Restaurant Revolution: Whole Pig Dinners
To the delight of both chefs and patrons, the whole-pig dinner trend is popping up all over Vancouver.
“Pass the face,” says Colleen, my dinner companion. It sounds odd, but the face is in fact delicious. So are the brain, intestine, heart and stomach. We’re stuffed into long tables at Campagnolo Roma for its first ever Quinto Quarto (literally: fifth quarter) dinner. There is a general feeling of adventure and merriment. How many nights, after all, does one spend eating a pig’s face, elbow-to-elbow with perfect strangers?
The evening, though unusual, is not unique. Across Vancouver, similar “whole animal” events have popped up – at Roma’s sister restaurant Refuel and places such as Memphis Blues (which recently celebrated its 10th birthday with a traditional southern pig roast), and popular food cart Re-Up BBQ. But if the city’s interest in it is new, the movement isn’t. “We’ve been trying to cook like this for a long time,” argues Roma head chef Ted Anderson, the brains (ahem) behind the Quinto Quarto menu. “All of a sudden it’s popular, which is great.”
The whole-animal movement is especially potent at present, and restaurants are enjoying the spoils of such interest. “Events like these are good marketing,” says Katharine Manson, general manager of Refuel. “The knowledge that we are doing different cuts gets word out in the media, and with customers who are interested in the experience.” These events draw the interest not only of prospective customers, she points out, but of apprentice chefs who want to learn the “dying art” of the butchery techniques.
The Quinto Quarto harkens back to Renaissance Italy, where animals were sold in quarters, with the best parts going to aristocracy. The “fifth quarter” – organs, and tough bits like ears and snouts – went to the poorest citizens, who devised ingenious recipes for making them delicious.
Each week, Campagnolo, Campagnolo Roma and Refuel get two pigs from Sloping Hill Farm on Vancouver Island, which they use in meals and charcuterie. It’s not cheap, but, says Manson, “We can deal with the more expensive cuts because we’re using the least expensive ones as well.”
Owners chef Robert Belcham and sommelier Tom Doughty care deeply about local ingredients, as does Anderson.
Anderson makes a point of following his food from field to table. “Having been to the farms, seeing the pigs killed . . . .” He trails off. “I just thought we need to honour this. Pigs are not just pork chops with legs.”
Roma’s Quinto Quarto sold out in advance, at $50 per person, which meant that the chefs had access to those funds for food prep well in advance. And, because they know how many people are coming, the restaurant can plan for zero waste – a luxury for any food service establishment.
Manson says that Refuel’s recent whole-hog event resulted in about twice the restaurant’s usual nightly sales. I found myself telling my friends about the flavour and texture of le due cuore (the two hearts – artichoke and pig) long after I’d left. The success justifies the research, hard work and business acumen of Anderson and fellow whole-animal chefs around Vancouver, but also earns nods to sustainability and the locavore movement. Unsurprisingly, Anderson says the next Quinto Quarto will be soon. “I think we’ll do one every season,” he says proudly. “Anything that gets people to connect better with their food and where it comes from is a good thing for our business.”
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