This groundhog-day event at Cava restaurant in Toronto was held last Tuesday, February 2, 2010, and featured raw dairy AND PIG farmer Michael Schmidt among the panel of four judges. Here’s a report on the proceedings from Malcolm Jolley, of the “Good Food Revolution” blog. Malcolm was also a judge at the event:
PUT PORK ON YOUR FORK 4 groundhog day -- left to right: Judge Michael Schmidt from Glencolton Farms, Chef Chris McDonald of CAVA, Daniel Speck, Sasha Chapman and post author Malcolm Jolley
“On February 2nd North Americans from Pennsylvania to the Bruce Peninsula and beyond learned they could looked forward to six more weeks of winter. Chef Chris MacDonald also remarked, tongue-in-cheek, that evening that his brothers (and sisters) in toques could look forward to 10 more days of Winterlicious.
Something had to be done to break up the monotony, so McDonald and Cava co-owner and Chef Doug Penfold came up with ‘Ground Hog Day’. They would supply paella and wine (generously supplied by Henry of Pelham), if six young chefs brought their best cold pork dish in competition.
Thus Cava’s 1st Annual Ground Hog Invitational Challenge was born. Artist Robert Sprachman was commissioned to create a trophy: a plaque, adorned with the feet of used Ibireca hams, on which the name of each years winner will be engraved.
Answering the call to glory were six young chefs from Toronto and one from Niagara-on-the-Lake: Fabio Bondi from Local Kitchen, Ted Corrado from C5, Ryan Crawford from NOTL’s Stone Road Grille, Mark Cutrara from Cowbell Restaurant, Michael Steh and Matthew Swift from Reds and Grant Van Gameren from The Black Hoof. All of them renown for their charcuterie and general prowess with salty pig parts.
Your humble correspondent was invited to be part of a four person judging panel that would taste the six pork dished blind. My fellow members of the porcine judiciary were Michael Schmidt, whose campaign for raw milk had just been vindicated by the courts and who farmed pigs himself, Sasha Chapman, the famous food writer and Daniel Speck who all were happy to see, having brought the refreshments from Henry of Pelham, which he runs with his two brothers, Paul and Matthew. The rest of the diners, who packed the house on a cold Tuesday night, were also given judging sheets to elect a “People’s Choice” winner….”
Get the whole story and see all the pictures at the Good Food Revolution blog.
Random picture not directly related except that it features a pig in a celebratory setting.
The Bovine 
Usually I just skim through these blogs and only read ones that -jump- out at me and yours did. Thanks for it – it is actually a real good read! Do you have a subcribe area so I can link to it to read again another day? Let me know – thanks.
Hannah
Hannah,
We’ll have to look into adding an RSS feed, since you ask.