 51 percent of the carcass.

U.S. chuck and round cuts compete well from a pricing standpoint and have a taste advantage over other competing countries, said Joel Haggard, vice president of the Asia Pacific for USMEF.

"We selected these chefs for their leadership in their respective cities," Haggard said. "If we sell each of them on using U.S. chuck and round cuts on their menus, they will influence their colleges and we will see more underutilized cuts on Asian menus."

The chefs began the week-long training in the Texas Panhandle where they learned about the U.S. beef production system. Visits were made to a working cattle operation, Tulia Feedyard in Tulia, Texas, and the IBP packing plant in Amarillo.

The chefs then traveled to Dallas for intensive programs on menu applications of underutilized cuts with some of Texas' leading chefs as instructors. The Texas chefs included Peter Rosenberg of Kingwood, Jay McCarthy of San Antonio, Matt Martinez of Dallas, Tom Welther of Dallas, and Michael Thomson of Fort Worth.

The group completed the training by traveling to California's Napa Valley for two days of hands-on cooking at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. The curriculum for this training was developed with beef checkoff dollars by the California Beef council. It included ideas using chuck and round cuts in Mediterranean and Mexican cuisines. These classes offered the chefs options for using beef in novel theme ideas for buffets and banquets.

Based on the week long training, one Asian chef said he had a different perspective on the total carcass usage of U.S. beef.

"This trip gave me an understanding of how Americans develop delicious methods to cook different cuts of beef that are not familiar to us," said Chef Perry Yuen of Hong Kong's Island Shangri-La Restaurant. "When we see ways to use the strange cuts, and combine it with knowledge of how Americans raise their cattle, it gives us confidence that the U.S. beef cuts we select are of good quality."

The majority of U.S. beef sold to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taiwan is consumed in foodservice. The United States currently is the second largest supplier of beef to Hong Kong and Shanghai, behind China, and the second largest supplier to Taiwan behind Australia.

"If we can get leading Asian chefs to expand their menus with underutilized cuts, we can improve our position in the Asian markets," Haggard said. "This Asian chefs' training conducted with beef checkoff dollars was a good step in that direction."