It gives a depth of flavor and smokiness thats unmatchedits the smokiest bacon youll ever eat.. Sharon Benton married the country ham and bacon curer Allan Benton, of Madisonville, Tennessee, right around the time he left the schoolhouse for the smokehouse. For years, the business stayed small and localno e-commerce, not even a credit card machine. From the first day I started, he says, I wanted to make something truly extraordinary. 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. For three or four months, I was there every two or three weeks. I thought, Ive made ham and bacon my whole life, I wonder if Albert would lease me this building? His salt and brown sugarcured country hams and extra-smoky hickory bacon are the stuff of legend, and his name appears on the hottest menus in the country. In 1973, Allan opened Bentons Smoky Mountain Country Hams. "Benton's is, like, the only country ham. For my grandparents, pork was sustenance. They sold out immediately. He and March finalized . The company was founded in 2001 till its closure in 2016. 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. Im just an ol hillbilly, Benton likes to say. What am I smelling? David told me it was love at first smell.. I was soaking up everything I could learn. I was wet behind the ears and green as the grass. I cant tell you how proud I am that they use my product.. They stay in the cold room for about two months: After that, they hang the hams upside down in netting, which gives them a prettier shape. They stay that way for between one to two months, then he flips them over to hang by the shank, because they dry better that way and by then theyve got the right shape.. "We lived like people lived a hundred years ago," he told me. Angela Benton Wiki - Angela Benton Biography. He has restaurants all over the world, but I think majordomo in Los Angeles is his best endeavor yet.. Never heard of him? You know well that no one's salary and assets remain fixed for a long period of time. "Jed, it's amazing to me that anybody in New York knows about our products," he said, as I sat down to talk with him earlier this fall. William Benton Allen Jr. Net Worth . That's not to say that he didn't waver once or twice. I can just tell you that it works for me. Ron Turner's father, Garnett, started by curing 25 hams for his customers. Dan came into the limelight of the media because of his wife Stephanie March. Layton Benton Net Worth 2019. I thought it was just a country cafe. Allan Benton says they use hickory and applewood smoke, and it comes from a woodstove he bought from his cousin 30 years ago for $50. Allan Benton went to college at the University of Tennessee, and, after a stint as a guidance counselor in Florida, came back to find a new career. Suzanne Benton is a psychiatrist in Raleigh, North Carolina. It took a while to break into the market.. I sell to 500 different chefs because I sell to David, says Benton. Hes a good human, said Shepherd. I was starstruck. Hicks who had just spoiled $25,000 worth of hams and didnt know what had happened was ready to sell the business. Allan Benton is a lot humbler than a man who's built a porcine empire with his own two hands need be. His family farmed and ate what they raised, including heritage-breed hogs that were allowed to naturally forage for their food, growing fat on acorns and other nuts in the Southern Appalachian forest. But the business was by no means an overnight success. The potent, provocative smell of hickory smoke draws in any visitorand anyone who tries the finished product. "They would go back to wherever they came from," Benton says, "and my phone would be ringing. The only disappointing news we heard out of Arthur was that Bentons doesnt get its hams locally. In comparison, Flay's reported net worth is a meager $20 million. Lucky Benton 's revenue is $1.7M in 2022. He has released a number of songs and albums, some of which have performed really successfully on American music charts. We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. He told me that he'd helped turn country ham into a commodity product, where quality was nothing and price was everything, and that he wished that he had done what I'd done and never changed. With the Spanish master leading the way, Benton reviews processes, tracing the path from pink haunches of freshly butchered pork to two-year-old exemplars, rubbed with olive oil until they gleam beneath the lights. We didnt see the smokehouse, but we sure did smell it. Finally, the cured pork belly and hams destined to be hickory-smoked are taken to the smokehouse behind the building for the final touch. When making redeye gravy, trim the fat away from the ham and render it separately, so as not to overcook the meat. To know about this persons net worth and salary and all follow the below section. All signs pointed to a high likelihood of failure. He is a white man, registered to vote in Wake county and affiliated with the Democrat Party since January 1 1984. ", Benton goes through 13,000 or 14,000 hams each year. He uses it when talking about everything from the quality . 