Jennifer, the Butcher
When Jennifer Jones was a girl, all she has been dreaming about is to go to an art school. Being a butcher and chef was never a part of her plan. However, after years of being a social worker, she began to realize what her passion truly is. At the age of 30, she decided to trump into the new aspect of the culinary field, without hesitation.
The learning curve to gain the skills of butchering and also the confidence was difficult but it didn’t take too much of her time. Her love for the anatomy aspect of butchering drives her to keep exploring the possibility of herself. Cooking and butchering have been a really good creative outlet for her.
Jennifer Jones cuts a pig's leg with a saw in ATM Network, Inc, in Athens, Ohio.
“It's really, really fascinating to me to take an animal apart and see how it's put together basically and comparing that animal's anatomy to our own. You can see how depending on the job of a certain muscle, what it's gonna taste like.” Jennifer said.
“I don't subscribe to the idea that certain jobs are for men or for women. It's whatever we want to do and I don't want to be told that I can't do something.”
The different type of knife skill and the physical difference between women and men are negligible for her even she is currently, according to what she said, “in the disadvantage of being 52.”
“I don't subscribe to the idea that certain jobs are for men or for women. It's whatever we want to do and I don't want to be told that I can't do something.” Jen said.
As a mother of three girls, Jennifer is raising them to be pretty fiercely independent, strong women, just like what she is becoming. “I feel at least that's my goal and on the one side of that question they are seeing what I do and they see that it's difficult. I hope that it makes them unafraid to try anything that they're interested in doing on the other side,” said Jennifer.
Bill Reader (left) and David Colagiovanni listen to Jennifer Jones to explain the procedure of making a sausage.
Now Jennifer’s butcher squad has four members and the core of them are women. They had men working for them in the past but for some reason, this job didn’t work out for them. “I think that that is kind of a female trait like we want to be strong and we want to measure ourselves against the successes of others and grow to be with them,” said Jennifer.
Jennifer Jones carries a hunk of lean pork shoulder across the kitchen to get it butchered.
A set of the knives that Jennifer Jones uses for butchering sits on a workbench.