Welcome to Fatworks, the Fattitude Adjusters! What is our mission? Our big fat mission: to educate the mainstream population about the benefits of using REAL cooking oils like tallow, lard and duck fat while crafting these traditional fats the most natural way possible. For years fat has been marginalized, (no to mention margarinized), maligned, slandered, beat up, picked on and falsely accused! But no longer, for Fatworks is the Defenders of Fat!
David Cole, Fatworks founder
BACK IN 2010, David Cole, owner of Fatworks, hopped aboard the paleo train and had a hunch that a new generation of healthy-fats-seeking consumers were out there in search of well-rendered, premium tallow and lard.
He just couldn’t find any product on store shelves. He and his wife, Mieke, set out to make their own, taking midnight shifts standing over a kettle in Portland, OR melting beef fat in sweltering conditions. At 3 a.m. with 300 pounds of fat and no customers, they looked at each other and asked, “Are we nuts?”
Decidedly not. It quickly became clear they were on to something. With only vegetable, industrialized seed oils and coconut oils on the market, Cole set out with keto and paleo enthusiasts in mind, recognizing that a whole new generation was being educated about the benefits of healthy fats. Finding only lard or tallow at the farmer’s market, he realized that rendered animal fats were simply an afterthought. But now, his company, Fatworks, was ready to give these farm fats a starring role.
Fatworks made its first batch, created a Facebook page and reached out to paleo influencers to sample before “influencers” was even a thing. People went crazy for fat, confirming for the Coles they were both needed and wanted. The next day, the Fatworks page got 2,000 likes and Cole contacted every small co-op in the country. Fatworks became the OG. Literally no one else was doing what they were doing at retail. In the markets or grocery stores, lard that was bleached, deodorized and hydrogenated.
“We believed in the science with various studies out there,” Cole says. “There are enough people out there who believe and understand. People who grew up in rural areas saw their parents eat lard every day, and died at 95. Even without the paleo world, there are people who simply embrace healthy fats. Meanwhile the paleo people were doing all the education and legwork, fighting fat phobia. People like Nina Teicholz (The Big Fat Surprise) and Gary Taubes (Nutrition Science Initiative) were doing the education for us. I bought into it personally and started eating that way. I ended up losing weight and felt better, never having any issues with cholesterol. Research is bearing that out.
“It's amazing how much of our consumer base is eating fats strictly for health reasons,” he continues. “It's delicious but people don't care; they just want to make their food more gourmet, traditional. We get calls every day from people switching from vegetable oil and eating cleaner. In 10 years, it's so gratifying to see that. It was fringy when we started. If you said 10 years ago I'm eating paleo, you'd need to give a 20-minute spiehl about what that is. Now it’s in the mainstream.”
Known for premium quality, Fatworks sources its fat from small, U.S. based, pasture-raised farms, some so small that it would take a year to get a pallet’s worth. Farmers couldn’t believe he wanted the fat they had routinely been throwin out, some even selling to diesel companies. Fatworks ships the fat to a small artisanal USDA facility with two kettles in Longmont, outside of Denver. Once there, it’s ground and put into kettles - similar to the way someone might purchase from a butcher, chopping it up and putting it into a stock pot. The large kettles have better filters (unlike cheesecloth), which means no sediment or proteins get through. Fatworks also adds a small amount of organic rosemary, a great antioxidant, to keep peroxide levels low without affecting the flavor.
Over the years, Fatworks has seen trends that include devotees injecting brisket with Wagyu tallow like a poultice (full-blood, A-5 highest rated Wagyu has more mono unsaturated fat), using Wagyu tallow on bison which is leaner, and people seeking goose fat/grease for the their lungs during the pandemic. People have also been smoking and grilling pork with leaf lard (fat around kidneys) or lard made from trimmings and back fat. Influencer Alton Brown even endorsed Fatworks Leaf Lard in People Magazine.
Cole credits some of Fatworks’ success and brand appeal to an irreverent, almost iconoclastic brand personality. You’ll find that Fatworks is apt to frequently “Praise the Lard” and is encouraging “Fatworkers” to give themselves a well-deserved “Fattitude Adjustment.” Says Cole: “We take crafting fat seriously and understand that many people who come to Fatworks do so as part of a huge lifestyle change, but at the end of the day, it’s fat, and if you can’t have fun with fat, then lard have mercy on you.”
As for new products on the horizon, Cole says Fatworks just launched a pre-cooked Duck Confit (duck cured in fat). Among the other product line additions: Wagyu A-5 ultra premium skincare, including body butter and face butter. And Tallow Tush, a unique product to treat diaper rash. “All natural fats are ideal not just for eating but can serve as food for your skin,” Cole says. Branded tallow candles and fat-based snacks, such as add-on-value bars, are also on the horizon.
Duck Leg Confit
Fatworks just launched a pre-cooked Duck Confit (duck cured in fat).