> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.themeatmafia.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Jesse Griffiths: How Dai Due Went Seed-Oil Free and Put Wild Game on the Menu - URL: https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/jesse-griffiths-dai-due-seed-oil-free-wild-game/ - Published: 2026-11-04T19:56:43.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-04T19:56:43.000Z - Description: Austin chef and hunter Jesse Griffiths on starting Dai Due as a supper club, the Italian lemon that changed his cooking, frying in beef fat, and serving feral hog and aoudad. - Author: Harry Gray - Tags: Regenerative Food & MAHA, Seed Oils & Ultra-Processed Food, Raw Milk & Ancestral Foods, #blog, #episode, #jre-guest [Joe Rogan Experience guest, #1676](https://jrelibrary.com/1676-jesse-griffiths/) **By The Meat Mafia (Harry Gray and Brett Ender)** *Jesse Griffiths didn't start with a restaurant. In 2006 he and his business partner Tamara started a supper club, borrowing big houses and hotel spaces around Austin to serve dinners built on local ingredients.* The idea had been with him for years. Back in Italy, he watched a chef put a lemon wedge on a plate, pour olive oil over it, and send it out. He remembers thinking: that's it? Then came the fish, unseasoned because the chef said it was already salty from the lagoon, with great arugula, an amazing lemon and local olive oil. "Oh, okay, I get it," he told us. "It's ingredients, it's culture, it's locality." He wanted to do that in Texas. That idea still runs Dai Due. Jesse says a dish like an oyster doesn't need much, but the oyster needs to be really good. Same for a strawberry in season. For years the restaurant fried in GMO-free canola oil because of cost. He didn't like looking at those boxes. His executive chef, Janie Ramirez, pushed to go seed-oil free, and he said let's do it. > "We fill the fryers with beef fat, olive oil, butter, all the cooking is done with one of those fats." ([40:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46pdiTIKWbo&t=2400s)) It wasn't easy. Finding enough beef fat is "fraught with peril," he says. One person spends every Monday grinding and rendering beef fat. Janie also had to work out stable mayonnaise and sauces. Then there's the game. Jesse came to hunting later in life, and now Dai Due serves feral hog, nilgai and aoudad, a wild sheep some people call inedible. > "if you want me to serve something, just tell me it's inedible." ([1:04:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46pdiTIKWbo&t=3840s)) That's the Jesse Griffiths we sat down with: a chef who'd rather throw salt on great meat than hide it. Below: the supper club years, seed-oil-free cooking, invasive game and why he cares about transparency. His views, not medical advice. [Listen to the full episode](https://share.transistor.fm/s/8dc7447c) · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46pdiTIKWbo) **TL;DR:** Jesse Griffiths started Dai Due in 2006 as a supper club with his business partner Tamara, cooking with local Texas ingredients. A simple plate in Italy, a lemon wedge and olive oil, taught him that great ingredients need very little. Today, by his account, Dai Due cooks only with beef fat, olive oil and butter, renders its own beef fat every week, and serves invasive game like feral hog, nilgai and aoudad. His views, not medical advice. **Who is Jesse Griffiths?** A chef and hunter in Austin, Texas, and co-founder of Dai Due, which began as a supper club in 2006 and is now a restaurant known for local sourcing and wild game. ## Key takeaways - Dai Due started as a supper club in 2006 (02:00). - A lemon wedge with olive oil in Italy changed how he thought about ingredients (21:00). - The restaurant once fried in GMO-free canola oil for cost reasons (38:00). - Dai Due now cooks only with beef fat, olive oil and butter, by his account (40:00). - They serve invasive game like feral hog, nilgai and aoudad (1:04:00). ## From supper club to restaurant Jesse and Tamara hosted dinners in borrowed homes and hotels, sourcing everything locally. He says it was very community building, and it became the base for Dai Due. SAVE & SHARETHEMEATMAFIA.COM [![Infographic titled A Chef's Rules for Real Food, from Jesse Griffiths of Dai Due on Meat Mafia episode 379: start small, buy the best ingredient, do less to it, fry in real fat, render your own and eat what's local.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a7/74/a7746fb4-f95a-43c9-80de-d89d93cfaf68/content/images/2026/11/griffiths_card.png)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/a7/74/a7746fb4-f95a-43c9-80de-d89d93cfaf68/content/images/2026/11/griffiths%5Fcard.png) A Chef'S Rules For Real Food, from Jesse Griffiths on MMP #379\. Tap to open the full-size card (1080×1350) to save or share. ## Great ingredients need less His lesson from Italy: when the ingredient is excellent, the cook's job is to get out of the way. He says it takes grace, not laziness, to send out something that simple. ## Going seed-oil free Jesse credits executive chef Janie Ramirez for the switch. The fryers now run on beef fat, olive oil and butter, rendered in house every Monday. He says it fits the transparency he wants: everything in the restaurant thoughtfully sourced. ## Wild game on the menu Central Texas, he says, is a place where hunting is part of the food conversation. The rocky Hill Country isn't great for growing much besides goats, so game and Gulf fish come in naturally. Dai Due serves feral hog, nilgai and aoudad, which he calls invasive and delicious. ## FAQ **Who is Jesse Griffiths?** An Austin chef and hunter who co-founded Dai Due, which started as a supper club in 2006. **Is Dai Due seed-oil free?** Jesse says it is: the fryers use beef fat, and all cooking is done with beef fat, olive oil or butter (\~40:00). A small amount of fermented sugarcane oil is used in emulsified sauces, by his account (\~39:00). **What game does Dai Due serve?** Feral hog, nilgai, aoudad and deer when available, according to Jesse (\~1:04:00). **Why did Dai Due stop using canola oil?** He says he never liked it, and his executive chef Janie Ramirez drove the change (\~38:00). ## Related on The Meat Mafia - [Jenni Harris on finding real regenerative meat](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/jenni-harris-white-oak-pastures-food-resiliency/) - [Joel Salatin on how to vet a farm](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/joel-salatin-soil-grass-finished-how-to-vet-a-farm/) - [More on Regenerative Food & MAHA](https://www.themeatmafia.com/health/regenerative-food/) - [Browse all episodes](https://www.themeatmafia.com/episodes/) **Get the free guide: 100 Books to Transform Your Health.** Join the Meat Mafia email list and we'll send it to you. [Sign up free →](https://www.themeatmafia.com/100-books/) --- *Not medical advice. This post summarizes a podcast conversation for education. The views are the guest's own. Talk to a qualified clinician before you change your diet, supplements or any medication.*