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You won't find many titles that contain both the words "vice president" and "shop manager," and you won't find many salumi shops like Boccalone either. The salumeria in San Francisco's Ferry Building is one of the best places in the country to experience the sheer joy of chowing down on high-quality, slow-cured pork. We recently caught up with Executive Vice President Tatiana Graf and asked her about her day-to-day routine working in a pig lover's paradise.
One day about a month after we had opened the shop, an older woman came in and started looking around. When I greeted her, she asked in a slightly gruff way, "You don't make head cheese, do you?" I said, "Of course we do. We call it Coppa di Testa. Would you like to try some?" She was surprised and said "Sure." I could tell she wasn't convinced that I knew what I was talking about. I got a sample and brought it over for her to try. While she tasted it, I explained a little about our company and how we make make everything in the traditional, old-world style. She considered for a minute and then a smile grew across her face. She looked me in the eye and told me she hadn't tasted any head cheese that good since her father, who was a butcher, had made it when she was a kid. She said the flavor took her right back to her childhood. All the gruffness in her voice was gone. She was happy and so was I.
She wasn't one of our "typical" customers. We normally see three types: the salumi aficionado who loves the variety of products we offer, the downtown office worker who wants something truly good for lunch, and the curious tourist who is drawn in by our tagline, "Tasty Salted Pig Parts."
Our most popular item is salame, and the question I'm asked most often is "what's the difference between salami and salumi?" Salumi are cured meats, predominantly pork and predominately Italian. Salami is just one type of salumi. There's also prosciutto, mortadella, pancetta, etc.
I've been here for a year and a half, and it never gets old. If I do get bored on a slow day, I can always explore the depths of my co-workers' brains -- now that's entertainment.
Tatiana Graf, Executive Vice President/Shop Manager, Boccalone
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1-28-2010 @10:13AM jcurtis said... I wish I had a shop like that by me, more fish mongers than butchers. Nothing like some nice head cheese.
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1-29-2010 @11:01AM Lorraine said... We know its america and its a name of something. Like ham there are 10 diffrent names for 10 diffrent hams not all hame is the same and they all have diffrent names. You dont go in and ask for cheese. You ask for a type of cheese. Get it? Its just a name it has nothing to speaking english or any other lanuage.
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1-29-2010 @11:21AM WILL said... SALUMI IS ITALIAN FOR SALAMI , COPPA DI TESTA IS ITALIAN FOR HEAD CHEESE , IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH WITH LANGUAGE
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1-29-2010 @1:57PM Linda said... It is NOT the same thing. The italian names denote a specific type of salami and head cheese.
Get some class!
1-29-2010 @4:21PM Frank said... Not so. Salume is the generic term for cured pork products, salami is a type of salumi. Salume include things like salami, speck, pancetta, mortadella, prosciutto, etc.
1-29-2010 @1:43PM Keith J. Mohrhoff said... Hey, they should set up shop on the East Coast!!!! They'd make a killing! Do you know what good Proscuitto goes for around here? I LOVE to cook and many recipies call for VERY fatty bacon or fat back to create the base for various sauces or for browning other meats in.
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1-30-2010 @11:44PM Arturo Medina said... Will, I'm with you. English is, de facto, our national language, and should be declared so by Congress. That being said, I still think that certain things perhaps should be described with their original names. I mean pizza, after all, is also an originally Italian name, but we've embraced it. Honestly, what would we call pizza in English? Flat pan-bread?
I love the English language, but the adoption of a few foreign words and phrases into American English is okay by me, and it enriches our language a bit. Other languages likewise have adopted our English words, and continue to do so. By this, they are likewise enriched. Don't forget that the very word America is originally of Italian origin.
Now, if the folks at Boccalone spoke only Italian to their customers, or worse, didn't allow English to be spoken in their shop at all, then I would disagree with them. They'd be entitled to do this, but it'd hurt business, and they don't. Yet still they are able to offer their patrons a little flavor of Italy in America. Bravo, Tatiana Graf !!!
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1-29-2010 @2:05PM WILL said... LINDA I WAS GOING TO THANK YOU FOR INFORMING ME OF THE DIFFERENCE , UNTIL YOU DISRESPECTED ME...ARE YOU A LIBERAL BY ANY CHANCE ?
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1-29-2010 @4:27PM Frank said... Will, relax, good food isn't political. Buon appetito!
1-29-2010 @2:22PM elbacon said... Here in good old Baltimore, you can pick up your fatback and all sorts of other "tasty salted pig parts" (and cow parts, etc.) at the Lexington Market.
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1-29-2010 @3:00PM JO said... HWAT PUT THE BURR UP YOUR ADZ.. ITS ITALIAN SALOME AND PRODUCTS AND THAT IS THE NAME MOST PEOPLE KNOW IT BY.
TAKE ANOTHER METHADONE AND RELAX.
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1-29-2010 @4:30PM WILL said... FRANK THE REASON I REFERED TO POLITICS IS B/C THAT MANY LIBERALS RESORT TO CHILDISH NAME CALLING AND INSULTS WHEN PEOPLE DONT AGREE WITH THEM
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1-29-2010 @5:15PM Maria said... She keeps her Italian language on her business because it's good for business. The mojority of Americans believe if it comes from Europe it is better and they buy.
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1-29-2010 @6:46PM WILL said... MARIA YOU ARE RIGHT
1-29-2010 @7:14PM twoshoes4u said... Oh so slowly food has assumed snob appeal. I would like to see a return to meat loaf, mashed potatoes, ham salad sandwiches, hot roast beef sandwiches soaked with gravy. Starbucks serves cough-fee and this joint serves salamee and lunch meet...get real.
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1-29-2010 @7:16PM Jenn said... So... I'm simply struck by the irony in the ad that was next to this article as I was reading it... for Hebrew National hot dogs. As the article went on about being the place of all things pork, I couldn't help but wonder... is it even kosher for me to be reading this? And then up pops this add, for the hot dog that answers to a Higher Authority... like a sign or something...
Random? Divine Intervention? or just some programmers idea of a sick joke?
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1-29-2010 @8:02PM Grace said... What are these stupid comments about English? They sell Italian foods there so obviously they use Italian names. I mean even Taco Bell uses spanish words, although I think that chalupa is invented. You go to a Chinese restaurant, and they serve wontons, dim sum, etc. This is America, a melting pot of all of the world's cultures, if you don't like that then I suggest you try to find the ship your ancestors came over on and go back to their country of origin. Get a life!
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1-31-2010 @12:28AM Arturo Medina said... You are mistaken if you are calling my comments about English "stupid". They were written in response to Will's original complaint (now apparently deleted) that he didn't understand why everything offered at BOCCALONE had an Italian name. My comments were written to SUPPORT the use of ITALIAN names for the ITALIAN foods being offered by Tatiana Graf and company.
I am bi-lingual myself; I speak English and / y yo hablo Espanol (I'm sorry that the 'n' has no tilde). So, obviously, I do not call for any establishment of an "English Only" policy in our country. What I do support, however, is a simple acknowledgement by our Congress that English is our COMMON language in this country. What we also speak in addition to English is entirely own our business.