Therese Ruiz/MEDILL
Seth Zurer, one of the three masterminds behind Baconfest Chicago, said he’s  hopeful that the April event will be as “Bacon-tastic” as he and his friends envision it.

If there’s anything Logan Square-resident Seth Zurer will prove to Chicagoland, it’s that his love for bacon is gigantic. And catching – contagious enough to warrant a festival with musicians, a theatrical production, and a horde of first class bacon chefs from the surrounding area.

Zurer, a self-employed bacon connoisseur and Baconfest “triumvere,” is preparing for the upcoming Baconfest preview, set for next Saturday at The Publican restaurant from 12 to 2 p.m.

Q: First of all, why choose bacon for the theme of a festival?
A. People ask me that, and I never understand why they ask me that. It seems obvious. Bacon is delicious. Everybody loves bacon. Whenever you say “bacon,” people’s eyes light up. They get excited about bacon.

Q: But why an entire fest devoted to it?
A. My friends, who are my partners in the endeavor, saw a neo-futurist play called “Beer.” It was a rock-puppet musical that took place in a brewery. The thesis of the play was artisan craft beer is extremely delicious and better than industrially produced, commercial beer. So, they went to the show and got inspired, got home and wanted to know what they felt as passionately about. And in the moment of inspiration, they felt that it was bacon. They toyed with the idea of making a theatrical production out of it, but then felt that Baconfest could be the burning man of bacon—an event that year after year people would come back to, like the Taste of Chicago.

Q: I heard you had to put off the festival for a few months, moving it from October to April. Is there still a market for bacon in Chicago?
A: I think there’s still a market. I have to suppose that more time will give us more opportunity to drum up sponsorship money and more opportunity to make Baconfest as awesome as we want it to be. So rather than rush into a festival that would be less awesome than what we want, and wouldn’t match the scope of our love for bacon, we decided to postpone. But we kept our preview event on the 24th at The Publican (where 10 hot bacon chefs will prepare 10 hot bacon recipes, each matched to a delicious beer). Judging from the interest in that, there shouldn’t be any problem later. We sold out tickets for that event in 36 hours.

Q: That’s less than two days, dude. People must love bacon!
A: This upcoming preview is envisioned as a mini Baconfest. At the real thing, we’re hoping for anywhere from 600-800 people over the course of a 6-hour day. We’re planning to have up to 30 vendors, including big chefs, bacon makers, and bacon entrepreneurs. We want to have bacon bands. [Yes, that means they sing about bacon!]  A theater company is putting together a bacon play. An amateur cook-off will match the pro-cook-off.

Q. Wow, that’s an awful lot of bacon. Do you think you’re contributing to the obesity epidemic in the U.S., or primarily in Chicago?
A. If things work out the way we have planned, then yes. Yes, I will be. If the VIP preview event that’s coming up is any indication—a 10-course bacon lunch paired with 10 bacon-inspired beers—it’s gunna be a gut buster.

Q. When some think of bacon, a greasy, cholesterol-packed image comes to mind. Why do you think bacon has such a bad rap?
A. I mean, Atkins is fine with it! Bacon has a reputation of decadence. We’re a puritan society and I think we’re uncomfortable at a certain level with pleasure for pleasure’s sake. And bacon fits the profile of something that is unabashedly about pleasure.

Q: I almost bought Baconnaise the other day and I thought of you. But I understand Baconnaise doesn’t have any actual bacon in it, only bacon flavor.
A. It’s vegan. Isn’t that weird? Baconnaise is vegan and kosher. So is Bacon Salt. I can’t figure out if that’s an argument for or against. How many people do you think have bought [Baconnaise] by mistake and were like, “This is the most awesome mayonnaise I’ve ever had in my life.”

Q. What’s your favorite bacon recipe? Would you consider it healthy or nutritional?
A. Yeah, I mean, bacon and eggs is a classic. It’s healthy—it’s good enough to get you through the day, right? I like to use bacon as a flavor foundation for other dishes, like pasta sauces that start with browning bacon. Carbonara is a classic that uses bacon as base flavor. Is it bad for you? I think that bacon is better for you than other things that masquerade as good for you, like breakfast bars, or chemicals. Bacon doesn’t hide what it is. There’s no mistaking it for anything super virtuous. There’s no chance of overindulging because you thought, “Oh, well, it’s good for me.”

Q. Do you think bacon consumption is declining because of the current economy? Or because of people’s concerns for their health and lack of health insurance?
A. I’m positive that bacon is more popular in light of the economy because it’s one of those affordable indulgences. You won’t break the bank. You don’t have to buy a Lexus [for pleasure], you can just go pick up a pound of bacon.

Q. Tell me about how you’re using social media to help with the project.
A. That’s been our primary promotions and marketing. We launched the Facebook group in April, a Twitter feed in may. We’ve got 1,500 on Facebook and 1,300 on Twitter. I’ve made tons of networking connections there. Twitter is directly responsible for getting us seven out of 10 of the chefs at the VIP event, and the reason we’re having it at The Publican.

Q. Is there anything healthy you might want to chat about with regards to bacon?
A. Health hasn’t been a central focus of the bacon festival itself. We’re interested in delicious things. And, if delicious things makes you happy and being happy makes you healthy, then I think there’s an argument to be made there.

Q. Do you mean that nothing healthy is delicious? Does anything healthy have quite the same flavor as bacon?
A. No. Nothing tastes like bacon. Bacon is bacon, right?