“I think some of the creativity comes from being stuck with all the odd parts you’re not sure what to do with. You’re not going to throw them out, so you are going to figure it out.”
—John Stewart
John Stewart grew up in Mount Kisco, New York, in a culinary family. He is the fourth generation of his family’s catering company, Thomas Fox & Son, which was founded in 1919 by his great-grandfather. By the time John was seven years old, he had been put to work helping polish silver and folding catering boxes in the family business. He continued to work in the family business during summers and vacations through college. He graduated in 1990 from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in political science and a minor in Russian history. He says, “I have always been interested in political history.” After visiting a friend in Seattle, he moved there in 1994. He was drawn to the low cost of living at the time and the great jazz and bar scene. John loved the city as well as the access to both the ocean and the mountains. In Seattle, John worked at Tom Douglas’s restaurant Etta’s, an upscale seafood restaurant, before taking a job at Palace Kitchen. While at Palace Kitchen, he met his wife, Duskie Estes. Duskie, his boss at the time, didn’t want to date an employee, but John was fortuitously offered the position of sous-chef at the well-known Italian restaurant Cafe Lago. Once John started working there, he and Duskie started dating, and John fell in love twice, first with Duskie and second with all things Italian.
John is now an avid salumist, someone who makes his own cured meats from scratch, an art that has seen a small revival in recent years with the help of a small handful of chefs. However, curing meat improperly can have consequences (from simply spoiling food to cultivating deadly bacteria) and, because of this, has come into conflict with the FDA and modern food safety regulations. John continues to work with prominent chef Mario Batali and at Iowa State University’s Meat Lab to better understand his craft and promote safe practices. He has started a company called Black Pig Meat Co. where you can purchase their line of Black Pig meats, bacon, and salumi made from pasture-raised, heritage-breed, antibiotic- and hormone-free pork. In 2010, Men’s Journal named John’s Black Pig Bacon as one of its “Top Bacons.”
Since moving to Sonoma and opening Zazu Restaurant & Farm in Santa Rosa, CA, John and Duskie live John’s convictions by raising chickens, pigs, goats, turkeys, and rabbits in four locations across Sonoma, including in their own backyard. Much of what they raise can be found on the menu at Zazu. Since John and Duskie are so deeply involved in the process of raising what goes onto the table at their restaurant, they really believe in using whole animals at Zazu, even going so far as to put a notice on their menu saying that the cuts of meat in each dish may change mid-service as they work their way from snout to tail.
John’s tattoos reflect his passion for using whole animals in his restaurant. He has several tattoos, including a rooster on his left forearm, but the one that might define him best is the pig cutting chart across his right arm, just above the crown he got for winning Grand Cochon, a national pork cooking competition. The pig is the logo for Salumi, an artisan cured meat shop in Seattle owned by Armandino Batali, father of Mario Batali. John had wanted to work for Armandino while he was living in Seattle, but the timing never worked out. John finally met Mario at a food festival called the Aspen Food and Wine Classic in Colorado and ended up helping Mario because “the people who were assigned to him weren’t all that qualified.” Ever since then, Mario has been “sort of a mentor” to John. Through his relationship with Mario, John became friends with Armandino. John says, “When I finally started making things like prosciuttos, really big things that require a lot of patience and a lot of skill, I think that is where I transferred over into fanatical. I was like, I’m going to get this tattooed on my arm now.” Today, John continues to help Duskie run Zazu Restaurant & Farm, which has expanded into a new location. In addition, he continues to be an advocate for butchery, and though he swears he doesn’t want to be a pig farmer, the space between farm and table becomes ever smaller when it comes to John’s work.
Why this recipe? John says, “We make our own bacon from pasture-raised pork, so we like to highlight it in everything. We use our own farm eggs in the pasta and in the sauce. Quality bacon makes or breaks this dish! Carbonara gets its name from carbon, that is, the fresh black pepper in the dish.”
