Mar - Butcher & beast: mastering the art of meat

acknowledgments

to my father, roy: Thank you for giving me the love of food, family, and life. Your unwavering love and support for all my decisions, no matter how you felt, allowed me to make mistakes, learn, grow, and ultimately succeed. I hope that I make you proud, I hope that you love this book, and that you are happy. I love you, Daddy. You are missed every single day.

To my beautiful cousin and business partner Melissa Merrill: I love you beyond words. Thank you for being my biggest fan, my biggest supporter, and my greatest friend. Who would have thought that two girls picking blackberries and secretly getting their ears pierced at the age of eight would turn into a partnership that would see us purchasing a piece of New York history? Your PoPo, your mother, and my father are looking down on us, smiling. Thank you for believing in me and our family.

To my brothers, Conrad and Chad: Thank you for always supporting the insane ideas, for being present at every event, for pushing me harder, and for always reminding me where we come from. Daddy would be so proud to see how close we are today. I love you both beyond words.

To my mother, Nancy: Thank you for giving me the love of fashion, the verve for living life, and the passion for travel and adventure.

To my family, Staci, Holly, Rod, Bekah, Lexi, Sean, Jon, Joe, Coco, Gail, Brandon, Auntie Wendy, Auntie Vi, Uncle Jimmy, Auntie Ruby, Jessica, Nathan, Paul, and the entire Mar, Luke, Lin, and Chow clans: Thank you for raising me, for nurturing me, for feeding my mind, body, and soul. It takes a village to raise a child, and we have raised each other, generation after generation. I love you all.

To my darling Patrick LaFrieda: Thank you for your unwavering support, love, and encouragement, without which I would not be who I am today.

To my amazing assistant Patricia Howard: You have been a rock for me and the keeper of my sanity. Youve been invaluable during the creation of this book and our business. I am so excited to see where your future goes, my dear.

To my writer, partner in crime, and great friend Jamie Feldmar: I am so happy that we found each other for this project. This is truly a labor of love that I am so proud to share with you, and I certainly hope this will not be the last. Thank you for telling the story of me and the Beatrice in the most beautiful words that I could have imagined. I love you, my dear.

To my agent, Alison Fargis: Thank you for believing in me before anyone else knew who I was. For taking a chance on someone whod not yet found her voice, for pounding the pavement with me and for me, for shouting from the rooftops the story of the Beatrice, and for truly believing in the core of who I am, for better or for worse, and for finding a platform for it to sing.

To our photographer, Johnny Miller: You are truly a genius. The art that you have created in this book is more than I could have ever dreamed of. Thank you for stepping into our world, living, eating, breathing, the Beatrice. You truly have created a window into how we eat, drink, live, and love. I am so proud of what we have created together.

To my great friend, my soul sister, and my brilliant stylist, Annebet Duvall: Without your talent, vision, and unwavering support and love I would be in rags. Your vision has taken me on the most beautiful journey, filled with the most beautiful things. I am honored and lucky to have you in my life, and my restaurant. Thank you for your tireless work on this book.

To my publicist, Jesse Gerstein: Thank you for your support, your patience, your enthusiasm, and your unwavering belief in what we do. I am so grateful that Melissa and I found you when we did. Your tireless work has helped pave the way to where we are today.

To creative director and designer Marysarah Quinn: Thank you for your vision, your kindness, your understanding, your sense of humor, and your immense talent. Without your support, this book would not be what it is today. Thank you for understanding the weird, the quirky, the moodily beautiful world that I live in, and helping me to share it with everyone.

To my publisher, Aaron Wehner: Thank you for believing so ardently in our vision, our food, our restaurant, especially when no one else saw how tremendous coloring outside the lines could be.

To my editor, Amanda Englander: Thank you for giving us an opportunity to share our story with the world, and for what it israw, gritty, and darkly beautiful.

To Jana Branson, David Hawk, Kate Tyler, and Stephanie Davis: Thank you for your tireless attention to detail and the promotion of our book. I could not have asked for a better team.

To Chris Tanigawa and Philip Leung: Thank you for your brilliant behind-the-scenes work to make this book as beautiful as it is.

To Justin Conoly and Rebecca Jurkevich: You are an amazing team and together with Johnny and Duncan Burgin, I cant believe we made such amazing magic happen in the kitchen and on the page.

To my managers, Scott Feldman and Ali Wald: Thank you for your work, your support, and your encouragement. You truly understand who I am and what I represent. Thank you for always allowing me to stay true to that.

My chosen family is essential to understanding how I got to where I am today. It takes a village to raise a child and so, too, does it take one to raise a restaurant. Thank you to the people behind the Beatrice Inn, whose work, love, passion, talent, and drive make our restaurant what it is: Nicole Averkiou and Lucero Ramales, you are not only my sous-chefs but also my sisters. Nicole: To have lived through four restaurants with you, to have cooked on several continents with you, to live this life with you, has been my honor. I know that if I needed to bury a body tomorrow, you would rent the car and bring the shovels. You truly are one of the most talented live-fire meat cooks I have ever had the privilege to work with, and you also have one of the biggest hearts I have ever encountered. Lucero: You are my rock. Your quiet, calming nature grounds me. Thank you for always telling it like it is, and being tough as hell. You show us all how its done, and I hope all of our cooks aspire to be as true as you are. My loves, this business and my sanity would cease to exist without either of you.
William Sorvillo, you are one of the most insightful people I have ever met. I wish I was a fraction as cool as you are: charming, good-looking, and you can DJ the hell out of a playlist. I often walk through the dining rooms, and people are at their tables singing and dancing because youve set the tone. Thank you for being my confidant, my advisor, and my family.
Antanas Samkus, I have come to see you as a brother. I love watching you make magic behind the bar with your team, Camilo, Jos, John, and Domingo, especially when the line to get a drink is eight deep. Thank you especially for writing all of the cocktail recipes in this book. Thank you for your fashion and for your friendship. I love you, my brother.
Allison Lee, thank you for being a guiding light, a shoulder to cry on, a person to vent to, and a figure of unwavering support for me and my team.

Mariusz Zurawski, Mishu, you truly are a teddy bear, giving me a hug when I walk in every day. Thank you for treating me, my family, and the Beatrice as your own. There is no one whom I trust more in this business then you, my brother. You have built a beautiful thing to be proud of.
Mohamed Sonogo, I love how much you care about our food and our family. Thank you for being the voice of reason and of authority. There are few with as big a heart as you, my darling.