Baconfest Chicago

Hi Bacon Nation

This in from our friend Steve McDonaugh from Hearty Restaurant.

“Thought I’d let you know we’re starting our Bacon Bloody Mary this week. We infused Titos Organic Vodka with Bacon, pouring it with our own Bloody Mary Mix that we have made for us; super thick, super spicy.  Really surprised at how quickly the infusion took.  Really smokey…good stuff.”

Steve McDonaugh
The Hearty Boys

Those of you who want to get your bacon-drink fix should definitely check them out. Great guys and great friends to Baconfest Chicago. Below is their info, and also the KBH Media piece Kyle Hamman shot of Dan Smith for Baconfest Chicago.

Hearty Restaurant
Chicago, IL 60613
773-868-9866
info@heartychicago.com

Chef Dan Smith of HEARTY

Greetings Bacon Nation.

When we started Baconfest, we dreamed of bringing people together around our favorite cured meat.  On April 10, that dream came true – 900 people got together to eat a lot of bacon and connect with one another.

But we can’t stop there – It’s not just about feeding our own bacon urge. So, we’re pleased to report that we’ve selected THE GREATER CHICAGO FOOD DEPOSITORY as the beneficiary of Baconfest Chicago 2010.

This Monday, on behalf of all of our fantastic chefs, sponsors and partners as well as everyone that purchased a T-shirt or a ticket to our event, we presented this great organization with a check for $5,000.00.  We’re thrilled to be able to support their mission of making sure that no one in Chicago has to go hungry.

Below are some pics from our visit there.  We had the privilege of taking a private tour of their facility led by Marketing Manager Erik Graves.  The work they do here in Chicago helping almost 700,000 adults and children in Cook County is crucial and unparalleled.

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Attendees, sponsors, vendors, friends:  thank you!  By participating in Baconfest Chicago, you’ve helped a great cause.  You can read more about them or donate to them directly at the link below.

Mike, Erin and I had the good fortune to attend the Mayfest Pig Roast at Paddy Long’s last Saturday in the wake of that killer Blackhawks OT win.

We of course had pulled pork sandwiches which were melt-in-your-mouth delicious.  Also finally got to try the legendary Bacon-Board (see vid below).  Mind-blowingly fantastic.  And we closed by sharing an Irish breakfast burger which kicked off the food-coma.

A variety of beers were drank – and Big Al’s Oompah Band was actually sort of genius.

Word was they’d started the pig roasting in the backyard of the Pub at 5am!  Labor of love and well worth it.

Thanks Pat and Chris for being such fun hosts.  We’ll be sporting the T-s with pride.

Here’s pics they sent us.

I hesitate to post this pic below cuz it’s a little scary – but…

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For those of you Bacon lovers who have yet to visit Paddy Long’s, Baconfest Chicago HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY Recommends the following:

BEER & BACON TASTING at Paddy Long’s

To book spaces at our Beer & Bacon tasting please email chris@paddylongs.com

Tastings take place Saturdays @6PM, Sundays @2PM. 5 delicious cuts of bacon paired with 5 seasonal craft beers. Cost is $35 per person.

“Our menu differs each week but recent bacons have included: Italian Pancetta, Danish bacon, Irish bacon, Polish Hunters bacon, Cracked pepper bacon and Brown sugar bacon (both prepared at Paddy’s).   Our beers are always craft brews from near and far that are specifically chosen to compliment the bacon.”

FYI:  This week there are tastings Thursday 29th April @7PM and Sunday, May 2nd @2PM. Contact chris@paddylongs.com to reserve tix.

Hi Bacon Nation,

Now, I’m not a food-critic, but I have tried a lot of bacon in the last year – this guy’s Bacon and Bangers are FANTASTIC!  If you didn’t get to meet Nick Spencer at BFC 2010, or sample his delish products, here is your chance!  And you’ll be supporting two great local businesses.

