Chef Applies Creativity To 'Making Ends Meat' In Manhattan Beach

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — An inquisitive mind and a little experimentation has turned Manhattan Beach resident Chef Callan Flowers into quite the barbecue guy. And the demand for his BBQ fare and smoked meats proves he's got what it takes to start a new business from home during a pandemic with a baby on the way and a wife who owns a salon nearby.

For Chef Callan the road to selling smoked meats happened accidentally. But it's also what he calls "Making Ends Meat," which coincidentally is the name of his newfound business.

Earlier this year before COVID-19 fully hit, Chef Callan worked at the culinary powerhouse Chez Melange in Redondo Beach where he "worked all the stations from prep to salads to fryer and ending up on grill doing most of the meats and sauces that came out of the kitchen. I worked and learned under Chef Robert Bell and our awesome Sous Chef Adrian Bastida (who is now Sousing it up at The Strand House) and was responsible for overseeing the kitchen, working the Middle station, on the days our Sous had off."

He'd been there nearly five years when restaurateur Bell decided to close it after 38 years. "They thankfully gave us notice at the beginning of the year that we were closing on February 29th about two weeks before everything [COVID-19] hit the fan here in the States. With her business sense and social media prowess and my one talent in life," he joked, "we decided to start up something that could combine those things. The smoking meats part of it was actually kind of secondary to just cooking for people. We saw there was a void in this area for that service and did our best to fill that void."

Manhattan Beach residents have come to love Chef Callan's fare, which has its roots in his younger years. "My Dad worked a lot when I was a kid and we had a big family," he noted. "On days he had off, he would BBQ and smoke meats in the back yard... I used to help him a lot when I was younger and probably 10-12 years ago I started smoking meats using creative ways as I didn’t personally have a smoker. I would make my own little smoker boxes and pouches by putting wood into aluminum pans or foil and putting it on my propane grill."

The chef's menu includes brisket, pulled pork, tri tip, Cornish game hens, sausages and sides of Smokey Baked Beans, Mac & Cheese, and Kickin' Coleslaw. "We use either the brisket or the pulled pork to flavor the beans (depending on stock) and they are my favorite side," he noted. "Sweet smokey, a little tangy and a little spicy. The coleslaw gets great reviews as well. It’s pretty basic, in my humble opinion, but I jazz it up with my proprietary BBQ spice blend that I use on my pork."

Chef Callan considers himself fortunate to be working from home. He and wife Karen welcomed their first child on Sept. 7 [Labor Day, no pun intended, he quipped], Daisy Ramona Flowers and the proud father took a break from his smoked meats because he was "enjoying the hell out of this little nugget."

Now, just this week, he's back to smoking meats at his home. "We are looking for a location that will zone properly for smoking outdoors," he said. "I have a couple different smokers, including a drum smoker and also a couple Masterbuilt electric smokers for my overnight smokes."

Chef Callan's business has boomed. "In our normal services and with the addition of sides to the menu and the introduction of family packs, which include two pounds of meat, buns and sauce, and two of each of our sides, I would say the biggest order we’ve had was probably two of those packs with some sausages. We also have done a few drop off 'caterings,' one of which was for 20 people, but that is outside of our normal," he noted. Their busiest weekend was right before Daisy was born when they had 15-16 orders.

"Pork butt was the first thing I ever smoked on my own and we started with that [for Making Ends Meat] because we felt it could be a great value to our customers," he explained. "At the start of the pandemic, we decided to do two pounds of pulled pork with buns and sauce for five people for about $25, and while we have raised that $5, we feel that is a great value to feed a family that might also be put out due to the pandemic. It really was something that we could do to not only help ourselves make 'Ends Meat' but also provide an inexpensive meal for families.

"I also do the brisket because I had always wanted to do brisket but it was too big and too expensive to do for just my wife and I. After I did it the first time I fell in love with it. Soooo good. Most of the other items were eventually added to add value and options to the menu."

Chef Callan procures his meats from Restaurant Depot and their selection determines what sausages he might have at any given time. But barbecuing and smoking meats isn't his only passion. Of his wife Karen, he said, "She is honestly the one who should get most of the credit for this endeavor. Couldn’t do it without her. I’ve proved that. When the salon [Salon Flourish on Highland Avenue and 36th Street in North Manhattan Beach] was allowed to open shortly in June my sales dropped as she couldn’t network for me," he said laughing.

If you ever spend time with Chef Callan, you will find him affable and quite comedic. He's also very grateful for all of the help he and his wife have received. Said the chef, "We really appreciate all the love and support our neighbors and friends and family have shown us over this difficult time. My wife and I waited 13 years to venture into parenthood as we wanted to establish ourselves first. Two months after finding out that we were pregnant the world was turned upside down, seemingly just to show us that you can’t plan anything in life. Sometimes you have to just roll with it and it makes me so happy that the kindness of strangers helped us pull through this."

And he's definitely loving fatherhood and smoking meats. "With a newborn at home, this allows me to work from home and be here as quarantined as possible to keep her as safe as possible. We will do this as long as we can or need to unless some unforeseen circumstance arises. What are the chances of that in 2020?" he chuckled.