Bio of a Butcher: Vadim Akimenko (of the future Akimenko Meats)

Vadim Akimenko loves meat more than anyone that I know. It might be less of a love and more of an appreciation, but in the hundreds of meals that I have shared with Vadim, not one has lacked a healthy portion of animal protein. Sometimes I think that it is surprising that he hasn’t eaten his dog (no, not really…it’s a joke). Vadim Akimenko was born in 1981 in Orlando, Florida. At the age of seventeen, Vadim landed his first job working as a line cook in a commercial kitchen, after years of experience in the household kitchen with his mother. Studying under Kevin Fonzo at Cafe K in Orlando, Vadim had his first look at the inner workings of the food industry as he chopped onions and made stocks for the restaurant. It was at Cafe K that Vadim first witnessed rudimentary meat cutting, and developed a fondness for the art of butchering. After he graduated high school, Vadim moved to Hyde Park, New York to attend the Culinary Institute of America.

At the CIA, Vadim learned how to properly break meat, and the principals of nose to tail cooking (meaning that no parts of the animal are wasted). He received a wide array of technical training in butchering, preparing charcuteries, and french culinary techniques. He had a natural talent in taking apart animals, but his stay at the CIA was short lived, as he quickly realized that he was not cut out for the life of a line cook. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts with the intent of bringing his love for authentic southern barbecued foods to New England, and opening a locally-minded barbecue restaurant. He worked in a handful of kitchens in the Boston area including Eat in Union Square, Somerville,  and Seasons in the Regal Bostonian Hotel, before taking a life-changing position in the meat department at Market Basket (a relatively small chain of sixty-two grocery stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire). Market Basket is a pretty normal grocery store, catering to the typical American diet of meat with a side of meat, which meant lots of practice for Vadim. He quickly moved up the ranks from an apprentice meat-cutter, who only packed meat, to a roaming butcher who ran the meat saw (woodworkers read: bandsaw) and went from store to store to help with cutting meat during high-volume periods. He was taken under the wing of a seasoned veteran named John Buckley from the meat department at the Burlington branch of Market Basket, who taught him many of the traditional butchering techniques that he uses today, and helped him to continue to advance the development of his art.

After working for two years at Market Basket, Vadim was offered a job at Savenor’s Market in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, Massachusetts. Vadim started again by simply cutting meat at the gourmet butcher shop and high-end grocery store, and eventually moved his way up to the position of meat manager at the Cambridge, Massachusetts store location. Vadim assisted Savenor’s in attempting to make the switch over to more locally raised and sustainable meat supply sources, and implemented a housemade charcuterie program, while taking on the responsibility of managing the meat department at both the Cambridge and Beacon Hill store locations. After five years at Savenor’s Market, Vadim left to continue to pursue his desire to open the barbecue joint of his dreams, only to realize that the greater Boston area was lacking something more fundamental. The change in direction came from the idea that barbeque is a luxury, but the availability of locally-raised and humanely slaughtered meats is something that everyone should be able to afford. Vadim knew that he could make the biggest difference by taking his knowledge and specialized skills and applying them to an extremely traditional model that is practically extinct in metropolitan areas.

The Pig & The Butcher from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.

Akimenko Meats is slated to open in the Cambridge/Somerville area of Massachusetts in the Fall of 2010. If you are interested in getting involved there are a variety of ways to help Akimenko Meats raise funds through their website or Kickstarter page (note: as I publish this article there are only five days left on the Kickstarter pledge drive).