COCHON 555 aka Pig Prom: Packin' in the Pork!
In short, Pig Prom was as good as the Great American (No) Food and Music (Cluster) Fest was bad. It was a GREAT event! I stuffed myself full of pig, sampled some nice wines, ran into some great folks I knew and met some ones I didn't.
One apology — there's a reason that I don't post many photos to this blog, one that will become obvious as you peruse the pix.
Into the Fray!
Now, this is my kind of girl! Meat IS sweet!
Perbacco's all-in-one New Year's Dinner
I loved this dish from Perbacco because it combined all the elements of my family's traditional New Year's Day dinner — roast pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. In this case, chef Staffan Terje employed roast pork belly and combined the sauerkraut and potatoes into a purée. Fabulous! My second-favorite dish of the day after...
4505 Meats' Taco (left) plus Pork 'n' Beans
...Ryan Farr's taco, created from a chicharrón shell stuffed with pulled pork and topped by a fresh fruit salsa. Yummy! The frank and beans, on the other hand, did not float my boat.
A16's Pig Head
I talked to the folks at the A16 table. This is not a stunt pig. This is not a prop. This is the real head of the pig they butchered and cooked. Not sure if its display counted for "utilization" points in the judging.
Butchering
Just in case you wanted a lesson on how to butcher a pig, there was a live demonstration. Some lucky promgoers even got to take home some freshly butchered pig.
You care, you really care!
Foodbuzz's @kikithedinosaur looked fetching in her very own pig snout.
Five Chefs (One in Focus)
I screwed up by neglecting to get a shot of the five winemakers when they were on stage together. Sorry, readers and vintners alike. The five pigs were not available for a photo op. They were, um, otherwise engaged.
Prince of Porc, Peter McNee of Poggio Trattoria
The winner was determined 49% judges vote and 51% audience vote. The audience vote was supposed to be based on best single taste. On those grounds, I voted for Ryan Farr for his taco, with Staffan Terje's pork and sauerkraut running a close second.
However, I thought that McNee had the best overall selection of pork produce at his stand. His collection of salumi and charcuterie was OUT-FREAKIN'-STANDING! Of course, I'm a sucker for salumi and charcuterie so his selection of goods biased my opinion.
I screwed up in one major way with Pig Prom — I was late. I missed the warning, "Guests should not arrive late for this event." Yes, the warning was in bold. Stamp a huge "L" on my forehead.
Bad move. The chefs brought out different preparations each 1/2 hour. By arriving late, I managed to miss some of the more popular early selections. That said, I stuffed myself to the gills and beyond. Keep the time thing in mind if you attend a COCHON event in the future.
Although this was a great event, I was disappointed by two missing items: bacon and scrapple. Perhaps I missed them because I was late but I don' t think so. How can you have a pig event with five chefs and none of them makes bacon??? Maybe six days (the amount of prep time given the chefs) isn't enough time to cure the meat. I dunno. Ham, I understand, but I thought that bacon took less time.
And, with all of the fancy cheffing going on with offal, I'm dismayed that no one locally is making the best yet humblest random pig part product, scrapple. Perhaps it's that the Italian influence is too strong. But I'm from PA and would like to see some good Pennsylvania Dutch cookin' 'round these parts.
While at Pig Prom, I ran into my favorite San Francisco bartender, Scott Beattie, ex-COCO500, now 15 Romolo. Conveniently, the Pig Prom afterparty was at Scott's new joint so I headed over for a couple of post-prom libations.
15 Romolo's Pisco Sour. Great Drink. Crappy Picture.
Definite thumbs up for 15 Romolo. Scott and crew are cranking out some great artisan cocktails with fresh fruit in abundant evidence. However, unlike many of the fancy-schmancy cocktail joints around the City, they're doing at sane prices. Except for a very few speciality cocktails, mixed drink prices are in the single digits. Grumpy says check it out. My only regret is that I didn't do it earlier.
