Cochon 555 Returns to Chicago

Between Baconfest and Cochon 555, April is certainly the month to pig out. First up is Cochon 555, the roving pork-fest that makes its Chicago return this weekend. Created in 2009 by Brady Lowe as a means to educate diners about heritage breeds of hogs, Cochon 555 has ballooned to become the country's preeminent porcine extravaganza, bouncing around to 17 different major markets each winter and spring, supporting local family farms across the U.S. With each stopover, the event hosts several chefs from each city, tasked with working with a particular heritage breed and cooking up unique and extraordinary dishes. The winner from each leg goes on to vie in Grand Cochon at the series' culmination, with the U.S. winner earning the designation of "King or Queen of Porc." 

(Photo: Cochon 555)

This year's Chicago leg takes place April 13 from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at the Renaissance Blackstone hotel. Five acclaimed chefs from across the city descend on the hotel for the pork-a-palooza, including Cory Morris, chef de cuisine of the Blackstone's resident restaurant Mercat a la Planxa, Tim Graham of Travelle, Giuseppe Tentori of GT Fish & Oyster, Abraham Conlon of Fat Rice, and Ryan McCaskey of Acadia. Each chef is assigned a particular breed of pig, working to cook up six different dishes from various parts of their whole hog. Judges deem the champion, along with hungry hordes of pork-loving diners feasting their way through the venue. The finale of the nationwide Cochon series takes place at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen in June. For more details on Cochon 555, visit here. 

Until then, in case you want to practice your taste buds or get a sense of what these chefs are capable of, visit their respective restaurants and try out some of these pork creations: 

At Mercat, charcuterie is a prominent player on the menu, including the Serrano ham and fig salad. Bacon-wrapped dates and bacon-wrapped lamb loin brochettes are other crowd-pleasing tapas, while the paella valenciana comes studded with chorizo. 

An apt entree at Travelle is the suckling pig with kuri squash, fig, and olive. 

The theme at GT Fish & Oyster may obviously skew seaward, but there's damn fine pork to be had inside these nautical walls. You could do the bacon-flecked clam chowder or you could go straight for the meat of the matter and order the Berkshire pork cheeks with potato-spinach puree, cauliflower, horseradish jus, and bonito. 

Over at Fat Rice, the pork-tastic Macanese menu features everything from Portuguese country sausage and pork-filled potstickers to twice-cooked bacon and the restaurant's namesake Fat Rice dish, studded with Chinese sausage, chicken thighs, salted duck, linguica sausage, char sui pork, clams, tea eggs, and more. 

Acadia features elegant interpretations of pork in charcuterie plates and as the star of the pork belly a la carte starter, augmented with wilted frisee, horseradish pudding, truffle-uni emulsion, and radishes. 

Five different chefs, five distinct approaches to porcine cookery. One victor. Stay tuned.