Cochon 555 – five chefs, five pigs, five winemakers – is a one-of-a-kind traveling culinary competition and tasting event to promote sustainable farming of heritage breed pigs. The Napa event challenges five local chefs to prepare a menu created from heritage breed pigs, nose-to-tail, for an audience of pork-loving epicureans. On Sunday January 29, Cochon 555 will invade the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, CA for a night of pure pig deliciousness.
2012 Napa competing chefs include Chris L’Hommedieu of Michael Mina San Francisco, Lars Kronmark of Culinary Institute of America, Michael Tuohy of Dean & Deluca, Mark Dommen of One Market Restaurant and the 2011 King and Queen of Porc – Duskie Estes + John Stewart of zazu restaurant + farm.
Guests will be treated to an epic pork feast with wines from five different small wineries, including Elk Cove Vineyards, Scholium Project, Behrens Family Winery, Wind Gap Wines and Matthiasson plus a special tasting of SALDO.
At the end of the night, attendees and local judges will select the Prince or Princess of Porc. The winning chef will compete against other regional winners at the finale Grand Cochon event at the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen, June 17, 2012.
Interested in purchasing tickets? Visit this website here.
Include the hashtag #cochonnapa on tweets about the event.
Yes, this happened over two months ago, but when you’re as unorganized and road weary as I am these things temporarily slip through the cracks. Today though, we revisit the momentous occasion of W. Andrew Beckstoffer of Beckstoffer Vineyards getting inducted into the The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Hall of Fame. Beckstoffer reflected on the advances in thinking and practices that he’s observed during his time in the wine business, and his speech can be viewed below.
There have been 28 inductees since the program began in 2007, with other 2010 inductees including Bonny Doon Mastermind/Issue #8 Mutineer Interviewee Randall Grahm, wine historian and author Leon Adams, Al Brounstein of Diamond Creek (one of my all-time favorite wineries), and viticulturalist Zelma Long. Continue Reading »
The barrel room at Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Greystone is filled with merchants, vintners, press, guests and one woman in an impossibly blue dress wearing leopard wedge-heeled shoes. Everyone’s here to taste the 200 auction lots for the Premiere Napa Valley wine auction. Not all of the wineries in the Valley can participate and some partnerships have formed to produce auction lots. You can blindside your palate by trying to taste all of the auction lots on Saturday morning. However, some vintners produce tasting events the day before. The Spring Mountain appellation vintners did a group tasting at the Spring Mountain winery. The host vineyard’s auction lot was a 100 percent Petit Verdot, which vineyard manager Ron Rosenbrand said is “something we’re proud of.” Continue Reading »
The Symposium for Professional Wine Writers packed off to the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone for the second day of activities. The morning was occupied by discussions of readable wine writing from Frank Prial, the pioneering wine writer at the New York Times and the impact of climate change on global wine styles. Lastly, a discussion of how great topics gestate. Corie Brown, who recently parachuted out of the sinking Los Angeles Times, said she never had a passion for The Great Wine Tasting Experience, but found stories at events such as auctions and the people who were there. She also reminded all present that they were not the story. Continue Reading »
