50top chefs plan to get medieval on a bison at MCA Denver

The Buffalo Boys prepare to meet the beast at MCA Denver.

Jimmy the Butcher isn't used to performing for a large audience.

"He spends most of his day bundled up in a sweatshirt and fourteen coats in the meat-processing room which, frankly, is how he likes it," says Barbara Macfarlane, co-owner of Marczyk Fine Foods, where Jimmy "the Butcher" Cross works.

"He is such a character, though," she continues. "He has this metal scabbard with all his knives in it. You can hear him coming from a mile away, jingling like the ghost of Christmas Past."

But on November 10, Jimmy the Butcher will "break down" an entire bison in front of a crowd in the garage at MCA Denver, as part of a three-day Art Meets Beast extravaganza.

The cuts of the animal will then be doled out to a list of local celebrity chefs from the 50top underground supper club, who will have about 24 hours to turn whatever they end up with into something delicious.

MCA's unusual buffalo-related series actually gets under way on November 9 with a Mixed Taste event involving Buffalo Bill and cave paintings, and concludes on November 11 with the massive buffalo feast -- one that could serve up to 500 people. For more on all of the other Art Meets Beast events, see our post in the Show and Tell blog.

"What I think is going to be cool is that all their minds are so different," says MacFarlane of the group of chefs who'll be in the belly of the beast, including TAG's Troy Guard, El Diabo's Sean Yontz, Big Red F and Lola's Jamey Fader, Elway's Tyler Wiard and Marczyk's own Brian Bourgault.

"We'll see everything from ravioli to some crazy stew," she adds. "I'm sure some of them are hoping for one cut or another. But you could give these guys any part of this beast and you would get something fabulous."