Nathan Anda is the Butcher and Chef at Red Apron Butcher, an artisan butchery and small batch producer of handmade charcuterie founded in 2009, as well as The Partisan, its adjoining restaurant and bar.
His combination of traditional techniques and culinary expertise has helped Red Apron emerge as D.C.’s definitive source for real and honest charcuterie, pâtés, salumi, terrines, sausages and more. Anda’s work earned him a Good Food Award in 2011 for charcuterie, and accolades from The Washington Post, Men’s Health, Bon Appetit, Washingtonian, Urban Daddy and others. Raised in New Hampshire, Anda’s family later moved to Charlottesville, VA and it was there he first started cooking and was soon learning under chef Angelo Vangelopoulos at the Ivy Inn. Here, and at subsequent internships to follow, he learned about charcuterie and craftsmanship required to do it right. Eager to make cooking his profession, Anda soon enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont. There, he took every course o°ered on butchery and charcuterie.
Upon returning to the area, Anda worked in the kitchen at Equinox Restaurant in Washington, D.C. for two years before being tapped to help open and run Salamander Market in Middleburg, VA. In 2004, he accepted his first Executive Chef role at Tallula and EatBar in Arlington, Virginia. Anda quickly opted to break down whole animals to use in his charcuterie, baby burgers, housemade bacons and foie gras, all which soon gained acclaim from USA Today and The Washington Post. All the while, Anda continued to build on his knowledge through butcher shop tours in Italy, fermented and cured meat workshops at Iowa State University and an internship at The Fatted Calf in San Francisco. In 2008, Anda founded Red Apron Butchery and began actualiz- ing his vision for pure, quality meats.
Through Red Apron, Anda has built close relationships with local farms that all raise their animals following sustainable and humane rearing practices, and many of which are Animal Welfare Approved. During production, he hand-grinds and mixes meats according to his personal, finely tuned recipes for the nearly 70 goods in the Red Apron larder. Each product is cased by hand, aged or smoked – often for months and under careful watch – until it’s just right.
In early 2014, Anda opened the third Red Apron location in the Penn Quarter neighborhood, followed by the opening of the adjoining restaurant and bar, The Partisan. The collaboration between Anda and fellow chef Ed Witt serves as the backbone for The Partisan which aims to deconstruct, reimagine and reconstruct a meat-centric restaurant in a city whose dining scene was long defined by the classic steakhouse.
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