Who is the Foodie? It doesn’t really matter. Bacon is god. Wine cures anything. If you believe those two facts, then we’re going to get on fine. This means you have discovered the power of food to make life better. This knowledge is imperative to the art of living well.The Big Pigoff.
Posted in Side orders on 30. Aug, 2011
Reuben made slow-cooked pork leg, served in thin slices with horseradish & greens. Bertus made some amazing scotch eggs, as well as a stroganoff-like stew with dumplings. Margot made pig kidney bitterballen with mustard. Laurent made a pig cheek curry and Pete made a slow-smoked BBQ pork shoulder, cooked in his space-age Monolith smoker/braai. That’s Reuben Riffel, Bertus Basson (Overture), Margot Janse (Le Quartier Francais), Laurent Deslandes (Bizerca) and Pete Goffe-Wood. Some of the biggest names in SA kitchens. Cooking in one room. Putting on a swine feast. And that’s including Neil Jewell (Bread & Wine) and Chris Erasmus (Pierneef a La Motte), who also put on a show.
But it wasn’t about them. It wasn’t about their dishes. It was about the pig.
One pig, divided by six top chefs. Well, seven, with Pete in the mix too, even though he was part-organiser, together with Men’s Health magazine (the entire brainchild being Tudor Caradoc-Davies & Jason Brown’s). The pig was from Green Oaks farm in the Hemel-en-Aarde. Pasture-raised, healthy and happy until it was almost a year old and at 90kg got the chop. Chefs aren’t as passionate about any other meat as they are for pig, let’s be honest. They spoke with wild fervour about the texture of the meat, the marbling and, of course, the taste. The kind of thing only a totally pasture-raised animal would elicit in these talented chefs. The never shy Pete spoke out about how ‘those fuckers protesting against foie gras should get out and go look at how battery chickens are raised and stop harassing the few folk feeding geese a bit much.’ We were privileged to be there, to eat such high quality meat cooked by such celebrated chefs.
It was great eating. We demolished plate after plate of food. We gorged on beers from &UNION and wines from Luddite (these disappeared fast) and Boekenhoutskloof. I snuck out early, but have a pretty certain feeling people stayed until late, sinking wines and telling tales. Sure, I felt great when I woke up this morning, but I’m kind of sad I didn’t stay and get stuck in. Some hangovers are always worth it. This would’ve been one of them.
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[...] Reuben made slow-cooked pork leg, served in thin slices with horseradish & greens. Bertus made some amazing scotch eggs, as well as a stroganoff-like stew with dumplings. Margot made pig kidney bitterballen with mustard. Laurent made a pig cheek curry and Pete made a slow-smoked BBQ pork shoulder, cooked in his space-age Monolith smoker/braai. That’s Reuben Riffel, Bertus Basson(Overture), Margot Janse (Le Quartier Francais), Laurent Deslandes (Bizerca) and Pete Goffe-Wood. Some of the biggest names in SA kitchens. Cooking in one room. Putting on a swine feast. And that’s including Neil Jewell (Bread & Wine) and Chris Erasmus (Pierneef a La Motte), who also put on a show. (The Foodie) [...]