As of Tuesday, April 20th, Provenance Food & Wine is stocking Spencer’s Bangers & Bacon (until stocks last!) at its two store locations in Logan Square (2528 N California Ave) and Lincoln Square (2312 W Leland Ave) respectively. The two owners met at Baconfest Chicago and are now making Spencer’s Jolly Posh British & Irish Foods available in a retail store for the first time!

Spencer’s product range consists of a delicious dry-cured bacon, and two premium bangers – a Traditional Pork, and a Pork and Herb – all of which are perfect for your kitchen table, and which will be truly complemented by one of Provenance’s delightful bottles of wine!

Spencer’s Bacon is a hand-trimmed, hand-rubbed and dry-cured bacon made to an authentic British recipe. This specialty bacon is made using pork loin, in a dry-cure process that can take up to 10 days – that’s a long time to wait for a decent slice of bacon, but it creates a lean and truly unique flavor. Well worth it!

Spencer’s Traditional Pork, and Pork and Herb Bangers are made to authentic recipes using prime cuts of succulent pork, and lightly seasoned with a select blend of high quality herbs, spices and breadcrumbs. This ensures the right balance of flavors, texture, size and shape. All the bangers are stuffed into natural casings, contain no nitrates, nitrites or MSG, and are made with pork raised without hormones. As the saying goes, “you get what you pay for!”

For More info visit www.eatspencers.com or drop by Provenance Food & Wine, and while your there, don’t forget to pick up some Salted Caramels too!

Facebook: Spencers Jolly Posh British & Irish Foods, Twitter: eatspencers

Beth Cummings, one of Baconfest Chicago’s great vendors, is a local artisan who really takes bacon SERIOUSLY.
Check out her line of new Bacon-items at the links below. Go Beth!!

http://www.shopdiffraction.com/

Hi Bacon Nation,

Check it below from Chris Latchford and our friends at Paddy Longs. I’ll be there. Swing by – and help us plant the seedlings for Baconfest Chicago 2011 over a pint!  Also below is Kyle’s Video of his visit to Paddy Long’s.  Uh…. A Bacon “Board”?!?  UNBELIEVABLE!! Ah the Irish.

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Mayfest Pig Roast at Paddy Long’s this weekend. We are roasting a couple of Berkshire hogs, basted in Maibock and served with BBQ beans. We’ll have live music with big Al’s Oompah Band. Saturday April 24th 6PM. Sunday April 25th 2PM.

Chris Latchford of PADDY LONGS

The Paddy Longs Crew at Baconfest Chicago 2010

Hello Bacon-Nation.

“Competition” in the culinary arts is such a sketchy word – so subjective, and to us, all 24 chefs are Winners with a capital W.  But we did do a ballot for “Best Tasting Bacon Dish Period” as well as an internal Ballot for “Most creative use of Bacon” – and there were some other Golden Rasher awards handed out.

And the “Piggy goes to…….(insert drumroll)”:

SHIFT 1 – Golden Rasher Winners:

Most Creative Use of Bacon: Chef Roger Herring of SOCCA for his “triple bacon veal meatballs and asparagus with a lemon thyme bacon sugo.”  www.soccachicago.com

Best Tasting Bacon Dish Period: Chef Jared Wentworth of LONGMAN AND EAGLE for his “Bacon Waffle with brown sugar bacon ice cream – garnished with candied dehydrated bacon.”  www.longmanandeagle.com

SHIFT 2 – Golden Rasher Winners:

Most Creative Use of Bacon: Chef Patrick Sheerin of THE SIGNATURE ROOM for his “Bacon in the style of Pastrami, kimchee coleslaw and crispy rye.”  www.signatureroom.com

Best Tasting Bacon Dish Period:  Chef Chris Lateano of THE SOUTHWATER KITCHEN for his “Bacon Rillette”s, coddled egg dressing, pickled ramps and bacon fat griddled brioche croutons.”  www.southwaterkitchen.com

Additional Golden Rashers went to:

Bridget Fallen – Winner of the Bacon On-line Poetry Contest for her Poem “Hot Streaks”

Tina Bennet – Winner of the Nueske’s Amateur Cookoff for her “Bacon strip cookies.”

