Thursday, October 22, 2009

Bacon cookoff preview!

Baconfest takes place this Saturday, October 24th at Publican restaurant. While I wish I could claim credit for creating this latest and most amazing event, I'm more than happy to be one of the lucky 60 or so people who RSVPed earlier enough to attend this VIP Pro cook-off and taste all the results. As if this wasn't good enough, the 10 bacon samples - each prepared by a different chef - will be paired with beer selected by Publican owner, Paul Kahan. This cookoff will be the ultimate bacon food fight.

Saturday's event is just a prelude to an even larger event for bacon aficionados, Baconfest. With the main event taking place April 10, 2010, the organizers plan to turn to Chicago into a bacon wonderland.

Who thought of and organized these amazing events? People who love bacon, of course. More specifically, Baconfest was started by Seth Zurer, Michael Griggs, and Andre Vonbaconvitch, who share their bacon manifesto and bios here.

Saturday's event treats bacon like the star that it is; to these chefs - and to those attending - bacon is more than just a piece of pork (which isn't always fried, mind you). The ten bacon chefs are, in alphabetical order:

Troy Graves – Eve
Rick Gresh – David Burke’s Primehouse
Gilbert Langlois - Chalkboard Restaurant
John Manion – Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub
Michael McDonald – one sixtyblue
Chris Pandel – The Bristol
Jason Paskewitz – Gemini Bistro
Nathan Sears – Vie
Patrick Sheerin – The Signature Room
Giuseppe Tentori – Boka

The Baconfest organizers have interviewed all of the chef contenders, and their BacoTV interviews - and thoughts on everything from bacon to Pulp Fiction - can be found at the organizer's blog.

To prepare for this glorious tribute to bacon, I've been eating healthy all week in a weak attempt to counteract the cholesterol intake, but, come Saturday, it'll be all about the bacon.

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