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Akaushi Red Cattle Bull
Categories Chef's Blog

Local Wagyu Beef from Clint’s Cattle

New to our Specials Menu, you’ll find two new Prime Wagyu items featuring local beef from Clint’s Cattle company. Here’s a little about Clint’s Cattle and what makes our local Wagyu simply premier.

Owned by Mike Moorman, the Akaushi cows of Clint’s Cattle are located in Bedford and Franklin Counties, in Virginia. Mike farms with his dad, Roger, and friends Bill and Stephen Maxwell. The cows are pasture raised, hormone free and supplemented with spent grain from local brewers. They start with Black Angus or Gelbvieh cows that are then crossed with Akaushi bulls via artificial insemination. They have most recently been using a bull named, “El Padrino”.

Bull

Clint’s Cattle are Akaushi (Ah-ka-OO-shi), or Japanese Red. The origin of the breed traces to Kumamoto, Japan where they were developed to withstand the challenging climate and terrain of Kumamoto, but also the refined taste of Japanese consumers. The Japanese Association of Akaushi was founded in 1944 to carefully control the breeding, progeny testing and research that culminated to produce the best-tasting beef in the world.  These cattle were first introduced to the US in the mid 90s and are still primarily located in Texas at Heartbrand Ranch.

The high-fat content in Akaushi cattle leaves less room for muscle fiber and collagen making the beef notably more tender than other breeds.  It also contains a higher concentration of monounsaturated fat relative to saturated fat, which can lead to lower cholesterol, the prevention of coronary heart disease and weight loss.  The American Akaushi Association has more information available about the breed at their website.

Wagyu simply means Japanese Cattle. The four breeds of Wagyu Cattle are: Japanese Black, Japanese Red, Japanese Poll and Japanese Shorthorn.  In the US, both Japaneses Black and Japanese Red are available. All Akaushi are Wagyu, but not all Wagyu are Akaushi.

Categories Chef's Blog

Meet our Chefs: Todd Johnson and Greg Smiley

NAPA’s culinary excellence begins with not only the freshest local ingredients but with the help of great hands and minds. Executive Chef Todd Johnson is the former owner of the former Mezzanine Restaurant, which specialized in globally-inspired dishes that utilized local Farm to Table ingredients. Before moving to Richmond, Todd worked alongside Wolfgang Puck at the esteemed Spago restaurant, and has also worked in kitchens in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and India!

The relationships he has built with local farmers and suppliers over the years he has brought to NAPA Kitchen and Wine so that he can remain true to what all his mentors taught him about good, fresh local ingredients. As Chef Johnson says, “Great food begins with great ingredients.”

“Great food begins with great ingredients.”

Working alongside Executive Chef Todd is Sous Chef Greg Smiley. Greg’s love of culinary art began over 25 years ago in his family’s Italian restaurant where he learned the art of Sicilian scratch cooking. Greg went on to open Italian Restaurant Al Dentes and then Pescados, a flagship award-winning Richmond favorite with a focus on Latin-Carribean influenced seafood.

The two chefs are long-time friends whose vast experience is reflected in the creation of our menu, which brings a contemporary twist on a wide selection of accessible dishes that feature bold, innovative and exciting flavor profiles. With excellent relationships with local farmers and suppliers, only the freshest ingredients set the standard at NAPA, where our passion is to bring the taste of the West-Coast to Westchester Commons in an elevated and sophisticated yet casual environment.

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