Just don't call him Mr. Benton. Salty. I was starstruck. Editor's Note: We were planning to publish this article today, even before we read the pulse-quickening news that the smokehouse at Benton's Country Hams caught fire briefly Tuesday night. 2. Best Match AGE 80+ Allan M Benton Lawrence, NY (Five Towns) Aliases Allen M Benton Phone Number Address Background Report Addresses Atlantic Ave, Lawrence, NY My first thought was, O. Were a tiny hole-in-the-wall business. Allan Benton grew up in Scott County, Virginia, in a 175-year-old house thats still never seen a coat of paint. His family raised all their own food, from chicken and hogs to corn and grain. Just terrific. Being enterprising Appalachians, in August of each year, they turned their hogs loose to run in the hills and find acorns. The precise net worth of the radio personality has not been made public. Theyre then hung in a temperature-controlled room and left to dry-cure for anywhere from nine to 30 months, releasing moisture, intensifying in flavors, and taking on a rosy hue. Allan Benton We found 16 records for Allan Benton in NY, CA and 11 other states. They were right; he might be. I walked away from Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams with bags full of bacon, ham, and Benton's excellent prosciutto. When I first tasted Bentons bacon, I thought, Wow! Id never had anything like it before, said Chris Shepherd, chef and owner of Georgia James in Houston, Texas. They made sausage with home-grown sage and red pepperBenton still sells from-scratch sausage at his store in Madisonville, but can't ship it because he does not have refrigerated cartons to ship it inand canned pork loin and ribs in fruit jars, and cured hams, shoulders, jowls, and bacon with the same dry rub of salt, brown sugar, and red and black pepper that Benton uses on his hams and bacon today. In the log cabin behind his house,Allans family cured hams. In 1973, and through the 1980s and '90s, Americans weren't interested in high-quality domestic hams. Here are some of the photos I found. In the back, other employees moved wooden tiers of hams out of the smoker where they spent three days infusing in hickory smoke before moving the next lot into it. Bacon should not be overcooked. $1 Million - $5 Million. Allan Benton is the king of pork. Angela Benton Wiki - Angela Benton Biography. In 1978, Benton moved to his current location in Madisonville, off Highway 411 North. $200 per post at $10/CPM. Wed give all the guest chefs a care package of bacon and ham as a thank you gift, said Fleer. I owe all of my success to my loyal customers, especially to the chefs who use my products on their menus, he said. Probably doesn't want any, really, because he and his people can only process so much pork at a time. From the first day I started, I wanted to make something truly extraordinary. Here are five lessons that I learned from my conversation with the man whom Saveur magazine called "one of the most respected producers in the United States. I told him, Ive been wanting to meet you! And he replied, Ive been wanting to meet you, too!. Jarren Benton is an American born rapper and singer. Allan Benton outside Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams in 2014. I still am fascinated by it. At one point, he called and said hed been playing around with my product, and he wanted to develop a menu at Blackberry around our products and was wondering if it was OK to put my name on the menu. Popularly known as the Actor of United Kingdom. Net Worth in 2019. Being a famous model for Playboy Enterprise and an impressive actress for many TV Series, Barbi Benton has acquired a net worth of $22 million as of February 2023. That's not self-aggrandizement; it's aspirational. In 2012, he bought 730 Park Ave. duplex for $39 million with his ex-wife. Benton's is not something that will sit casually on . His whole operationsmokehouse, coolers, aging rooms, and allis in a building only a little bit larger than your typical ranch house, tucked discreetly on the side of the highway with Benton's famous slogan, "We Cure 'Em," emblazoned on its side. Around that time, he heard that local dairy farmer Albert Hicks, who'd made decent money selling country hams to tourists, had retired. Bacon should not be overcooked. "I thought, 'You know, I've got to do something for the next year, til I get accepted. Stick with quality. Call Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams at 423-442-5003 to place an order. This is, 100%, my favorite award show off the season. Hicks, nearing retirement, agreed to lease his space to Benton, who started curing his own hams using the recipe he learned from his grandparents. Since 1973, Benton has been creating some of the most delicious cured hams and smoky bacon using the same basic method he saw during his mountain upbringing. Join Facebook to connect with Allan Benton and others you may know. Since his cured hams take more than a year to produce, Benton had to quickly refocus to selling other meats, such as USDA choice beef tenderloin and steak, which he continues to offer. When East Tennessee had slaughterhouses in the area, a hog would be butchered on Thursday, cut on Friday and delivered to Benton on Monday. Overcooking the ham can result in a tougher, saltier slice., Our aged hams, more than 14 months old, are best served thinly sliced on a charcuterie plate with bread or crackers., As for bacon, Benton prefers to cook it in a 350-degree oven for around 16 