Photo:  Tina Bennet

Paul Kim aka MC SIZZLE - Winner of the Youtube Bacon-music-video contest for his song “Sizzle, Sizzle, Pop, Pop”.

Bacon Nation,

Our great friends at Salted Caramel want to continue the celebration from Baconfest Chicago.   Their BACON BOURBON CARAMEL CORN will be on sale at Provenance Food and Wine. Mention “Baconfest Chicago” when you go, and you’ll receive a 15% discount off of your Bacon Bourbon Caramel Corn purchase through April 30.  Provenance is also offering deals on several other Bacon Goodies.  And Salted Caramel is also doing a deal on their website (www.saltedcaramel.net) Buy 2, 8oz bags of Bacon Bourbon Caramel Corn for $20.

If you didn’t try these on Saturday, we at Baconfest HIGHLY RECOMMEND them.

Provenance Food and Wine
2528 North California Avenue
Chicago, IL 60647-5881
(773) 384-0699
www.provenancefoodandwine.com

OR

2312 W. Leland Ave, Chicago IL 60625

Here are the links to PDF downloads for the menus for yesterday’s fest:

Shift 1

Shift 2

ADDENDUM: Daniel Zemans of SeriousEats.com took a look at our menus and cross-checked them against his reporter’s notebook. He let us know about a few changes that chefs made between when we went to print with the menus and the day of the event. For you completists, here are his notes:

-Paddy Long’s did not include the quail egg
-Lula made bacon from the pork belly from Gunthrop Farms – there wasn’t separate house-cured bacon and pork belly
- Big Jones replaced the buckwheat shortbread with bacon fat seared sweet potato biscuit. Big Jones also swapped out the passionfruit and apricot and replaced it with sorghum and pickled mustard seed.
- Socca replaced the planned asparagus with lemon thyme sugo with a pork belly and foie gras sugo.
- Veerasway didn’t have separate cashew and green chili upmas. There was one upma made with both cashews and green chilis.

Thank you Dan for helping us keep the record straight for posterity.

Michelle Garcia and the Bleeding Heart Bakery ROCK!!! – Literally and figuratively.

One of the original Baconfest Chicago Sponsors.  We love them, their space, their dedication to first-class locally-sourced premium organic ingredients – a first rate bakery that can’t be beat!

Swing by their table tomorrow at Baconfest and show them some love!

Bleeding Heart Bakery
Bleeding Heart Bakery was first opened as a tiny stand at a farmer’s market before becoming a tiny space on Chicago Avenue in 2004, and then finally moving to its current home in Roscoe Village in 2006. The idea behind BHB was to use local, organic and sustainable ingrediants to provide amazing and thought-provoking pastry that was as delicious as it was beautiful and cutting edge. The personalilty of each product takes on the personality of the environment it was created in and always has a bit of punk rock tucked inside (even where you’d least suspect it). In late 2009, a second location was opened in the Oak Park neighborhood of Chicago and there are more to come!

Bleeding Heart has won many awards including one of the Top 10 Bakeries In The Nation, Top Bakery In Chicago by Chicago Magazine, multiple green business awards and Top Bakery by the Small Busines Association. Michelle and Vinny have been featured on Chicago television shows 190 North and Hungry Hound. They have recently shot a pilot for their own TV show and began shooting for a new series on TLC! Additionally, they have been featured in many major food publications, most recently for their S’Mores Brownie which was named one of the Top 4 Four Brownies In The Country by Everyday With Rachael Ray.

Our mission is to use local, sustainable, organic ingredients and to make you the best damn cakes and pastries you have ever had! This covers our ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, nuts, chocolate, milk, fruits, vegetables, oils and more. Our cakes are denser and have deeper flavors. This comes from both the ingredients and from actually baking from scratch!