Chefs' Thoughts on This Sunday's Upcoming Cochon Heritage BBQ

The Cochon Heritage BBQ returns to Louisville Sunday, Sept. 7 at 21c Museum Hotel, 700 W. Main St. A less-formal branch of food-forward entrepreneur Brady Low, the event wants to "bridge the gap between family farms and all categories of BBQ restaurants" by showing how much better BBQ could be using heritage breed pigs." Six local restaurant chefs receive a dressed heritage pig, and are encouraged to create six different dishes for event participants and a panel of judges. Last year's winner was Decca's Annie Petry, with one of the judges being Ryan Rogers of Feast BBQ, who is one of this year's contestants along with chefs Tyler Morris of Rye, Levon Wallace of Proof on Main, Brian Enyart of El Camino and Jeffrey Dailey of Corbett's. Along with over 1400 pounds of heritage pig transformed into over 36 chef-prepared dishes, Cochon Heritage BBQ will also have Goose Island Beer, Four Roses Bourbon and many other celebrations of National Bourbon Month.

Eater reached out to the participating chefs to see what's happening
in the days before Cochon kicks off. We started with Chef Ryan Rogers, who said his crew had " gotten in a really fantastic Berkshire from Marksbury Farms, and it's been a real pleasure to work with a whole hog in creating some dishes we don't normally do at Feast."

Rogers continued:

It's been a very collaborative effort with Chefs Margaret Lawrence and Sunshine Flagg. We think we've really utilized a lot of de-valued cuts/parts of the pig in some creative ways. In our dish creation process we've really attempted to be led by our Berkshire and the rapidly changing season. Expect to see a few odes to the fleeting days of summer as well as a warm embrace of colder temperatures.

As for the planned dishes, Rogers commented:

We've been most recently working on a pork and kidney pie with a rendered pork lard crust where we've utilized some of my favorite parts of the big, namely the head and trotters. We'll be offering this course with an Owensboro black vinegar barbecue sauce to cut the rich, earthiness of the dish. ... My personal favorite so far is the mustard pickled pig skins; they're melt in your mouth tender, with the acidity cutting their extremely unctuous qualities.

· Cochon Heritage BBQ [Official Site]