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Staff Pick
I'm Blackfeet and come from a family of hunters and fishermen, so the first thing I learned — before actually using a gun or a fishing rod — was how to show respect for the animal by preserving every part of the animal. In Killing It, Camas Davis embarks on a journey of self-discovery and learning, too, about how to show great respect for the lives that sustain us. Davis learned the old-world craft of butchery in Gascony, France, and in turn brought her appreciation and knowledge back to Portland by establishing the PDX Meat Collective, returning community, compassion, and enjoyment back to food production. A captivating read that will make you think more deeply about your food and where it comes from. Recommended By Kate L., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A wayward young woman abandons her magazine career to learn the old ways of butchery and discover what it means to take life into her own hands
Camas Davis was at an unhappy crossroads. A longtime magazine writer and editor in the food world, she'd returned to her home state of Oregon with her boyfriend from New York City to take an appealing job at a Portland lifestyle magazine. But neither job nor boyfriend delivered on her dreams, and in the span of a year, Davis was unemployed, on her own, with nothing to fall back on. Disillusioned by the years she'd spent mediating the lives of others for a living, she had no idea what to do next. She did know one thing: She no longer wanted to write about the real thing; she wanted to be the real thing.
So when a friend told her about Kate Hill, an American woman living in Gascony, France who ran a cooking school and took in strays in exchange for painting fences and making beds, it sounded like just what she needed. She discovered a forgotten credit card that had just enough credit on it to buy a plane ticket and took it as kismet. Upon her arrival, Kate introduced her to the Chapolard brothers, a family of Gascon pig farmers and butchers, who were willing to take Camas under their wing, inviting her to work alongside them in their slaughterhouse and cutting room. In the process, the Chapolards inducted her into their way of life, which prizes pleasure, compassion, community, and authenticity above all else.
So begins Camas Davis's funny, heartfelt, searching memoir of her unexpected journey to become a successful and enlightened butcher. It's a story that takes her from an eye-opening stint in rural France where deep artisanal craft and whole animal gastronomy thrives despite the rise of mass scale agribusiness, back to a Portland in the throes of a food revolution, where it suddenly seems possible to translate much of this old-world craft into a new world setting. Camas faces hardships and heartaches along the way, but in the end, Killing It is about what it means to pursue the real thing and to dedicate your life to it.
Review
“Finding beauty and moral high ground in the abattoir….The making of a young female entrepreneur rendered in unvarnished detail.” Kirkus
Review
“With grace and power, first-time author Davis tells of how she traded a keyboard for a cleaver…. Her powerful writing and gift for vivid description allow readers to feel as if they, too, are embarking on a life-changing journey.” Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Camas Davis is a former editor and writer for magazines including Saveur and National Geographic Adventure. In 2009, she traveled to southwest France to study whole animal butchery and charcuterie and subsequently founded the Portland Meat Collective, a transparent, hands-on meat school that has become a local and national resource for meat education and reform. In 2014, Camas launched the Good Meat Project, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring responsible meat production and consumption through experiential education across the country. Camas and the Portland Meat Collective have been covered in media outlets such as the New York Times Magazine, Martha Stewart Living, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and Cooking Light.
Camas Davis on PowellsBooks.Blog
My book,
Killing It, is about life, death, love, and dinner, and the complexity that lies between each. It’s also about loss and sacrifice, about invention and reinvention, about ethics and morality, success and failure, and curiosity too. It’s about asking questions and doing hard things in order to become a better person...
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