Events and dinners using goat meat in London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Melbourne and Trinidad and Tobago
- London launch night at Brigade Bar + Kitchen with Pete Denhart, Gizzi Erskine, Calum Franklin and Karan Gokani
- International chef residencies at Carousel, London from New York, Melbourne and Belgium
- Dinners and events in the UK including London, Newcastle and Cornwall
- International events across the world
Goatober, the month-long goat meat celebration held every year in October, has become an international food festival bringing together dairies, farmers, NGOs and individuals who are passionate about ending food waste in the goat dairy system. This October, there are events and dinners all over the world with one aim: put more goat meat on the menu and put all male goats born into the dairy system into the food system.
James Whetlor, founder of Cabrito Goat Meat and International Director of Goatober says, “Goatober spreads the word that goat meat is delicious, ethical and sustainable. The hope is to move goat meat into the mainstream with the goal that all billy goats born into the dairy system, anywhere in the world, will go into the food system, rather than being wasted. Goatober now has events in the UK, USA, Europe, Australia and the Caribbean. There is also interest from chefs in India and Brazil to get involved. It’s amazing and hugely satisfying to see what can happen when dairies, suppliers and chefs work together to try and solve the food waste issue in this part of food system.”
Goatober London launch night at Brigade Bar + Kitchen on 1 October
On 1 October, four chefs will work together to create a goat meat menu at Brigade, a social enterprise restaurant set in a Grade II listed, former fire station on Tooley Street, London. Joining Brigade’s Head Chef Pete Denhart to each cook a course is chef and food writer Gizzi Erksine; executive head chef of The Holborn Dining Room Calum Franklin and Karan Gokani, director of Sri Lankan restaurant Hoppers. This special one night only event is £65 per person and includes a charity donation to Beyond Food Foundation.
Central to Brigade’s ethos is the idea of ‘good food doing good’. Through its partnership with Beyond Food Foundation, Brigade’s chefs work with members of the local community, using food as a catalyst to break the cycle of homelessness by helping vulnerable adults in London who have been at risk of, or experienced homelessness into meaningful and sustainable employment in the hospitality sector. Together, Brigade and Beyond Food have trained hundreds of apprentices into jobs and given thousands of homeless people new skills and their current cohort of apprentices – who are undertaking a two-year, fully qualified training programme at Brigade – will work alongside the chefs on the night of the London launch. www.thebrigade.co.uk
Pete Denhart, Head Chef at Brigade, commented: “Brigade’s menu centres on the best locally and sustainably sourced produce, cooked over woodfire and chargrill, so goat meat fits very naturally into that approach and we’re big fans of it. Plus, by buying in whole billy goats, butchering them in house and cooking a range of different dishes, we’re providing vital skills to our team. Being involved with events such as the Goatober London launch and having the opportunity to work alongside well-known chefs such as Gizzi, Calum and Karan is hugely inspirational and beneficial for our apprentices.”
Goatober at Carousel, London
For three weeks in October three international chefs will take up residency at Carousel showcasing how they cook goat meat in New York, Australia and Belgium, respectively. The open kitchen at Carousel in Marylebone, London, is home to an ever-changing line-up of talented chefs from around the world who share the same philosophy of amazing cooking, friendly service, a relaxed environment and a shared experience from one table to the next.
8-13 October at Carousel, London
TJ Steele, chef owner of Claro, Brooklyn, New York was born into an Italian family in New Jersey where he grew up cooking next to his mother and grandmother. He attended The Culinary Institute of America and moved to New York City in 2002. Within three years, at the age of 25, he was made Executive Sous Chef at Danny Meyer’s landmark, award-winning Union Square Cafe. In 2012, TJ went to Oaxaca, Mexico to study, eat, and travel in the hopes of marrying his love of seasonal, farm-to-table cooking, with his love of Mexican gastronomy. In the summer of 2017, he opened Claro, a Oaxacan influenced restaurant in Gowanus, Brooklyn with an emphasis on seasonal cooking using corn, barbacoa, consommé and mezcal. Steele makes everything by hand, including the cheeses, chorizo and moles and masa. He is planting corn on his land in Oaxaca as well as working directly with Oaxacan farmers to source and import non-GMO heirloom corn.
