Chefs Hosea Rosenberg And Brendan McHale Collaborate For An 'East Meats West' Dining Event At New York's The Eddy

If you haven't been to the charming East Village restaurant The Eddy, there has never been a better opportunity to check it out than Oct. 4. Chef Hosea Rosenberg, Top Chef winner and owner of Blackbelly in Boulder, is traveling to New York City to collaborate on a five-course tasting menu with chef Brendan McHale, chef/owner of The Eddy. The menu will highlight seasonal specialties from their respective regions.

Those unfamiliar with Blackbelly need to know that it's a carnivore's dream. The compound — part restaurant, part marketplace — features a whole-animal butchery program built around animals that are raised in partnership with local ranchers and farmers.

The Eddy will be offering a taste of these Colorado proteins (brought by Rosenberg himself), including Blackbelly's house-made charcuterie and edible beef tallow candles. Both chefs will feature sustainably sourced seafood dishes — for which The Eddy is known — utilizing seasonal produce from the Catskill Mountains.

The Eddy's bar will also pour signature cocktails and serve some of Rosenberg's favorite craft beers from Colorado. Proceeds from the night will go to There With Care, a Colorado-based non-profit that provides "services to families and children during the critical phase of a medical crisis," according to its website. Later this year, McHale plans to travel west to cook with Rosenberg in the Blackbelly kitchen. 

The Daily Meal had the opportunity to chat with the two talented chefs, and here's what they had to say about the special dining event, their culinary expertise, and working with each other.

The Daily Meal: I've been to The Eddy once and absolutely loved it. How will the menu on Oct. 4 differ from a normal night at the restaurant? 
Brendan McHale:
Hosea [Rosenberg] is heavily carnivorous, so that will definitely play a big part in the menu. True to our name, we'll bring some oceanic elements in to create a cool intersection of both restaurants.

What do you enjoy about collaborating with another chef? How do you and Hosea's skills complement one another? 
It's always fun to work with someone you typically don't get to — you get to see one of your peer's style of cooking and how it's similar and different from yours. This is truly a collaborative effort, and it's inspiring.

We don't typically get into serious butchery, so it's definitely cool to see that element up close. Working with someone new and different can allow things to happen organically that might not ever happen if just me and my team in our kitchen.

What was your inspiration when opening Blackbelly?
Hosea Rosenberg: Transparency. Creating relationships with purveyors that benefit our guests directly. We get whole animals from ranchers who have become our friends and they are people we trust. The animals we receive are raised in their natural surroundings under optimal conditions that result in unparalleled quality meat. The restaurant is named Blackbelly, after a heritage breed of lamb. We were inspired by what is endemic to our local region and our best culinary resource. 

How did you get into whole animal butchery?
As a serious chef you learn and gravitate toward certain techniques. This became a passion and focal point that worked with our concept. We also realized there was an opening for this specialty in our local market. Believe it or not, it's rare even here in Colorado to find anyone doing classic whole-animal butchery. 

What dishes and surprises are you bringing with you to The Eddy?
In addition to influences we will bring from our menu at Blackbelly, we will provide a sampling of our house-made charcuterie. The provisions sold at Blackbelly include dry-fermented salami and European-style whole cured muscles (like prosciutto and copa).

All of our charcuterie comes from meat we receive from our local ranchers. With bread service we will serve our edible beef tallow candles. The "wax" is 100 percent beef tallow seasoned with rosemary and garlic. They are produced from the fats we have left over from butchering our local pasteurized cows from our friends at Carter Country Beef. So we know how the cows were treated and what they ate. This ties into how we make full use of everything we work with in-house for the restaurant and what is available for retail in the market.

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