Italian culinary tradition brought to Belleville

When entering an Italian cured meat shop, one would expect to be greeted by the array of dry aging pieces of protein, roped downwards from the ceiling waiting to be sliced and served. But instead, La Cultura Salumi Inc. looks more like a lab – a really well-contained lab – with the exterior of a large wooden barn.

Located in the largely residential/agricultural area between Belleville and Trenton, south of the 401 on Hamilton Road, this is the one and only dry-aging meat plant in Belleville.

With La Cultura Salumi Inc., Frank Abballe,  the 57-year-old owner of the business and also the dry-aging mastermind, has brought an unprecedented taste of Italy to the area.

Apart from a small retail space recently created out of the growing demand, the 10,000 something square-foot building holds five carefully monitored dry-aging rooms with specific humidity and temperature.

Nobody enters the production area unless lathered with a clean white lab coat, a tight hair cover and a pair of indoor Crocs. And the tight protocol is reflected by the spotless floors and the attitudes of the owners.

“We feed people. So it is very important to be clean,” emphasizes Jane Abballe, Frank’s wife.

The Abballes have dedicated the last five years to bringing what they say are the best quality products to their customers. And they went as far as designing the building so they could live above the plant, to be more easily involved with the process.

“We always say to people, ‘We live work,’ ” confesses Frank Abballe.

In this cured meat lovers haven, you can find all kinds of cured meat, including beef carpaccio, pork pancetta and water buffalo slinzega.

These tasty Italian delicacies are a result of passion and patience.

Depending on the type, it could take anywhere between two months to two years for the finished product – tender, savoury and flavourful pieces of meat that are often featured on a charcuterie boards.

“It’s not a mass production operation here. Every little detail is considered, so we take it more as an artisanal operation. You really need to have passion to do it,” says Jane Abballe.

Although it has been only five years since the opening, their hardwork has already paid off.

Recognized by restaurants in the new and upcoming culinary hub of Prince Edward County and in bigger cities, La Cultura Salumi Inc. has been supplying for many popular restaurants like Bar Isabel in Toronto.

In 2014, the Italian meat plant won the Premier’s Award for Agri-food Innovation Excellence for producing cured meats that “would make nonna proud.”

“The most important thing about making the best dry-aged meat is high quality meat,” stressed Jane Abballe.

Just two weeks ago, the Abballes travelled to the Salamanca region of Spain to check on the black Iberian pigs from which they get their pork. The black Iberian pigs are known to produce the best pork in the world – pork equivalent of the famous Kobe beef.

Dry-aged meat, which is essentially air-dried cured meat such as prosciutto, has been an important part of the culinary culture in Italy for hundreds of years.

Frank Abballe, who immigrated to Canada from Frosinone, Italy, when he was 11 with his family, had a successful construction company in Toronto. However, according to Jane, his passion has always been food.

Sitting beside his kitchen is a 60 year-old meat slicer brought from Italy that Frank Abballe had refurbished.

“That’s our Lamborghini,” he boasts.

Frank has been travelling back annually to his home country to visit family, but also to satisfy his curiosity of cured meat, visiting different masters in the hopes of learning their secrets.

“They never tell you everything. So you have to take some (know-hows) from here and there.”

In 2008, Abballe moved down to Vermont in the U.S. to take over a water buffalo farm. There, the idea of starting his own meat plant started.

After spending two years down south, the Abballes moved back north, with a majority of their livestock, to find a place to open up a plant of his dream.

While they initially preferred to open near Toronto, the duo agrees that they could not be happier to be where they are now – kind of a random discovery.

“We never heard about this place. We didn’t even know where Prince Edward County was until we got here,” says Jane Abballe.

Good quality air – an important element to dry-aging – and the close proximity to bigger cities like Toronto and Montreal gives the business a competitive advantage.
Currently selling at a provincial level only, the couple discusses with each other every day about whether to expand their business to a federal level.

However, one thing that they are sure about is how grateful they are for all the positive feedback they have received.

“We are putting a lot of effort, especially Frank, so it makes us happy (to receive positive feedback) and it makes us continue to deliver the same level of service – if not better,” says Jane Abballe.