Marc John Sarrazin has been president of DeBragga, New York’s Butcher™ since 1992. The company’s highest quality meats have attracted four-star chefs and earned it the reputation as New York’s finest butcher.
James Beard Foundation: Butchers are getting a lot of attention these days—do you feel like a rock star?
Sarrazin: No—we’re just doing what we’ve always done. We take great pride in cutting quality beef, lamb, veal, and the finest naturally raised meats. It’s true that some butchers in small shops around the city are labeled rock stars. At DeBragga, we really focus on the chef and the restaurateur. My butchers, on the other hand, are the true rock stars—they do a great job for us.
JBF: What is a butcher’s typical day?
Sarrazin: We have a head butcher and staff that start at 11:00 p.m. They work through the night. The first trucks leave at 5:00 a.m. It’s hard to describe a typical day. Yesterday we had to cut 580 pounds of short ribs for a large catering company. Today the guys are cutting an order for an export customer. Short notice, but we make it happen.
JBF: DeBragga is an iconic brand in the New York meat scene. What is its’ story?
Sarrazin: It was started in the 1920s by Joseph DeBragga and was later incorporated by Farmar DeBragga (Joseph’s son) and Paul Spitler. My dad, Marc, bought into the company in the early 1950s. He passed away 15 years ago and I’ve taken over. George Faison came onboard as a partner in 2006 and helped usher DeBragga into a new era of sustained growth and expansion. Iconic is a very strange word in my lexicon. I’m not used to someone saying my company is iconic. If we’re iconic, it’s thanks to the chefs we work with and the restaurants that serve our products.
JBF: Who are some of the chefs you supply to?
Sarrazin: Well I don’t want to forget anyone, but we supply everyone from Tom Colicchio and Daniel Boulud to Eric Ripert and Laurent Tourondel. There are so many I don’t want to miss anyone—Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Michael Lomonaco, Waldy Malouf, Charlie Palmer—we do business with the best chefs in New York.
JBF: The city’s best chefs entrust you with their most prized possession—their steaks. We’ve heard stories about your dry-aging room. Tell us what happens there.
Sarrazin: No matter how many times I walk into that room, I find myself stopping and enjoying the beautiful smell of dry-aging beef. We take a lot of pride in our dry-aging room. And, the work that goes into giving each chef exactly what he wants. If they ask for a 28-day dry-aged cut, we tag it and it’s on the shelf for 28 days. If they want something longer, that’s what we do. It’s an art in its truest form. We’re creating something wonderful for some very discerning chefs.
JBF: What exactly is dry-aged beef? How does aging impact the flavor of the meat?
Sarrazin: If you hold the muscle in a controlled environment for 28 to 35 days, the meat fibers will begin to break down and will become more tender. When you dry-age a piece of beef you get an incredibly nutty, rich dry-aged flavor. Essentially, it’s removing a lot of moisture from the beef—but it’s important to start with a highly-marbled cut.
JBF: You were the first butcher in the city to be licensed to offer Certified Angus Beef ® brand cuts. Why?
Sarrazin: I love being able to put it in front of chefs. They know it’s a great product week in and week out. They have the opportunity to serve better than average steaks and that’s the reason we work so hard selling it on a daily basis.
DeBragga’s fresh-cut Certified Angus Beef ® brand steaks are available at JBF LTD. Enjoy a different steak of the day each day of the week—brought to you by New York’s finest butcher. Also available at DeBragga.com.
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