Tom Mylan (born April 26, 1976) is an American

butcher A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...

, educator, writer, and author, specializing in local, sustainably raised meat. He was the executive butcher and co-owner of "The Meat Hook" from 2009 until 2015, a butcher shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Mylan has been responsible for several community oriented-food projects, including co-founding the "Unfancy Food Show", an annual, affordable event featuring local, artisanal food producers, which celebrates Brooklyn's return to hand-crafted, environmentally aware food ways.

Biography

Tom Mylan was born in Southern California. He was raised in

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

; at age 12 his family moved to

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. In his 20s, he was a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetariani ...

and moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

for three years. In 2003, Mylan moved to New York City, where he started out working at Murray's Cheese Shop. By 2005 he was worked at Andrew Tarlow and Mark Firth's Marlow & Sons cafe in New York, as a buyer and manager. In 2007, the meat supplier Fleisher's for Marlow & Sons, and their sister-restaurant Diner, decided they would reduce the quantity of meat they would sell to small businesses. Marlow & Sons needed to find an in-house butcher, but they struggled to hire someone. Mylan agreed to learn butchering from Fleisher's at the Applestone Meat Company in

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

. From 2009 until 2015, he was the executive

and co-owner of ''The Meat Hook'', a butcher shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where they cut, smoke and cure meat that is sourced from small, family-owned farms. His co-founders and partners at The Meat Hook included Brent Young and Ben Turley. In 2010, Mylan was named one of ''The New York Observer's'' "Insurgents of 2010," as well as one of the Chow 13, the Chow website's annual list of the most influential people in the U.S. food world. Mylan has a forthcoming book, ''The Meat Hook Meat Book'', and recently published an iPad application, ''The Better Bacon Book'' with Open Air Publishing and Ari Weinzweig of Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor. Mylan has been featured on the Travel Channel's No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain, the Cooking Channel's''

FoodCrafters ''FoodCrafters'' is a food travel show on the Cooking Channel hosted by Aida Mollenkamp Aida Marianne Mollenkamp (born April 15, 1980) is a cook, television personality, and food writer from Manhattan Beach, California. Early life Mollenkamp gr ...

'', NPR's ''

All things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

,'' and ''

The Brian Lehrer Show Brian Lehrer (born October 5, 1952) is an American radio talk show host on New York City's public radio station WNYC. His daily two-hour 2007 Peabody Award-winning program,

.'' In addition he has appeared as a guest lecturer at Yale University. He has written for ''New York Magazine'', Gourmet.com, and he currently writes a column for the ''Atlantic Magazine Food Channel''. He lives in Brooklyn, with his wife, Annaliese Griffin, the editor and co-owner of "Brooklyn Based".

References

External links

The Meat HookThe Unfancy Food Show
* "Finally, Tom Mylan is on Our Meat Hook" from ''The Brooklyn Paper'

* Breslor, Sarah

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mylan, Tom American butchers American chefs American male chefs Living people 1976 births American environmentalists Activists from New York City Chefs from New York City