this week we had the honor of cooking at the james beard house in nyc. in efforts to raise funds for the james beard foundation, the house invites chefs from around the country to cook wine paired dinners, selling tickets to supporters of the foundation. james beard and the foundation stand for culinary excellence so we were excited to be invited to cook, representing the new restaurant, girl & the goat. i had cooked at the house once before with a few other top chef contestants, but this was the first time as the sole chef, so i will admit i was a bit nervous heading out there.
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recently i was lucky enough to be one of a handful of chefs who got to cook a dinner focusing on the mangalista, or wooly pig (i say it should be called the fatty pig, but we will get to that in a minute). a few chefs from the city (chris pandel from the bristol, mike sheerin from blackbird, pat sheerin from the signature room, paul virant from vie—and one more that i am not sure about —who are known to work with local farms were given the opportunity to buy a wooly pig from a local farmer who raised the only five pigs of this breed in the midwest.
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yes folks the name has changed. after being very attached to 'the drunken goat' for a long while, we found out that due to trademark issues it was not possible to keep the name. my last name is a type of mountain goat that lives in the pyranees mountains, and according to my lovely friend from top chef, antonia, i am some times drunken. a name was born. but as with all, things change.
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the chefs headed west to tackle the last few challenges of this season's top chef. a couple of new hair do's on jen and kevin, but otherwise the same four strongest chefs of the season arrived in napa to battle it out. lucky for them, they are in one of the most bountiful areas in the country for local products which they got to highlight throughout the episode.
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