Best Of Best Place to Go Whole Hog
by Tatiana Craine
Vegans and vegetarians best steer clear of Cochon 555 when it comes to New York. Chances are you’ll be subjected to a pig carcass…or five. Aptly titled New Porc City, the first stop on the annual cross-country Cochon 555 tour brings five chefs, five winemakers, and five pigs together for a night of porcine feasting. Chefs whip up dishes for twenty judges (along with more than four hundred dinner guests) to determine the night’s Prince or Princess of Pork, who will go on to compete in Grand Cochon in Aspen. These chefs will reveal to you the travesty of commodity pork; the local, heritage-breed pigs in the competition yield melt-in-your-mouth chops and bacon that you’ll crave for days. Luckily, you can visit these local chefs’ restaurants when you want to go ham again. Be forewarned, these hogs require a bit of adventurousness: Last year’s New Porc City winner, Angie Mar of Beatrice Inn, made a pig’s-blood velvet cake topped with cream-cheese-and-lard icing and pork neck caramel.