Did someone say, “BACON”!? Baconfest Chicago 2012
UIC Forum
Chicago, IL, USA
April
14, 2012
Story and photos by James Currie
Yes,
they did and it was a bacon lovers dream come true, but a cardiologist’s worst
nightmare. On April 14th,
2012, the organizers of annual Baconfest Chicago brought back another pork
belly filled event to Chicago.
As
described by Baconfest, LLC, “Baconfest Chicago 2012 is a full day celebration of bacon: a Fest to end
all Fests. Baconfest’s roster of bacon-foods, bacon-inspired crafts, and
bacon-spirits comprises the greatest single culinary and cultural festival ever
dedicated to Bacon and Bacon only.”
This
is the fourth year for this cured meat themed gala and as usual, it sold
out. Within minutes! Seems that Chicagoans can’t get enough of
this salty meat treat. It makes you kind
of squeal a little when you here it’s coming.
Baconfest
was held at the UIC Forum and consisted of 107 restaurants, 9 alcohol sponsors
(including bacon vodka), 18 entrepreneurs and 4,257 pounds of Nueske’s bacon.
The
event has grown so large, they had to create two exhibition sessions for
attendees. The first, lunch shift ran
from 12:30PM- 3:00PM. Right at 3:00PM,
they cleared everyone out to set up for the 2nd shift. The dinner shift ran from 6:30PM-9:00PM. The difference between the two; lunch had the
small plate portions and dinner the more robust size morsels.
It
didn’t matter which session you got into, you couldn’t finish everything in one
shift anyway and it was all amazing.
You’ll pig out for sure.
According to
Baconfest promoters, “We estimate that over 3,000 bacon aficionados will visit
Baconfest.”
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They go on to
say, “At the Bacon Vendor Expo, artisan bacon-makers and bacontrepreneurs will
display, sample, and sell their multitude of local craft bacons and
bacon-related products on the floor of the Vendor Expo.
At the Bacon Chef and Bar
Expo, chefs from Chicago’s
hottest restaurants prepare and serve small plates starring bacon. Chicago’s
finest mixologists and brewers quench our throats made parched from all that
delicious bacon with their refreshing bacon-based and bacon-inspired cocktails
and brews.”
Baconfest is not just a great place to get yer’ oink on, but this
is also being done for a great cause, The Great Chicago Food Depository. Although not set up as a charity, they do
help raise funds and can food donations for the group. Last years event helped to raise $25,000 cash
plus collected food totaling over 65,000 pounds.
Some
of the other activities include awards presented to the ultimate
baconites. Raffle tickets for insanely
great bacon gift sets and “The Golden Rashers” award as they are called, go to
pro and amateur chefs, poetry, video, song or other accolades of bacon.
This
wasn’t just a bunch of folks just frying up bacon, not that, that would be bad,
but they stepped up the use and creation of it making it a key ingredient in
their dish. Plates ranged from bacon and
egg sandwiches to bacon wrapped loin of rabbit with a ragu of local asparagus
and morels. Yeah.
Other
notable noshes included: bacon confit with tropea onion agrodolce, pork palooza
burgers, bacon mac n cheese (a crowd favorite), bruchetta of bacon lardon, bacon
custard filled beignets, potato bacon pancakes, bacon shepherds pie, bacon
grenades (mini bacon bombs beer battered and deep fried), BLT pizza, bacon
bourbon caramel corn, bacon tacos, Willy Wonka inspired candies with bacon,
bacon bloody Mary’s, bacon kimchi mortadella, applewood
smoked bacon-scented South African lobster cappuccino with crispy lardons and
spring chive cream and of course bacon on a stick.
At
the end of the shifts, 7 awards were handed out for best bacon creations,
presentations and more:
- Best Front of House Presentation (lunch): ZED 451
- Most Creative Use of Bacon (lunch): Red Butter- Baconchile Gulab Jamun
- Best Poem: Ryan Myers – The Quantum Dance
- Nueske’s Cook Off: Judith Singer – Caramelized banana dish
- Chicago Reader Amateur Cocktail: Zach Piper – Barded Black Bird
- Best Front of House Presentation (dinner): 676 Wine Bar
- Most Creative Use of Bacon (dinner): Three Aces – Bacon shake
Next
year’s plans are tentatively the same, but for more “pig-tails”, check out
their website, baconfestchicago.com.
They also have a Facebook page dedicated to it. You can find special announcement, details on
the chefs and their food creations, ticket sales and venue info. Oh, and be sure to watch close or you’ll miss
the action as they usually sell out within 20-30 minutes.
Ok,
so the puns in this review are pretty bad, but Baconfest definitely is
not. If you don’t absolutely love this
festival, you’re either sick or it's against your religion.
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