Couchon555

Yesterday afternoon, while we were discussing our own farm dinner, Amie said, “Who pays money for these kind of events, anyway?” And I said, “I do!”

Last night was one such do, called Couchon 555, not a farm dinner, but a celebration of pork. All of these events have to be for some sort of cause (even though the main cause is giving foodies a chance to eat a lot of yummy things) and this one aims to raise awareness of heritage breeds of pork, which is a fine cause. The 555 stands for five chefs, five breeds of pig and five winemakers, although the wines were definitely subordinate to the dishes. Each chef has a whole pig to prepare, and the best preparation is judged at the end.

I’ve been to a fair number of piggy events lately, and saw many people I recognized. Ryan Farr and Nate Applebaum were two of the chefs, Dave Budworth was there giving a butchering demonstration and raffling off pig parts, and I saw Kylan Hoover walking around.

Once I got my pig sticker (I’m sure a pun in itself) and my wine glass, I walked into the baroque Gold Room of the Fairmont Hotel, a bit winded, since I had walked to the top of Nob Hill from BART. The event was nicely run; even though the room was full, the lines moved quickly and there was plenty of food for everyone.

These photos are more to give a feel for the evening, although there were many people there documenting each morsel. I saw two people standing a few feet apart, each holding up in front of a camera one of Ryan Farr’s battered and fried sausages on a stick (which I was calling corn dogs, although that does not do justice to how good they tasted.)

Here’s my photo of the same dish. I loved the sight of the deep fryer in the windowsill of this ornate room.

This is the Poggio Trattoria table, where they served porchetta. I really liked the gigante beans served with it. Usually I had both hands full with plates and my wineglass, so that’s it for my usual standard of iPhone photography.

My own favorite dish was Nate Applebaum’s roasted pork, with beautiful pork cracklings. It was very cute to see him with his little boy, too, carrying him around the room in his tattooed arms.