Alumni Feature | Jorge Gaviria
Jorge Gaviria was planning to be an attorney, with law school in his sights. But when he read Danny Meyer’s Setting the Table, everything changed. He decided instead to take some time to WWOOF around Italy, heard about Spannocchia shortly before leaving for Europe, and–after applying at the 11th hour–Jorge arrived at Spannocchia in the fall of 2011, eager to begin a Farm Internship as a member of Team Animali. The experience continued with a butcher apprenticeship under Riccio’s generous guidance, and left Jorge with a connection to food, cooking, the animal life cycle, and Spannocchia itself, which continues to influence everything he does.
Jorge recalls both the wonderful and challenging parts of intern life, from living in a group setting (shout out to Sarah and Courtenay for deepening his cooking skills during lunch duty!), to relating–for the first time–to like-minded people who appreciated food in meaningful ways. The work of caring for the animals and then learning the art of butchery and salumi making showed Jorge what free range really meant, and felt profound, connected and ancestral. A favorite memory: getting up at 3:30 in the morning to get to the slaughterhouse first for the day, so as not to stress the animals–Riccio knew that stress affects the taste of the meat. After the slaughter, they cleaned the pigs to then bring them back to the farm for butchering, and by 8:30am they were done at the slaughterhouse, drinking a glass of wine, and reflecting philosophically on the darkness and light of the process. The entire Spannocchia experience was humbling for Jorge, and instilled an insatiable desire to keep learning, to become more self-sufficient, and to continue on this path of food and cooking.
Upon returning to the US, Jorge gained valuable experience at Maialino (one of Danny Meyer’s restaurants!) and Blue Hill at Stone Barns before launching his own company, Masienda, in 2014. A purveyor of premium masa, Jorge shares that Masienda was truly an amalgam of every moment of his life to that point. His mom’s family was from Cuba, but she was born in Mexico and lived all over Latin America, where masa is the connective tissue. Masienda draws on Jorge’s ancestral connection to animal husbandry, an evolution to community and humanity, a respect for the people who had been growing this food for generations, and a desire to educate and connect people to that history. What started simply as working with small farmers in Mexico and restaurants in NYC to source heirloom corn and teach chefs how to make masa, has developed over the last 10 years into a thriving company, and the go-to masa brand for both top chefs and home cooks. Not to mention a best-selling cookbook, James Beard award-winning documentary series, and an ongoing feature in a Capital One commercial!
Jorge now lives in California with his wife and 2 young daughters, and reports that “his resting joy level is higher than ever.” He would love to own a farm at some point, and is currently being inspired and driven by the concept of creativity: he’s writing a second cookbook, and exploring how he can support other creatives. Jorge credits Spannocchia in many ways for modeling the life and balance he has achieved, and we’re just honored to have been a small, meaningful part of his journey.