When we here at Squid Ink use the term “working ripe,” it usually refers to those times when we head into the office after a particularly moist gym workout. But for Casey Lane, head chef at Venice's Tasting Kitchen (as well as the upcoming Parish and Itri), the term has another meaning altogether.

In a short promo video by the Culinary Agency, the group that documented Food GPS' Lamb Showdown with Zach Pollack, Steve Samson and Walter Manzke, and a Mark Peel-led tour of the Santa Monica farmers market, the former Portland chef explains the demands of nose-to-tail sourcing and utilizing hyper-seasonal ingredients while Kanye West's “Runaway” plays in the background.

Lane explains that the Tasting Kitchen receives three whole pigs a week for the restaurant, meaning that its chefs have to be conscious of the cuts being used when designing their daily menu. In between footage of Lane using a meat cleaver to go full-on Dexter on some behemoth hog sections, is the interesting anecdote that the kitchen sources only six pig ears per week (from the three pigs, remember), so it follows that if you're able to score a plate of fried pig ears on a particularly busy night at the restaurant, you've pretty much won the meat lottery.

Check out the video below:

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