Meat+Poultry - November 2018 - 64

BOOK REVIEW

From keyboard
to cleaver
Camas Davis' memoir, 'Killing It: An Education,' chronicles
her journey into the world of sustainable butchery
BY K I M B E R L I E C LYM A | kc l y m a @ s o s l a n d.c o m

L

64

MEAT+ POULTRY | 11.18 | www.meatpoultry.com

as the events that led her to establish the Portland Meat
Collective, a specialized hands-on meat school in Portland,
Oregon, and become the executive director of the Good
Meat Project, a group working to "inspire responsible
meat production and consumption through experiential
education." The biography chronicles Davis' passage of
self-discovery through honest and genuine prose and
striking story telling.

LEARNING THE CRAFT
"My initial quest was to learn how to be a butcher. I wanted
to learn how does meat become meat - how does an animal
get turned into food," Davis explains. "I knew on a basic level
from hunting and fishing and growing up in a semi-farming
community - I knew the basics. But I had never been privy
to all of the details of all of those processes. I wanted to
witness those processes and also take part in them."
During her 10-year magazine career, Davis moved
from New York City back to her home state of Oregon, to
work as the food editor and managing editor of a Portland
magazine. After finding herself fired from that position she
was left at a crossroads. She didn't want to roll into another
magazine writing job to do more of the same, instead
she wanted a new challenge. She wanted to learn more
about food and particularly, meat. She wanted to learn to
become a butcher. Not having any luck being taught by
local Portland butchers, she called an old contact from her
magazine writing days - Kate Hill, an American cooking
teacher and cookbook writer living in France. "Do you
know anyone who could teach me to butcher a pig?" she
asked her. Hill then invited Davis to join her in Gascony,
France. She would help her learn about the French style of
raising animals, preparing and eating food by partnering
her with a French farming and butchery family she knew. In
exchange Davis would help around her house and kitchen
during her stay. So, Davis maxed out her credit card, bought
a ticket to France and set her new quest in motion.

Penguin Press

ittle did Camas Davis know that at the time she lost
her job and went to France to do a little studying,
exploring and soul searching that she would find
her passion and the inspiration for a new career. As a
longtime food magazine writer and a person who spent
her childhood hunting and fishing, Davis had pondered
where food came from more than once. But it wasn't until
she found herself learning butchery from a family of pig
farmers and butchers in Gascony, France, that she truly
appreciated and connected with the processes that go into
getting meat to the center of the plate.
"I wanted an
authentic, real
experience with
food. I wanted to
get closer to the
processes. I wanted
to do them myself
and I wanted to
find meaning
within that,"
Davis explains
as her reasoning
for her quest to
learn butchery
in France. "On a
practical level, I
wanted to learn
butchery. I chose
a subject matter
that was highly
controversial, highly uncomfortable - something I didn't
know much about even though I was a food writer. I wanted
to get into the middle of all of that and figure out what it all
meant for me."
Davis' newly released memoir, "Killing It: An Education"
documents her journey to France to learn butchery as well
http://www.meatpoultry.com
Meat+Poultry - November 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat+Poultry - November 2018
