Rising Star Artisan Fred Maurer of Dickson's Farmstand Meats - Biography

A lot of things draw dreamers to New York City. Wall Street. Broadway. Maybe even a chance to wear Yankee pinstripes. What doesn’t necessarily tend to draw people to New York is the charcuterie. But then, that was before guys like Fred Maurer came to town.

Originally from Ohio, Maurer grew up as a self-described theater kid. He might have pursued it, but right as he was getting ready to graduate, another creative inkling took hold and Maurer chose instead to enroll at the French Culinary Institute in New York City (now the International Culinary Center). And instead of New York, Maurer took his newly trained talents to Paris, to train in charcuterie at Léautey Traiteur, where he also met famed Parisian Charcutier Gilles Vérot, Léautey’s brother-in-law. Meat had become his métier, and Maurer was proving himself a talent.

He was also self-driven, reading what books he could on the subject and learning as hands-on as possible. Returning to New York for a stint at Bar Boulud, Maurer then decided to take a year and a half sojourn to Texas. He returned to New York to work at Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, where he makes artisanal meats and house-made charcuterie to the tune of 1,000s of pounds of painstakingly perfected, local, heritage product per week.