Eventually, the winners of the various COCHON 555 events are to square off in a GRAND COCHON. If it's in San Francisco, I'm in!
One apology — there's a reason that I don't post many photos to this blog, one that will become obvious as you peruse the pix.
Into the Fray!
Now, this is my kind of girl! Meat IS sweet!
Perbacco's all-in-one New Year's Dinner
I loved this dish from Perbacco because it combined all the elements of my family's traditional New Year's Day dinner — roast pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. In this case, chef Staffan Terje employed roast pork belly and combined the sauerkraut and potatoes into a purée. Fabulous! My second-favorite dish of the day after...
4505 Meats' Taco (left) plus Pork 'n' Beans
...Ryan Farr's taco, created from a chicharrón shell stuffed with pulled pork and topped by a fresh fruit salsa. Yummy! The frank and beans, on the other hand, did not float my boat.
A16's Pig Head
I talked to the folks at the A16 table. This is not a stunt pig. This is not a prop. This is the real head of the pig they butchered and cooked. Not sure if its display counted for "utilization" points in the judging.
Butchering
Just in case you wanted a lesson on how to butcher a pig, there was a live demonstration. Some lucky promgoers even got to take home some freshly butchered pig.
You care, you really care!
Foodbuzz's @kikithedinosaur looked fetching in her very own pig snout.
Five Chefs (One in Focus)
I screwed up by neglecting to get a shot of the five winemakers when they were on stage together. Sorry, readers and vintners alike. The five pigs were not available for a photo op. They were, um, otherwise engaged.
Prince of Porc, Peter McNee of Poggio Trattoria
The winner was determined 49% judges vote and 51% audience vote. The audience vote was supposed to be based on best single taste. On those grounds, I voted for Ryan Farr for his taco, with Staffan Terje's pork and sauerkraut running a close second.
However, I thought that McNee had the best overall selection of pork produce at his stand. His collection of salumi and charcuterie was OUT-FREAKIN'-STANDING! Of course, I'm a sucker for salumi and charcuterie so his selection of goods biased my opinion.
I screwed up in one major way with Pig Prom — I was late. I missed the warning, "Guests should not arrive late for this event." Yes, the warning was in bold. Stamp a huge "L" on my forehead.
Bad move. The chefs brought out different preparations each 1/2 hour. By arriving late, I managed to miss some of the more popular early selections. That said, I stuffed myself to the gills and beyond. Keep the time thing in mind if you attend a COCHON event in the future.
Although this was a great event, I was disappointed by two missing items: bacon and scrapple. Perhaps I missed them because I was late but I don' t think so. How can you have a pig event with five chefs and none of them makes bacon??? Maybe six days (the amount of prep time given the chefs) isn't enough time to cure the meat. I dunno. Ham, I understand, but I thought that bacon took less time.
And, with all of the fancy cheffing going on with offal, I'm dismayed that no one locally is making the best yet humblest random pig part product, scrapple. Perhaps it's that the Italian influence is too strong. But I'm from PA and would like to see some good Pennsylvania Dutch cookin' 'round these parts.
While at Pig Prom, I ran into my favorite San Francisco bartender, Scott Beattie, ex-COCO500, now 15 Romolo. Conveniently, the Pig Prom afterparty was at Scott's new joint so I headed over for a couple of post-prom libations.
15 Romolo's Pisco Sour. Great Drink. Crappy Picture.
Definite thumbs up for 15 Romolo. Scott and crew are cranking out some great artisan cocktails with fresh fruit in abundant evidence. However, unlike many of the fancy-schmancy cocktail joints around the City, they're doing at sane prices. Except for a very few speciality cocktails, mixed drink prices are in the single digits. Grumpy says check it out. My only regret is that I didn't do it earlier.
Eventually, the winners of the various COCHON 555 events are to square off in a GRAND COCHON. If it's in San Francisco, I'm in!
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