Cleveland kitchen pros cook up foodie gifts for the holidays

Okay, Melissa Khoury hasn't gotten to the partridge part yet. But as the young chef wrestles half of a locally grown Berkshire hog across a tabletop at Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen in Midtown, she already has maple spicy bacon and smoky Tasso ham dancing in her head. She promises the exotic poultry will come later.

The kitchen, in Cleveland's Midtown, is that kind of place – where food dreams can come true. Forget Santa's elves and the wooden toy workshop. Chefs like Khoury are cooking up local food gifts and delights for holiday entertaining on the eve of what they hope will be new careers.

"I'm trying to talk my farmer into raising them," said Khoury. This strong-shouldered young woman with bright brown eyes recently quit her job as executive chef at Washington Place Bistro in Little Italy to pursue her goal of opening a specialty butcher shop.

She craves the one-on-one with customers and other chefs, remembering Mason's Meats in Medina where the butcher knew her mom by name and she got a smokie sausage as a treat.

Through her studies at Johnson and Wales University's culinary school, through stints in top restaurants in Florida, Georgia and back in Cleveland at AMP 150 with acclaimed chef Ellis Cooley, she always moved toward the knife. Exacting fish filleting, breaking down meat into fine cuts without waste – each gave her satisfaction.

Especially pork, with its rich flavors.

"The pig is a magical animal," she said, moving her little yellow ceramic knife along the chine bones.

With a Lebanese name like Khoury, you don't expect someone to have an "I Heart Swine" tattoo. Khoury admits she's addicted to vegetable-based food at Nate's Deli near West Side Market. But her family's other side migrated from the South, bringing pork-love with them.

She'd like to go in a million directions, but she's staying small, working local farmers markets under the company name Saucisson (French, usually referring to a dried sausage). The dried and cured meats will come later. In fact, the shop will come later. Right now, she's out of the starting gate, renting time at the kitchen, getting a hand lifting a 150-pound side of pork with help from another food producer at the kitchen, Clark Pope, and drawing a crowd of fellow cooks with her confident style. She just debuted her products at two local farmers markets.

What: Saucisson's changing menu of bacons, hams, terrines, etc. We tried a spicy maple bacon made with richly flavored Berkshire hog meat and a tasso, Louisiana-styled ham made from pork tenderloin. The ham had an elegant smoke and silky tenderness. She likes it in a sandwich with a mustard-based cheese she gets at The Cheese Shop at West Side Market, and serves on a brioche. We chopped up a few pieces for a bayou rice and beans salad and it elevated the entire dish with its veil of smoke and classy pork flavor.