Chef Jamie Bissonnette's Bánh Mì of Coppa, Kidney Spread, Head Cheese and Ham

Chef Jamie Bissonnette of Coppa and Toro in Boston was the winner of the fourth annual Cochon 555 Boston competition. The event, held this year at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Boston was even more over-the-top than years past with a packed ballroom of people eating outstanding pork dishes from Bissonnette along with the four other competitors, Chefs Barbara Lynch and Colin Lynch of Menton, Barry Maiden of Hungry Mother, Tim Cushman of O Ya and Steve Postal of Fenway Park.

To underscore how Cochon 555 brings out the best competitors, last week Chefs Bissonette and Cushman were named James Beard Foundation award finalists for Best Chef: Northeast. One of Chef Lynch’s other restaurants in her Barbara Lynch Gruppo, No. 9 Park, is a finalist for the Beard Foundation Awards’ Outstanding Wine Program. Also at the Cochon 555 Boston event was a third Beard Foundation Award Best Chef: Northeast nominee, Chef Matt Jennings of Farmstead & La Laiterie. This was the first year that Providence, Rhode Island favorite Jennings did not compete in the Cochon 555, having won all three of the previous Boston events. Jennings was on hand as part of the Le Creuset challenge.

Cochon is the brainchild of Brady Lowe who now hosts fourteen culinary events around the United States each year with the goal of supporting sustainable agriculture. The journey begins every January when Cochon 555 embarks on a 10-city culinary competition and tasting tour. Fifty chefs are selected to prepare a “snout -to-tail” menu created from heritage breed pigs. The ten local winners are flown to the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen for the final competition, Grand Cochon. Three other national events—Cochon All-Star, Cochon Heritage Fire and a BBQ competition—bring even bigger voices to the cause of whole animal utilization.

As the winner, Bissonnette will now compete in Aspen, Colorado at the Grand Cochon U.S. Tour Finale during the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. Congratulations to Chef Bissonnette and his entire team. Good luck in Aspen. Below is a selection of fifteen photographs highlighting tonight’s event. You can view posts and photos from previous years here.

Chef Jamie Bissonnette with his trophy (Chef Tim Cushman to left)

Chef Bissonnette's plate, clockwise from upper left: La Lot Vietnamese Sausage, Bánh Mì, Pig Foot Rillette, Pork Belly Pho

Chicken Fried Head Cheese with bacon waffle and maple syrup from Chef Colin Lynch of Barbara Lynch Gruppo

Chef Colin Lynch of Menton slicing ham

The Hungry Mother team, Chef Barry Maiden in center, preparing their platter of six dishes

O Ya's ingenious menu presentation, "printed" on pig skin

Chef Steve Postal brought a large display of Red Sox items with him from Fenway Park, including . . .

. . . yes, that's a World Series trophy! Chef Postal brought both the 2004 & 2007 Red Sox World Series Champion trophies for display. That's Postal serving his Pork Blood Ice Cream over a "Pork Crispy Treat"

The crowd watching the Lemay & Sons Beef butchery demo of a whole Berkshire from Brambly Farms

All that beautifully butchered Brambly Farms Berkshire pig

Daniel Hyatt from The Alembic in San Francisco prepared the perfect Manhattans with an assortment of small batch bourbons

Hyatt's beautifully presented Manhattan in a Mason jar

Chef Bissonnette with a magic ingredient Blis Small Batch Bourbon Barrel Aged Fish Sauce

from left to right: Chef Barry Maiden of Hungry Mother, Chef Colin Lynch of Menton, Chef Steve Postal of Fenway Park, Cochon 555 founder Brady Lowe, Chef Barbara Lynch of Barbara Lynch Gruppo, Chef Tim Cushman of O Ya and Chef Jamie Bissonnette of Coppa and Toro

Chef Jamie Bissonnette and Cochon 555 founder Brady Lowe embrace after Lowe announces Bissonnette as the Boston winner. Chef Matt Jennings cheers in the background

New Rivers

As whole pig was deemed the new bacon and then lamb was the new pig, New Rivers‘ Executive Chef Beau Vestal has declared goat is the new lamb. Vestal invited me into New Rivers’ kitchen to watch him break down a whole goat and talk about all the different dishes he’ll be turning out for Providence diners. In his opinion, locally raised goat isn’t any gamier in taste than lamb and is much more sustainable—easier to raise and better for the environment. Goats take less land and store-bought feed to raise than other livestock so it’s a perfect choice for smaller farms in the southern New England area.

The goat, a male goat that obviously couldn’t be used for dairy purposes, was a type of Alpine Swiss goat known as Oberhasli. It was raised on pasture in a flock of about twenty-five goats by Antone and Ellen Vieira in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts at Round the Bend Farm, which is owned by Rutgers and Leslie Barclay. They also raise pigs, lamb and cows for meat as well as eggs.

Vestal plans on doing some dishes with West African curry flavors such as chiles, coconut milk and yams, using the bones to make a stock for a stew. The leg meat is great simply grilled. Since a goat is a very active and lean animal its loins are much smaller than on a pig or cow, so they will probably be added to a forcemeat, along with other finer cuts of meat to make something similar to a porchetta, nicely braised for the colder weather. The offal will be turned into a number or terrines, though Vestal did note that the liver is so healthy and clean that simply roasting it with butter and cognac is really delicious.

There are goat dishes now on New Rivers’ menu. Goat meat is available from Round the Bend Farm and may be found at some of the Winter Farmers Markets starting over the next few weeks.

Warning: these are graphic images of a whole animal—skinned, but with it’s head and organs intact— being broken down. If you do not want to see whole animal butchery, do not continue reading. You have been warned.