James Beard Foundation Dinner At Girl and the Goat

By Anthony Todd in Food on Nov 3, 2010 3:00PM

The menu for the evening.

Charcuterie plate - pictured is the confit neck and head cheese, served with sugar-cured orange-pancetta marmalade.

Braised pork shoulder, with golden beet risotto and black truffle juice.

Asian Wedding soup, with crispy kale and lemongrass meatballs

Fried pork belly, served on a goat belly mole with celery root.

Braised pork shoulder, with horseradish and mustard consomme, prepared by Mike Sheerin and David Posey of Blackbird.

Sweet potato & brown butter pie, with wood-roasted marshmallows.

Last night, the Girl and the Goat's Stephanie Izard joined an all-star team of Chicago chefs to host a "Friends of the James Beard Foundation" dinner. The Beard Foundation, American's foremost nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting fine American food, holds dinners around the country to support its operations, and the proceeds of last night's dinner will be used for culinary school scholarships.

We were invited to sample an array of delicacies, and by the end of the evening we felt adrift in a sea of pork. Dan Fox and Jason Veal of the Madison club had brought several heirloom Mangalitsa pigs, and the animals made up the bulk of the dinner. Pork was the focus of five of the six courses, and the dinner as a whole showcased the growing importance of the creative uses of pork to American cuisine.

The evening began with a charcuterie plate, including truffle foie gras boudin blanc, and proceeded through the shoulder, belly and head of the porkers. Bill Kim of Urban Belly cooked up a new twist on Italian wedding soup (Asian wedding soup, as he called it) which combined broth with meatballs laced with lemongrass. The evening ended with a sweet potato and brown butter pie baked by Mindy Segal of Hot Chocolate. All the drink pairings were beer, including offerings from Revolution, Three Floyds and Half Acre. Check out the pictures, and cross your fingers for another gathering soon!