Butchers, Belly Fat, and Breaking Addiction with Kevin McCann

Meat it’s whats for dinner! Kevin McCann has a deep infatuation with meat fabrication that started at the Culinary Institute of America. His first day of class with Tom Schneller got him hooked.

After various jobs, including a time with DeBragga and Spitler where he learned what the best restaurants in NYC were ordering for their menus, his career got fully in motion during his apprenticeship at Fleisher's. Having a background in cooking and cutting really allowed Kevin the opportunity to appreciate the bigger picture while training. There was literally as much meat as he could possibly cut, and he was already formulating utilization ideas to complement the vast array of cuts they taught him to isolate.

And by pure dumb luck, Kevin found a co-op of farmers in Madison County, NY that were in the process of opening a butcher shop but didn't have a butcher. He created their entire fresh meat, deli, sausage, and further utilization programs, and they continue to grow and thrive to this day. With that experience now in his belt, and with the confidence of seeing it work in a small city, Kevin and his wife Yeonmo opened McCann's Local Meats in Rochester, NY in 2015. They source their animals from within 60 miles of their shop where it’s all grown hormone, preemptive antibiotic, and steroid free - 100% grass fed beef, pastured pork and poultry. McCann’s also acts as a restaurant and they have a robust soup and sandwich menu, various prepared foods sold by the pound, and offer the option to choose anything from the fresh case to be cooked on site. The power of self-love and self-forgiveness on Kevin's journey

He’s also a member of the U.S. team for the 2020 World Butchers' Challenge taking place in Sacramento, CA! In this conversation, Kevin discusses his radical health transformation, how he overcame the addiction-filled lifestyle of the restaurant industry, and how he balances a terrific family with a terrific career running his own butcher shop.