Jered Standing, proprietor of ethically minded butcher store Standing’s, dies at 44

Jered Standing, a well-liked L.A. butcher and a champion of moral and sustainable meat sourcing, has died at 44. In keeping with a report from the Los Angeles County medical examiner-coroner, he was discovered useless Feb. 22.

In 2017, Standing opened his Hancock Park store Standing’s Butchery, which shortly grew to become a benchmark for considerate sourcing in addition to service. It was not unusual to seek out Standing behind the counter, recommending cooking methods for each minimize within the meat case or showcasing the newest taste in his rainbow of house-made sausages.

“He was capable of affect such a big scene from one small store,” mentioned Kelsey Lee, wholesale gross sales supervisor of 4 Star Seafood who was consulting with the butcher for a future Standing’s location. “He was largely liable for [getting many] Los Angeles cooks [to] contemplate the way in which that they supply their components, and likewise the way in which that individuals get meals into their houses. Individuals now ask the place their meat’s coming from; they ask about what number of days it’s aged, what kind of setting it used to stay in … I’ll always remember that he made me really feel like we is usually a beacon of hope for that little sector of the world that we’re representing.”

The previous vegetarian constructed his firm on the premise of animal welfare, sourcing instantly from farmers who prioritize free-range habitats, heritage breeds and all-grass diets. He exercised a zero-waste program at Standing’s that included scraps, bones and different choice-cut byproducts into the likes of shares, chili and high-quality pet food and treats.

He additionally taught clients the significance of closed-loop farming and different sustainable practices by means of intimate butchery courses on the store and on-line by way of his social media channels.

“It grew to become a spot of schooling for me,” mentioned Justin Pichetrungsi, the James Beard Basis Award-winning chef of Anajak Thai, which was The Occasions’ 2022 Restaurant of the 12 months.

Pichetrungsi shopped at Standing’s and sought the butcher’s experience for his personal meals at house. “You don’t get many alternatives to be taught these issues in a clear approach … There’s a whole lot of gatekeepers on this planet of sourcing, and he was simply not a type of. It did actually deliver down the wall there.”

By Monday afternoon a small memorial had begun to kind exterior of Jered Standing’s Los Angeles butcher store on Melrose Avenue.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Occasions)

Standing’s ethos was infectious, however he wasn’t all the time enamored with the commerce. An early job at a neighborhood grocer uncovered the long run butcher to manufacturing facility farming and what he referred to as “the mistreatment of animals” when raised as commodity meats — a big impetus for his years of vegetarianism.

Enacting change, he later felt, may come within the type of extra aware consumerism and permit for his personal return to consuming meat.

“Not consuming meat doesn’t put any strain on the business to alter like being a aware meat eater does,” Standing instructed Los Angeles Journal in 2016. “If you happen to don’t eat meat, as a meat vendor, you’re simply not my buyer. However if you happen to’re shopping for another person’s meat and never mine — and I’m seeing that — then the strain’s on me to take a look at what I’m doing, and why you’re shopping for from that man.”

As he got down to be taught extra concerning the meat commerce and proselytize a extra sustainable meat system, he was sleeping in his $500 Toyota Corolla and on a pal’s sofa whereas he discovered monetary footing. A stint within the Entire Meals meat division helped educate him the butcher-shop fundamentals and noticed him looking by means of refrigerated trailers, headlamp on, to seek out 28- to 30-pound turkeys for purchasers at Thanksgiving.

He supplemented this schooling with shifts at Salt’s Treatment and watching butchery breakdown movies on YouTube at evening, till ultimately he grew to become the opening butcher for Belcampo. A number of years later, he left to open his personal enterprise, Standing’s. His Melrose Avenue butcher store grew to become a beacon for the group, whether or not it was for his lauded sidewalk burger pop-ups or to assist serve Los Angeles all through the pandemic, particularly as big-box retailers have been working out of meat and fundamental pantry necessities.

Standing’s store additionally helped affect a brand new community of native butchers.

“You’d be onerous pressed to seek out somebody extra passionate concerning the craft of butchery and devoted to the trigger for pasture-raised meats than Jered,” mentioned Eagle Yu, who first bonded with Standing over their mutual love of butchery over social media.

When Yu moved to Los Angeles, he grew to become a buyer of Standing’s till he had an opportunity to work with him instantly. Yu helped at Standing’s in the course of the pandemic and noticed “first-hand how a lot he [Standing] cared about his co-workers and his clients.” Yu went on to open his personal butchery, Meat & Necessities in San Marino, sharing lots of Standing’s rules.

“Working alongside Jered reignited my spark for butchery and led on to me deciding to open a store of my very own — an extended held notion that simply hadn’t discovered the appropriate timing,” Yu mentioned. “His thoughtfulness {and professional} courtesy all through the opening of my very own store knew no bounds; from sources, suppliers, distributors and recommendation, he shared his information freely and with out reservation. A lot in order that he was the primary particular person by means of the doorways of my store in 2022 on the day of our official opening.”

Standing, who died by suicide, in line with the report from the county medical examiner-coroner, had many plans for the long run. He had introduced a Westside butcher store and had aspirations for a restaurant, together with a everlasting outpost for his burger pop-up.

“At greatest, I hope it’s inspirational,” he wrote of his life’s story in a 2022 Instagram publish. “I bear in mind how unattainable it appeared after I first got down to open my very own enterprise. It appeared that everybody I requested about how they obtained began already had a bunch of cash, or had a wealthy member of the family who wrote them a giant test. I grew up on the free lunch program in school, and had a string of low paying jobs since I used to be 15.

“However, by that time, I had already seen how a lot actually onerous f— work can truly repay. Who knew? I’m an bold particular person. As such, I spend a whole lot of my time targeted on the long run. Eager about all that I need and don’t but have. However sometimes I do permit myself time to look again and replicate. To see how far I’ve come.”