Tout est bon dans le cochon!

The phrase sounds better in French (as most things do) but loosely translated, “Everything is good in the pig”. Even the British who are (in)famous for quirky although catchy food names, have a marketable phrase “You can eat everything but the oink”. The best the US pork industry could come up with was “Pork, the Other White Meat”. The beef industry was much more confident and convincing with “ Beef, It’s What’s For Dinner”. But all that was so last year (mad-cow, anyone?), and with the rising tide of pig-centric eateries making headlines in the New York Times, Gourmet Magazine (R.I.P), etc., it’s high time we appropriate their pitch and appropriately give pork it’s due,… “Pork, It’s What’s For Dinner”. And in the case of Zinc, it’s “Pork, It’s What’s for Dinner…About Four Months From Now”.

No, no, we haven’t misconstrued the “Slow-Food” movement. Rather we’ve taken it quite literally, as we’ve taken the “Farm to Table” concept quite literally. I won’t profess to know the origins of these nouveau-retro catch phrases, though I picture a white guy, ...on a bike,... at a farmers market,...in Portland.

I do think, though, they are noble endeavors albeit financially difficult from a restaurateur perspective. So when we are given a unique opportunity to actually actualize our best intentions, why not go for it? So we did. We bought a pair of piglets at 7 weeks old and are raising them in Barboursville with the intention of taking them to slaughter weight of around 250lbs. To be fair, Jarrett does all the work since they are on his farm. I actually had a whole Portland-esque self-congratulatory spiel about the nobility of our undertaking but it tasted too much like irony. So without further ado, allow me to introduce to you, Mr. Wiggles and Doobie:

Mr. Wiggles and Doobie are Durocs. Come June, they will be Pork, in all the manifestations that we can conjure up. Smoked bacon, pate de tete, seared trotters, pork rinds (bar menu), grilled pork loin, braised belly, fennel sausage, prosciutto, and whatever else Michael Ruhlman suggests in his compendium Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing.

Details to follow.