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. I wrote to a lot of food tech departments at universities across the South. He was flabbergasted. But the unique taste of his products has never been an accident. I want someone who is not just motivated by the dollar, but motivated to make something truly extraordinary. William Benton Allen Jr. is the Sr. VP & . Since Benton started the business 47 years ago, Bentons Smoky Mountain Country Hams has become a Southern legend. Yearly rankings of the best employers in the United States, Canada as well as for women, diversity, recent grads and beyond. McGraw started his playing career with Greenock Morton. Year. "After that, he's on his own." In a memorable moment, Benton started selling to Tom Colicchios iconic New York City restaurant Craft. Full body measurements, dress & shoe size will be updated soon. George and Barbi Benton were blessed with two children. Benton researched everything he could about the curing process and running a business, and credits Hicks for being a helpful mentor. That was my goal. Allan Benton. The precise net worth of the radio personality has not been made public. Chang has been nearly as instrumental in spreading the gospel of Allan Benton as Fleer was. Now, according to the Momofuku cookbook, which has an in-his-own-words interview with Allan Benton, the man who originally started the business was named Albert Hicks. Each year when resources and ran low by early fall, his grandparents released the hogs into the Southern Appalachian forest to forage on whatever they could find. He is seen as one of the most successful Actor of all times. Here, Benton talks about his Appalachian roots, working with celebrity chefs, and why he wont sell to Whole Foods. Our crew meets Maldonado at his white masonry cure house, skirted by wizened olive trees. Ive been in the business for 39 years, and I hope to have another 20. Thats when my phone started ringing off the hook.. They say he stopped dead in his tracks, like a bird dog on point, and asked, What is that aroma? Lets go home and make BLTs! one said to the other, with not a little glee in her voice. David Chang left Craft to start Momofuku Noodle Bar. (Sage advice from his father helped: Son, if you play the other mans game, youll get beat every time. December 2019. 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. 2603 Hwy. Benton approached Hicks and asked to lease his old smokehouse. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Layton Benton and could vary in the range between $565.2K - $1.5M. Bentons grandparents cured country hams in a log smokehouse behind their house. Benton's bacon should not be fried to a crisp. I said we are going to increase production on aged hams18- to 30-month hams500 percent annually. < Back to Oral History project: Cured South. $1 Million - $5 Million. But he kept at it, family recipe and all, resisting the urge to cheapen his process. Net Worth in 2023: $1 million. He brought them over in an old blue pickup with a cab on the back., Benton said: Back when chef Fleer called me up, I had no idea what Blackberry Farm was. I thought about it on my drive back to Madisonville. Mr. Benton joined Dawson Samberg Capital Management in 1993 as a technology analyst and portfolio manager. ", "I'm doing the same thing, basically, that my grandparents did in a log smokehouse behind the house I was born in.". Right now, he has 11 employees. They calculated exactly how much cure I needed to use on my meat. But the ham and bacon sure are delicious. Here are some of the photos I found. With our employees, we want people who will take pride in making something really special.. We have added controversies in this section. Taking into account various assets, Allan's net worth is greater than $499,999; and makes between $30 - 39,999 a year. But instead, as you can see here, see the smokehouse is just off a rural highway. That's what they told me at Blackberry Farm, the luxury resort just up the highway from Benton's cinderblock office in Madisonville, Tennessee. 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. As Blackberry Farms reputation grew, it developed a cooking program with visiting guest chefs. Our goal is to make quality products that will rival that of our European cousins. Alexander Gradow their first child was born in August 1986 and Ariana Gradow their second child was born in July 1988. Bentons grandparents cured country hams in a log smokehouse behind their house. But when he saw the salary range, he decided owning his own business would provide more financial security. Bentons riselike his process of aging hamstook time. I knew I couldnt survive on what they were paying, he remembers. By clicking Accept All Cookies, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. "This is just a little hillbilly operation," he said, "I can't imagine," though I know that he can, because he has been to New York and seen what big-name chefs do with his old-fashioned country hams and hickory-smoked bacon. But with the hogs coming from the Midwest, theres a greater length of time between when the hog is slaughtered and when it is delivered. No one will buy my dang products from a computer! Benton told him. I've been doing it wrong.' Knoxville, TN 37902 The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. $ 1.7M in 2022 sell to david, says Benton as well as women... A helpful mentor the limelight of the best employers in the range between $ 565.2K - $ 1.5M behind house. 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