Since opening, Steele has been awarded a Michelin star for Claro, named StarChefs Rising Star Chef and the reader’s choice winner for Eater Chef of the Year as well as Chef to Watch by Plate Magazine. The New York Times listed Claro as one of its top 10 restaurants of the year.
15-20 October at Carousel, London
Jesse Gerner, chef owner of a group of restaurants in Melbourne, Australia draws from a Spanish culinary influence after an inspiring six-month European road trip. Working in London, Jesse worked at Moro and River Café and immediately fell in love with Spanish and Muslim Mediterranean flavours. Upon returning to Australia, he opened Añada in 2008. Jesse has since launched Bomba Tapas Bar and Rooftop, Park Street Dining, Nómada Café y Tapas.
A regular visitor to Spain, Jesse has cooked in some of its finest restaurants. Whether cooking alongside the chef at Barcelona’s Michelin starred Monvinic or celebrating 150 years of culinary heritage with the ancient Mutriku Gastronomic Society near San Sebastian, Jesse has honed his Spanish cooking techniques from the best chefs in Spain.
22-27 October at Carousel, London
Hendrik Dierendonck is one of Belgium’s best butchers and a meat connoisseur suppling some of the best restaurants in the Netherlands and also his own restaurant, Carcasse. His farm-to-table knowledge is behind Carcasse’s Michelin star, which was awarded for Dierendonck’s tender, flavourful main courses and imaginative, often surprising, side dishes. Craftsmanship, passion, terroir and ‘nose-to-tail’ are what’s important to Hendrik.
For more information on Goatober events including dinners at Palatino, 1251 and Bank Heist in London, Nancarrow in Cornwall, Broughgammon Farm in Northern Ireland and Cook House in Newcastle, visit www.Goatober.com and follow @GoatoberNews on Instagram.
About Goatober
Goatober originated in New York in 2011 and has grown in eight years to have events and participants all around the world, from London to Melbourne, from Amsterdam to Trinidad and Tobago. What started as a small campaign to prolong the lives of billy goats and to put a delicious, ethical meat on the menu has grown into an international campaign bringing together dairies, farmers, NGOs and individuals who are passionate about ending food waste in the goat dairy system.
Goatober aka No Goat Left Behind was the brainchild of former Heritage Radio Network Executive Director, Erin Fairbanks and renowned New York cheesemonger, Anne Saxelby. They launched the initiative together with Heritage Foods to address the growing problem facing New England goat dairies — namely, what to do with male goats? Male offspring create a dilemma for dairy farmers — they obviously don’t produce cheese, and unfortunately, there is no established humanely sourced market for American goat meat. From this senseless waste Goatober was created and with it a month-long celebration of putting goat meat on the menu of New York’s best restaurants. The campaign had quick success and now there are over 100 restaurants involved in Goatober from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco. Heritage Foods, who The New York Times called “— the company at the forefront of the nonindustrial meat movement —” is the largest distributor of rare and heritage breed meats in the USA. They are dedicated to supporting a network of over 50 family farmers who raise their livestock humanely, outdoors, on pasture and never with antibiotics or growth hormones. Its founder, Patrick Martins is also the founder of Slow Food USA and Heritage Radio Network.
Goatober was introduced in to the UK in 2016 by James Whetlor from Cabrito Goat Meat and into mainland Europe in the following year. There are vibrant dairy industries across the UK and Europe who want to change the practice of euthanising and Goatober is part of the solution. The campaign aims to put a goat dish on restaurant menus and to encourage people to try cooking goat at home themselves, for all or part of October.
