Pat LaFrieda

Pat LaFrieda is a fourth-generation butcher, a third-generation meat purveyor and the owner of America ́s premier meatpacking business, Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors, which supplies restaurants in NY City, DC, Las Vegas and more.

LaFrieda is the author of cookbook Meat "Everything You Need to Know" and "Glorious Beef"

Although Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors have always had a respectable reputation in the meatpacking industry, they were still relatively unknown. It was not until the early 1990s—when ChefMario Batali made Pat LaFrieda’s company the primary provider of his restaurants—that they began to receive more attention. As Mario Batali gradually rose to prominence, restaurateurs such as Danny Meyer (owner of Shake Shack) also decided to choose Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors as their main meat supplier. In 2004, when Shake Shack started serving Pat LaFrieda’s custom burger blend, both the restaurant and the meat company became famous. Since then, the company has become quite popular as Pat LaFrieda Jr. began to appear on television shows such as Martha Stewart, ABC News Nightline, Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre Foods, and The Mike Colameco show on PBS. New York Magazine has even dubbed Pat LaFrieda Jr., “The Magician of Meat”. On April 4, 2012 the meat supplying company debuted in a reality show on Food Network called “Meat Men”. The show documented the inner workings of the company and followed Pat LaFrieda Jr., his father Pat LaFrieda Sr. and his cousin Mark Pastore through their work. Besides appearing on television, the company has also had a mobile-app developed for them by the production company Zero Point Zero.