Christina DiMartino

"I wish I had a steer with ten tails," says Michael Lenagar, president and CEO of the family-owned and family-operated Neola Farms in Brighton, Tennessee. That's because what are known as the lesser cuts—meat taken from the extremities and underbelly of the animal—are selling fast. "All chefs want are lesser cuts, including oxtail, short ribs, skirt steaks, flank, and liver." Forty years ago, this trend would not have been particularly newsworthy. Back then people used every part of an animal. An economic boom in the 1980s and 1990s increased the demand for luxury ingredients. High-end cuts were cherished while lesser cuts were ground, stewed, and marinated until they were nearly unrecognizable. Many chefs avoided the lesser cuts altogether because of their association with low-end restaurants.

Award-winning freelance writer Christina DiMartino's byline appears more than 100 times annually in national and foreign periodicals and newspapers. She writes on a wide range of topics, including food, ecology, nutrition, health and fitness, sports, art, travel, and business. Christina divides her time between New York City and Catania, Sicily

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