If you caught Mario Batali on Good Morning America on
Friday, you may have noticed a shout out to SoCo’s own Bovolo Restaurant. While
making an on-camera dish, Batali gave props to the meaty, artisinal bacon made
by Chef John Stewart under his Black Pig label. Locals can buy Stewart’s thick,
insanely delicious bacon at the Healdsburg eatery in addition to hand-made salumis.
BiteClub got the word on the GMA appearance straight from Duskie Estes (usually
found in the kitchen at Zazu or scooping up her homemade gelato at summertime
events), who this week is helping out the Food & Wine crew here in Aspen.
(She’s mugging it up at right).
If Healdsburg is too much of a schlep, Estes says they’re
planning to find a co-packer (someone who processes the bacon based on John’s
recipe and directions) in order to find wider distribution for all your bacon
needs.
Which brings me to Green Grapes and Ham. Sort of.
Pork-lovers flocked to a ham and wine pairing here at Aspen
with Dan Philips of Grateful Palate (www.gratefulpalate.com) and Danny Meyer of
Union Square for a morning
tasting of, you guessed it, ham and white wine. Philips is quite possibly one
of my favorite people in the world because A) He is not afraid to wear a pig nose in
public and B) He runs the “Bacon of the Month Club”. How can you not
love that?
The tasting revolved around nibbling various pieces of
smoked, cured and uncured hams from around the world with white wines (sadly
none from SoCo, though Philips said there were probably some possibilities with
Gewurtz). So, if you’re planning on serving ham and wine, let me know. I’ve got
some great whites that are a natural for you ham-atics.
In a six-degrees-of-separation moment, Philips is talking to
Estes and Stewart about their bacon, though they’ll have to be able to make
something like 4,000 pounds before they can be considered for inclusion in the
Bacon of the Month Club.
Stay tuned…