minutes. The business has been featured in foodways exhibits at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville and the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans, and Benton was inducted into the James Beard Foundations Whos Who of Food and Beverage in America in 2015. His. Bentons grandparents cured country hams in a log smokehouse behind their house. All you see is a sort of run-down retail operation with wood paneling from the 1960s and a not-so-well organized glass case displaying several packages of vacuum-sealed ham and bacon. Dan Benton- Net Worth, Salary. The first time I met him, I was visiting Blackberry Farm Brewery in Tennessee, and Allan just walked in the door. In a small roadside smokehouse in Madisonville, Tennessee, Allan Benton crafts what top chefs across the United States consider the gold standard of country ham and bacon. The info about Brook Benton's net worth, wiki, bio, career, height, weight, family, affairs, car, salary, age, and other details are based on Wikipedia, IMDb, Forbes, Instagram, and Facebook of Brook Benton. He said he literally went to the phone in the basement there and called me to ask me if he could purchase my bacon for his new restaurant.". William Benton Allen Jr. Net Worth . In addition to its nice smoke profile, Bentons bacon is a little thicker and chewier, said Chris Spear, chef and owner of Perfect Little Bites in Washington, D.C. As for the country ham? Chefs and home cooks alike rave about the results. The Bentons three children are all in the medical field. In 2018, Benton and his wife Stephanie March purchased a $34.62 million penthouse in a Manhattan skyscraper, which they shared with their son. They traveled on horseback and grew or raised what they ate. $42.9K - $134.1K. His dry-cured and smoked hams and thick-cut bacon, made by hand the way his grandparents did, can be found on the menus of leading chefs throughout the South and beyond, including David Chang and Tom Colicchio in New York and Chris Shepherd in Houston. David Chang, late of Colicchio's Craft, had just launched Momofuku when he smelled Benton's bacon frying on a visit to his former workplace. 3. Some 400 to 600 heritage hog hams are trucked in every week and rubbed down with salt, brown sugar and sodium nitrate. In the past, Allan has also been known as Allan T Benton. One dish I remember he really liked [was] our wild sturgeon wrapped in his aged ham and seared.. Like, follow, friend. Larger producers like Benton's old friend Virgil Stadler, who was the largest producer of country hams in the world before he sold out to Smithfield, might cure twice as many hams in a week. For years, the business stayed small and localno e-commerce, not even a credit card machine. As reported by Glassdoor, a radio host in England earns between $30K to $76K annually. Ive been in the business for 39 years, and I hope to have another 20. But the business was by no means an overnight success. How does Allan Benton cook his famous hams at home? Theyre then hung in a temperature-controlled room and left to dry-cure for anywhere from nine to 30 months, releasing moisture, intensifying in flavors, and taking on a rosy hue. You want it to bend a bit without breaking., Bentons Smoky Mountain Country Hams "School had just started," says Benton, "and they brought the salary schedule in, and showed it to me, and I thought 'I've just made a horrible career choice.'" She graduated from UT in 1976 with a degree in education and for years supervised pre-K through eighth-grade curriculum and instruction for Monroe County. As the second youngest of six kids growing up in Senatobia, Mississippi, Sydney Meers' family raised their own hogs. We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. April 25, 2022 MADISONVILLE, Tenn. Allan Benton started selling country hams here in the 1970s, figuring he could make a better living than he did as a high school guidance counselor. In 2023, Glen Benton's net worth was estimated to be $400 Thousand. But with restaurants making up 75 percent of their business, Bentons main customer base all but disappeared when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But the unique taste of his products has never been an accident. In the cookbook, he also gives us the rundown on how his curing process works. I wont tell you that we do that. The Southern Foodways Alliance drives a more progressive future by leading conversations that challenge existing constructs, shape perspectives, and foster meaningful discussions. What am I smelling? David told me it was love at first smell.. Tomato Head in Knoxville was the first downtown restaurant that I ever sold to. We will update this section once this information is available. She currently shares three houses where she splits time with her Businessman Husband. I swallowed hook, line and sinker everything they told me. I thought it was just a country cafe. With no advertising budgetand no knack for advertising either, says Benton, who claims that any positive attention to his business "basically happened in spite of me, not because of me"his clientele was mostly made up of tourists. Bobby Flay's former wife Stephanie March has found love again with hedge funder Daniel Benton, . For some of these chefs, it was their first taste of Bentons products. ", How did Allan Benton do it? And I do have a sense of pride that my forefathers used it. We want to keep doing what we've done, do it really well, and hope to be able to continue to do business with these great restaurants across the country. Barbi Benton reportedly has a net worth of $20 . Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. ", Benton goes through 13,000 or 14,000 hams each year. For three or four months, I was there every two or three weeks. "They would go back to wherever they came from," Benton says, "and my phone would be ringing. It took a while to break into the market.. You don't need to cook country ham much." Allan Benton grew up in the southwestern corner of Virginia, actually, not in Tennesseeso deep in the mountains, he says, that you had to look straight up to see daylight. Barbi is 70 years old. Benton is estimated to have a net worth of approximately $8 million, according to various media publications. Benton was born and raised in rural Scott County, Virginia. I learned a lot about life. I realized I was selling 15-month-aged ham for the same price as 3-month-old hams. Benton has a very impressive portfolio. When Benton was a boy in the 1950s and '60s, no one on either side of his family owned a car, truck, or tractor. I had just gotten my Masters and was working as a guidance counselor in Tennessee when I looked at the salary Id make and realized I wasnt going to be able to make a living. Ask top chefs like David Chang, Sean Brock, orHugh Acheson where they get their bacon. He uses it when talking about everything from the quality . If they want something, they find a way to get it. George and Barbi Benton were blessed with two children. (Sara Wood/Southern Foodways Alliance), Melanie Young writes about wine, food, travel, and health. English actor who has appeared in the long-running Nationwide Building Society advertisements and played the role of Eddie in Early Doors. IN THE FALL OF 1973, Allan Bentona 1969 graduate of the UT Knoxville College of Educationquit his job as a high school guidance counselor to start curing, smoking and aging hams in a leased building in Madisonville, Tennessee. Mr. Benton and his ex-wife Anna Benton still own a penthouse on the Upper East Side that was purchased for $39 million . says Benton. Angela Benton was born in the Chicago, Illinois in 1981. As a successful rapper, he had amassed a sizable portion of his net worth. With more, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed. Norman Rockwell Norman Rockwells career spanned, In the spring of 2014, while returning from a whirlwind RV road trip to his sisters wedding, Josh and Neysa Grzywa and, James Von Allmen Hart, lovingly referred to as JV by his family and protgs, is the creative force behind several of our, Among the Founding Fathers, Roger Sherman is one of the best-kept secrets. "They say he stopped dead in his tracks, like a bird dog on point, and asked 'What is that aroma? November 2022. Profession: American rapper from Decatur, Georgia. Next to the refrigerator case is this cardboard box full of Bentons delightful bacon ends: And then in the corner, there is the contraption, upon which hang many meats: And then, of course, there is the smell. Net Worth: $1 Million Date of Birth: Dec 13, 1974 (48 years old) Place of Birth: Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. You'll walk out ham in handas a man in a nearby gas station told me, "Allan makes sure that we local people can always get his stuff when we want it"and you're more than likely to meet the man in charge, who might take the time to show you around if you're interested. For some of these chefs, it was their first taste of Bentons products. Taking into account various assets, Allan's net worth is greater than $499,999; and makes between $30 - 39,999 a year. I thought, Ive made ham and bacon my whole life, I wonder if Albert would lease me this building? I had been at Blackberry Farm for a short time in 1993 and was searching for locally crafted food products. No one will buy my dang products from a computer! Benton told him. He couldnt figure it out, says Benton. Keep the product high-quality, keep the operation small. A long time. He set out to make what we'd call "heritage," or "artisan," products decades ago, at a time when very few of his contemporaries were with him and very few consumers cared. As Benton puts it, "We were a little bit like that old country-western song that Barbara Mandrell sang, country before it was cool. What I would give if I could have studied food technology. Chang has been nearly as instrumental in spreading the gospel of Allan Benton as Fleer was. Thats the biggest compliment of all. Hicks, nearing retirement, agreed to lease his space to Benton, who started curing his own hams using the recipe he learned from his grandparents. Obsessed: Mastering Charcuterie in Coal Country, What "Selling Out" Allows a Craft Brewery to Do, A Fine Mess of Ramps: Tradition and Community Thrive at West Virginia's Ramp Dinners, How Does a Restaurant Last 35 Years? The day after the site launched, Bentons had seven orders. He released his debut album, Used Heart for Sale, in 1996, under the record label Decca Nashville. Id put Bentons up there with the finest European charcuterie, Spear said. Every product we make is like a barrel of whiskey that needs to be aged a certain amount of time, said Benton. His dry-cured and smoked hams and thick-cut bacon, made by hand the way his grandparents did, can be found on the menus of leading chefs throughout the South and beyond, including David Chang and Tom Colicchio in New York and Chris Shepherd in Houston. 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