Cochon 555...how sweet (and salty) the memory

So OK, no more suspense, our Chef Mike Sheerin and his sidelick, our Red Wattle, were sadly not chosen as the winners of the Cochon 555 but it was not for lack of extremely hard work. I mean really ,just look at this unbelievable menu  Mike created out of a simple farm pig from Chatsworth, Illinois 

Mike and his crew worked like the crazed chefs they were trying to please the party goers as well as the judges and did so in the midst of extreme chaos, noise and general hooliganism.

And speaking of hooligans just take a gander at our friends Kim and Kenny Snyder who came to the party acting fairly normal but ended the evening looking like this,

Kim raises hogs and chickens and that is all I have to say about that

As opposed to Keith and I who started the evening like this:

But after a couple of drinks we too lost our reserve, got silly and ended up looking like this:

Special thanks to the executives at 3 Floyds Brewery for acting as
stunt doubles for the executives at South Pork Ranch LLC.
(Cary Grant in a tattoo and that is all I am going to say about THAT.)

So who won this grand event ? Why,  it was our friend Kim Snyder from Faith's Farm and her chef Mike
Fiorello. Read more here http://chicago.eater.com/archives/2011/03/21/michael-fiorello-crowned-prince-of-porc-at-cochon555-chicago.php. We were thrilled that Kim won as she works very hard on her small farm located in Bonfield and after all Keith and I would not have even been included in this grand event if she had not told Mike Sullivan, AKA The Reverend of Fat, that we had another heritage pig to fill in at the last minute for the farmer who was unable. Read about Kim's Farm here http://www.faithsfarm.com/

Kim's chef Mike Fiorello melted our hearts (literally) with bacon laced ice cream pastry thingy that I would have sold my father for had he been alive ! And then out of no where I see this lovely gentleman holding a hunk of porky goodness and dang it all if he doesn't look just like dear old dad, with a shamrock on his lapel no less.

Thank you kind sir, who looks like me da gone now these
 20 years God rest his soul,
for being so happy about somefree  raw pork and
 letting me take your picture.

Other highlights included hobnobbing with chefs we already knew like the always grand Chris Pandel of The Bristol. Chris has been buying pork from us for over a year and was another contestant in the chef competition. We were also grieved that HE did not win but Chris handled the disappointment with real class as always,

What ? Me worry ?

Chris served, now get this, drinks made from , or through, different pieces of pork. Like the trotter infused
"pigtail". Get it ? Pigtail, not cocktail. I knew you were smarter than you looked. And for those non-farmer types who don't know what a trotter is...it is the pigs foot. That is correct Chris created a drink that is infused with a pigs foot. You bet I drank one. And that was after I had raw oysters with a glob of caviar. Oink is me. Oh wait, that is "Eirin is me." Never mind.

Even knowing for a fact what has been "infused" thorough
our own pigs feet, I found this to be a grand drink all together.

The evening would no be complete without a very VERY special Thank You to the founder Brady Lowe. The Cochon 555 is just in its third year but has already gathered a tremendous amount of respect in the food and wine world. Keith and I were genuinely thrilled to be invited . Kim and I were lucky enough to talk to Bradys mother for about 30 minutes about her son, his love for good food and his support of the ever shrinking small family farm. What a special lady

Brady Lowe, founder of the Cochon 555

And so we bid adieu to The Cochon 555 Chicago. Its time to get back to the reality of farm life where the manure can be knee high and the animals might be chewing on you instead of vise versa, or is it visa versa ? Oh forget it.

Good night ladies
Good night Sir
Hit it sweetheart

Cue that Journey song here. You know the one about the lights
going down in the city.  What do you mean you don't know that song ?
Oh for crying out loud, its right there, that 8 track on my hi-fi, oh go to bed.