Honour the pig
It's been a busy couple of weeks. I'm following Michael
Croft from
Mountain Creek Farm around venues in Sydney as his rare
breeds Wessex Saddleback pigs are used in a number of the
Sydney
International Food Festival events. And it just so
happens that Carlo Petrini from Slow Food is here as well
(Michael is the new Heritage and Sustainability
representative of Slow Food Australia). There were lots of
Regional Food moments, but I'm sharing this one, where Alex
Herbert from
Bird Cow Fish restaurant in Surry Hills in Sydney cooked
a tribute dinner for British chef
Fergus Henderson.
Henderson shook us all up with his book Nose to Tail Eating
and it has led to a sequel. His
London restaurants are always rated highly, (their website
has some nice videos. One by The Guardian Food
blogger Tim Hayward
of Fergus preparing a pig's head). Alex Herbert has been a
fan for years and created the night's menu for 80 people
from the Nose to Tail book. Fergus looked on and nudged
and guided.
We took some video, but for now see the pictures at right. That's Fergus Henderson watching
as Alex slices the roasted pork taken from the rib bone, Michael Croft is holding
the skull one of the four pigs he supplied, the head was stripped
to make brawn, the great choc ice cream was all I got time
to eat, (although I did steal a few mouthfuls of the pork
skin salad), the main meat course was served with
shiraz infused prunes (from Budgi Werri - there's a story).
It was complimented with Canberra region wines such as Alex
McKay's
Collector Marked Tree Shiraz.
It's one of those shoots that you file away under 'Good'.
Fred Harden 27 Oct 09
