Michael Katakis, owner of Butcher Bar in Astoria, has been chosen by celebrity chef Rachael Ray to cook ribs Butcher Bar-style on her eponymous morning talk show.
Katakis will be part of the “Human Lab” segment, where he will test out a new indoor smoker and pressure cooker to make ribs. In this barbecue edition of “Human Lab,” Ray has chosen her favorite barbecue restaurants and chefs to test out gadgets that claim to cut cooking time in half.
The Astoria native opened his first restaurant, Pita Pan, in 2003. Following a trip to Morocco, where he witnessed firsthand how fresh the meat in restaurants was, he opened the smokehouse Butcher Bar to bring that same freshness to western Queens. The barbecue joint only serves grass-fed beef and pasture-raised animals.
According to Katakis, he was asked to come on the show after a producer for the “Rachel Ray Show,” who lives in Astoria, tried Butcher Bar and told the host about it.
The show will air on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. on WABC-TV 7.
