Carving Table: Prepping quality meats is Ledet’s forte

For many shoppers, the rare luxury of visiting a neighborhood butcher shop has been replaced by the convenience of pre-wrapped meats from local supermarkets.

In fact, nearly one in five meals eaten in the home are bought at a restaurant.

Buying from a butcher is nearly an ancient practice. Many home cooks reserve that right for chefs and die-hard meat connoisseurs.

However, Houma butcher Steven Ledet, owner of the Carving Table, is attracting Terrebonne shoppers to his store with succulent steaks, rib eyes and cold cuts sliced right before their eyes.

To him, a butcher is a craftsman who carves quality meats to his customer’s satisfaction. It’s something he says, “You just can’t get in a supermarket.”

Traditionally speaking, a butcher is someone who prepares various meats and other goods for sale in a specialized store, be it a butcher’s shop or a supermarket.

Ledet opened The Carving Table Meat Market on Enterprise Drive in Houma three weeks ago and has been pounding his chopping board ever since.

Ledet developed the crafting skill of butchering when he was 14 years old. From then on, he has worked in restaurants and supermarkets to hone that craft. The 27-year-old has culinary experience from the John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University as well.

He didn’t strike into the culinary arts field right away. Ledet spent some time offshore as an oilman’s engineer. But the constant battle to find quality meats forced him to take a stab at the craft as a profession.

For years, he worked at local supermarkets and the sight of customers rummaging through the meats, looking for the best quality appalled him. “Seeing that made me vow to always serve quality meat made fresh to order,” he said.

The Carving Table is designed to have people come in and have a pleasant wait while their meats are cut to their liking. Ledet has a rule, “If you don’t like it, I’ll cut you a new piece.”

The butcher said if you listen to the ads for supermarkets in any city or state, they always say, “The meat is cut fresh daily.” But from experience, Ledet said that’s not the case.

“What I do is called ‘cutting your meat fresh daily,'” he said. “I don’t have a meat freezer with a bunch of ground or sliced meats. I make it when you ask for it.”

Ledet said some of his repeat customers have already said they will not darken the doors of a supermarket anymore for select meats.

He believes that the supply of one-on-one butchery needs has sealed them as loyal customers.

“I like to show my customers their meat before I wrap it up,” Ledet said. “I want them to see exactly what they are getting, and I won’t let them leave until they’re satisfied with their product.”

He believes his quality meats will continue to attract customers in turn, giving him an edge over the rest of the market.

Ledet offers his customers a bonus sample of his homemade beef jerky with their first purchase. “People in Houma look for quality jerky, fresh or smoked, and I want to give it to them,” he said.

In the past three weeks, several of his repeat customers have offered suggestions about meat selections or product pricing, and Ledet has welcomed the advice with open arms.

This past Thanksgiving marked the first holiday season that The Carving Table was open. Ledet had a lot of orders for smoked hams and turkeys in addition to the regular meat selections. For Christmas, The Carving Table is offering gift boxes filled with two rib eyes, a pound of sausage and a pack of stuffed mushrooms or bell peppers.

In the near future, he plans to build his product line to include homemade hogshead cheese and cracklings.

In addition, the Carving Table does deer processing. Last week, the local butcher had nearly 20 deer lined up in the butcher shop. Ledet does deer processing after hours because the game warden has strict rules about mixing regular meats with wild game, he explained.

“We clean all the equipment in the afternoons, then go home to spend time with our family and, by dark, we are back in the shop processing the deer and making whatever the customer wants whether its ground meat or deer sausage links,” he said.

Residents should be warned that Ledet can only take a few deer at a time. So, first come, first served.

Owner Steven Ledet weighs links of sausages for a customer at The Carving Table. * Photo by SOPHIA RUFFIN