How to Win a Golden Rasher at Baconfest

How to Win a Golden Rasher at Baconfest

Having been a Baconfest judge for three years running, I feel I can say with some authority that there are five key criteria that chefs should follow if they wish to take home the coveted Golden Rasher.

1. Be creative. For the past two years, we’ve judged dishes based on their creativity. This single criterion could change, of course, but I think in any judging of any creative endeavor it’s likely that “creativity” will be a consideration. What “creativity” means is that bacon gulab jamun (What is this, pork in an Indian dish?! Pork in a dessert?!) has a better chance of winning (as it did last year) than, say, a BLT (though I must admit that the Kick-Ass BLT from 694 Wine and Spirits was one of the best versions of this sandwich I can remember…even though the tomatoes were kind of not there).

2. Make it tasty. This seems obvious, but in the quest for creativity, it might be easy to lose sight of the fact that the stuff has to taste good. I’m not going to name names, but some of the stuff I tasted that was actually kind of creative was in no way a great flavor.

3. Test the recipe before you come to the event. Again, sounds obvious, but I rather doubt that Flo and Santos had tested their Bacon Pierogi Explosion before Saturday’s event – which is a shame, because I thought the concept was brilliant. Much like the Black Truffle Explosion at Alinea, this dish involved folding pierogi dough around a bacon gelatin that was supposed to melt when the pierogi cooked to yield a soft center that was, according to the server, “a lot like a Gusher.” It was a marvelous idea, but it didn’t work; I had three of these pirogues, hoping that I’d get one that gushed. No luck; in each case, the liquid had simply been absorbed back into the dough. Still…this seems like an idea that, with some road-testing, could make a strong showing next year.



4. Pull the bacon theme throughout the dish (and accompanying drink). The winner for the evening session was “Wake n’ Bake,” a bacon scrapple from Three Aces. The scrapple was sitting in a pool of baconized sriracha, with some greens. On top was grated egg yolk (preserved until hard in bacon salt); on the side, an Orange Julius containing a bacon-infused Malort. Danny Shapiro of Scofflaw tasted the beverage and, as one who knows, judged it awesome. I loved the way they worked bacon through all the elements in this dish, which reflects a coherent and coordinated artistic vision.



5. Present it attractively. The scrapple for the Wake n’ Bake came in a clear plastic cup so that you could see all the colors (and it was deliciously colorful) and it looked great beside the bacon-infused Malort Orange Julius. The Bacon Pierogi Explosion, on the other hand, came in a black plastic cup, which didn’t help.

It’s uncertain whether I’ll be judging next year, and certainly there’s no cookie-cutter formula for winning, but based on some experience, I’d say these five criteria are at the very least good to keep in mind as chefs prepare for next year’s competition.

Baconfest has evolved into a multi-city food experience that has so far donated $130,000 and served as the conduit for thousands of pounds of chow to be contributed, by attendees, to the Chicago Food Depository. Resounding Bravi! to our Seth Zurer and his coterie of pork paunch enthusiasts for making this dream a reality.

Hi,

Pretty much what you outlined could apply to any contest.

Louisa Chu and I judged breakfast foods for the National Maple Syrup Festival in early March. Recipes were submitted from all over the country, five were selected for tasting with the final dish prepared by a chef at the event.

There were some recipes where you had to fight hard to identify the maple syrup. One surprise was a recipe with no maple syrup, but the chef added maple syrup where he guessed they intended it to be. If maple syrup is not in the recipe, then why bother to consider it?

The winner had maple syrup incorporated in every element from the dough, a glaze to a maple stirred into yogurt on top.

For the heirloom recipe contest at the State Fairs for Greater Midwest, there is 50% for the recipe's history, 40% for the prepared dish and 10%for display/presentation. In this contest, we emphasized what we really wanted: history. Until this year, it was 10% presentation which was really present as a tie-breaker. People show up with interesting family artifacts and displays one could not ignore.

First place from the Kansas State Fair with a show stopping display:



Regards,