Olympic Provisions is home to Oregon’s first USDA-approved salumeria, established in 2009. With two locations in beautiful Portland, Oregon, both locations of Olympic Provisions operate as European-style restaurants, bustling neighborhood delis, and onsite meat-curing facilities, where salumist and owner Elias Cairo carefully crafts “American Charcuterie” using the highest quality local ingredients. Attached to our NW location is our large new meat curing facility, which has allowed us to expand our product line and availability.
Cairo has crafted twelve different salami based on the regional flavors you would find in France, Spain, Italy and Greece. Each salami type and flavor profile is true to the region or country’s style from which it originates (i.e. Saucisson d’Alsace has the flavor profile of what you would find in the Alsace region).
Raised by a Greek restaurateur father who cured meat at home, Cairo trained for five years in Switzerland under master chef Annegret Schlumpf, where he completed a chef apprenticeship and developed his skills and passion for making quality charcuterie utilizing the finest meats, spices, and ingredients.
Starting with fresh Northwest pork, Cairo and his team hand-butcher the pork to 100% lean, then add back hand-cut fatback. This nearly extinct Old World technique results in charcuterie that’s as smooth and creamy as it is true in pure pork flavor. Garlic is freshly chopped and spices are ground daily in-house so that the flavors within the salumi are as vivid and pure as possible.
This relentless quest for quality and flavor would mean nothing if Cairo’s curing craft wasn’t meticulously refined. His approach to salami-making is patient and graceful, and his curing room is a thing of beauty: strings of salumi cased in natural hog intestine and dusted in natural white mold hang in neat rows, reminiscent of the handmade technique and authentic product one would find in a European farmer’s market.