Dear Bacon-nation:

Whew.  What an insane day.  INSANE.  Today is one of those days that will be lodged in my memory till I hit the grave.  A year and a half ago, three dudes who love bacon had a dream.  Today we took one giant step towards it’s realization.  Baconfest Chicago April 10th 2010, 2 shifts sold out – and so rapidly it gave us whip-lash.

First, I must address those who (with a certain degree of hostility) maintain that we somehow have failed you bacon-nation, because we did not think bigger sooner.    To you critics out there, I can only say… perhaps you are right.  (Well I’m sure I could find more things to say, but in the spirit of contrition, let me leave it at that.)

Listen, until 12:15, we weren’t sure anyone would by tickets – “do people know about it?, are the tickets too expensive?…” self-doubt and trepidation plagued us (and plagues us still).  We are three dudes, friends from varied vocations, who share a love of bacon.  We are not professional food-fest throwers.  We had an idea.  We started small last Fall with 100 guests, and we grew the event to include 750 attendees (press/sponsors included).  And to us this seems HUGE.  It’s our first year.  Cut us some slack.

Could/should the event have been bigger? – sure.  But I just want to be perfectly clear what we at Baconfest Chicago are about.  We are curators of culinary excellence – NOT purveyors of gluttonous anarchy.  We never envisioned a taste-of-chicago style free for all.  We have curated for you 24 great artists who will prepare for a finite number of guests, tasting portions of the bacon-creation of their choice.  This intimate interaction of guests with chefs, with each other is central to our conception of the Baconfest Chicago experience.

Did we ever dream we would be deluged by such a tidal-wave of response? Sure.  Were we certain the flood would arrive?  No.  Have we learned some lessons for next year?  Of course.  We will continue to work to find the balance between the communal charms of an intimate food rave, and the sprawling (often joyous) cacophony of a street-fest.  For those left out thus far, our apologies – and we hope you are locked and loaded on that wait list.

To those of you coming, congratulations!  We’re thrilled you are joining us.

And make no mistake, Baconfest Chicago is NOT EVER going to apologize for the work we’ve done thus far in defining this event as a premier culinary oasis/summit in this great City of Chicago.  We would not be here, on the virtual eve of Baconfest without the early devotion of our sponsors, vendors, supporters in the foodie-community, and most importantly, our 24 AMAZING FANTASTIC chefs – artists… great artists who have agreed to share with us a window into their minds, to create for us their culinary 5th Symphony with bacon at its foundation.

To all of the chefs and restaurants who generously offered their time and support of our event, we say THANK YOU.  Your trust in us newbies and your willingness to donate your time and talent affirms in us our steadfast resolve to give you and our guests the greatest experience possible.  The support of so many amazing restaurants was vital to our ability to make April 10 happen.  We just wish there had been more room to accommodate every restaurant who offered to participate.  And we can’t wait for next year (fingers crossed!) where we hope to present even more fantastic Chicago chefs!

(As I finish this, Magical Mystery Tour by the Beatles comes on my ipod – apropos to say the least.)

I’ll say one more thing:  Against the wise counsel of my colleagues, we will announce one more bacon-competition – the prize of which will be two of my personal tix to the event.  It will not be for the faint-of-heart.  It WILL require a committed creative outpouring of some form worthy of two tix to the NOW SOLD OUT Baconfest Chicago 2010 (Gosh it feels good to type that.)

Stay tuned!!

Bacon-nation – Thank you and goodnight.

Andre Vonbaconvitch