Working -- Cristino Tapia

HE IS

Red-blooded and meat-loving, to the core

BONES AND BOVINES

Cristino Tapia offered to bring out one-fourth of a cow last week. He

went through the kitchen of Celestino’s Quality Meats in Costa Mesa and

emerged, suddenly, alongside an enormous leg that was connected to an

automated ceiling rail for easy transport.

Patting to different sections of the leg, he pointed out where we get

our top sirloins, our rib-eyes, our porterhouses and our T-bones.

Graphic as it sounds, this is Tapia’s job.

While most of us don’t readily remember which part of the cow

originally carried our steak, it’s Tapia’s duty to get it off the

200-pound bulk and into Celestino’s many windows of meat trays.

“We know everything there is to know about butchery,” the 25-year-old

said.

UN-VEGETARIAN

When it comes to meat, Tapia does it all.

He chops salmon into fillets, chicken into breasts and prepares pork

chops. He also helps with the grinding, processing part of meatpacking.

His work area is walled with different sized knives.

When asked if Tapia actually eats a whole lot of meat, he laughed.

“You’ve got to eat beef in order to work around here,” the Huntington

Beach resident said.

JERKY SECRETS

Tapia has been working in butchery for more than four years. He

started in the back kitchen deboning chicken breasts, marinating them and

piercing them on kabob skewers.

Through the years, he worked his way up to handling every kind of meat

Celestino’s has. Tapia says he likes dealing with customers who come in

excited about recipes and who leave grateful that he has helped them

gather ingredients.

The butcher is also one of the minds behind one of Celestino’s

greatest draws: their jerky.

The flavors are teriyaki, hot Texas, old-fashioned and turkey jerky.

Tapia and his co-workers slice up meat, marinate the strips and then

place them in convection ovens that dry them in about three hours.

Among regular patrons, they’re all the rave.

“It’s fun to work here,” he said. “We just like what we do.”