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Case Study: Charlie the Butcher

Content sponsored by: Alto-Shaam

Charlie Roesch, best known as Charlie the Butcher, is a popular restaurateur and media personality famous for his mouthwatering Beef on Weck sandwich. He’s also a long-time friend and fan of Alto-Shaam.

Charlie the Butcher Entrance

Charlie transformed his family’s longtime Western New York meat business into a legendary foodservice brand in locations like Wegman’s supermarkets and NOCO convenience stores. He also opened an express site in downtown Buffalo and added a catering operation. He started cooking his roast beef in Alto-Shaam’s Cook & Hold Ovens in 1985 when he discovered them at The National Restaurant Association Show and was told they would naturally tenderize and age a piece of meat overnight. 

Charlie’s famous Beef on Weck sandwich was invented by a German immigrant baker and entrepreneurial bar owner in the late 1880s. The sandwich features thinly sliced roast beef on a Kummelweck roll. The German words Kümmel and weck translate to caraway and roll. To create this delicious Beef on Weck sandwich, Charlie takes a Kaiser roll encrusted with both caraway and pretzel salt and loads it with thin-sliced roast beef, a dollop of horseradish, and serves it with au jus for dipping. Charlie attributes the popularity of his Beef on Weck sandwich to the tenderness and flavor of the roast beef.

“It has completely to do with the consistency and quality of the meat that is coming out of Alto-Shaam’s Cook & Hold Oven,” says Charlie. “I can naturally tenderize all cuts of roast beef to come out with the same texture and flavor, so the process is very consistent and reliable.”

Charlie attributes his success to his mentor, Alto-Shaam founder Jerry Maahs.

“I followed his philosophies in life,” says Charlie. “He's the one that gave me this success when I developed my whole restaurant concept around what an Alto-Shaam Cook & Hold Oven does to a piece of meat. This was 30 years ago. I still have that oven, and it's still operating today. I'm able to cook in 21 cavities and all my proteins finish within one or two degrees of where I want them. That's pretty remarkable.

“Every night we're cooking roast beef and turkey overnight. Monday it’s baked ham, Tuesday it’s meatloaf, Wednesday it's corned beef, Thursday it’s prime rib, Friday is Charlie's Choice. There are three different cavities working every night.”

But Alto-Shaam’s Cook & Hold Ovens don’t just produce the highest quality product. They also significantly reduce labor needs.

“My staff doesn’t need to come in at 6 a.m.,” Charlie says, “because my proteins are already done and will hold in that cavity for 24 hours and maintain that same temperature. My staff doesn't have to worry about the proteins. They don't have to be watching them in a convection oven and setting timers and constantly taking temperatures.”

Charlie says the science behind the cooking and holding process is important for operators to understand.

“If I can take of piece of meat, let's say a top round, and I can bring it from 35 up to 100 degrees F and slow that process down and bring it from 100 to 130 degrees F real slow, maybe a degree every 20 minutes, at 103 degrees F I activate an enzyme in the meat called protease. That's what's going to tenderize and age that piece of meat overnight in an oven, but would take me three weeks to do in a butcher shop meat cooler.” 

Alto-Shaam’s Cook & Hold Ovens also save Charlie money every day because they don’t dry out and shrink the meats.

“If I cook a prime rib in a conventional oven, a boneless ribeye, I might get 14 servings,” says Charlie. “If I cook the same product in an Alto-Shaam Cook & Hold Oven, I get 18 servings, four more servings out of each prime rib. If I cook 10 prime ribs every Thursday, I just cut my food cost tremendously; I'm getting 40 extra servings out of it. I can buy less meat and serve the same number of people and that goes right to my bottom line.”

The consistency of Alto-Shaam’s Cook & Hold Ovens is also important, since Charlie’s Beef on Weck has to taste the same at all his locations.

“I have to make sure I'm using a system that's going to make them all taste the same with the same tenderness, smell, feel, texture and the same degree of doneness. Alto-Shaam gives me that,” says Charlie. “The top rounds on the top shelf are equally as tender and done to the same degree as the top rounds on the bottom shelf. Alto-Shaam has allowed me to have an excellent quality product at a reasonable price, and I know that my top rounds will come out of that oven to perfection.”

Charlie carving roast beef

Come visit Charlie the Butcher at the 2018 NRA Show! He will be serving up his famous roast beef on weck at the Alto-Shaam booth #4840.