Take Five with Chris Cosentino, A Chef Who Is Offal Good At What He Does
Chris Cosentino, the spiky-haired, take-no-prisoners chef of San Francisco’s acclaimed Incanto, is a man who enjoys extremes.
Particularly when it comes to sports, and cuts of meat.
A chef who designed stickers and T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan, “I Love Offal,” started his own salumi company last year, Boccalone, with Incanto’s owner Mark Pastore.
At Incanto, Cosentino is not shy about showcasing more unusual meat and seafood offerings, either. Bloater paste bruschetta, anyone? Get past the name to enjoy a luscious, creamy rich spread made from organ meats of a smoked fish. Wicked good.
Then, there’s the restaurant’s “Whole Beast Dinners” (starting at $55 per person, and you’ll need about 20 of your friends to enjoy it). Sit down to your choice of a whole roast suckling pig, lamb or goat carved tableside. Incanto sells two of those carnivore extravaganzas a month.
They’ve proven so popular that the restaurant just started offering a smaller version of that family-style meal: “Leg of Beast.” The four-course meal ($200 for 6-8 people) is centered around a whole leg of beef. Enjoy unctuous marrow bones (God’s butter, as Cosentino calls it); melty beef tendon stewed with cannelloni beans and sage; a platter of chicory tardivo tossed with zinfandel vinaigrette; and the piece de resistance, a whole braised beef shank — a nearly 20-pound leg of beef that’s been cooked at 200 degrees for 6 hours until it is spoonable-tender.
I had the chance to enjoy the debut of this meat madness at Incanto, and to sit down with Cosentino afterwards, just days before the 36-year-old chef would have surgery.
He quipped, “It’s for implants. C-cups.”
Not quite.
For Cosentino, who enjoys telemark skiing, and raced competitively in single-speed mountain-bike 24-hour ultra endurance races, this will be his third shoulder surgery — the first one on the left shoulder for this right-handed chef.
His body produces a large amount of elastin, he explains, a natural protein that gives elasticity to tissues and organs. In the case of his shoulder, though, the elastin has caused the connective tissues to become like overstretched rubber bands, and they need to be repaired.
Cosentino expects to be back in the kitchen shortly after the operation. But he won’t be able to move his left arm much for about six weeks.
Q: Maybe you should take up hiking instead?
A: That would be too boring.
Q: So which came first — your love for cooking or your love for cycling?
