Five chefs, five pigs, and five winemakers headlined a night of sensory overload at the Ritz-Carlton on Sunday. Cochon555—a 10-city culinary tour—made its stop in Denver, where chefs Paul C. Reilly (Beast + Bottle), Franco Ruiz (Fruition), Robert Andreozzi (Pizzeria Locale Boulder), Troy Guard (TAG), and Nelson Perkins (Colt & Gray) teamed up with local farmers to produce a nose-to-tail feast using whole, heritage breed pigs. The evening also featured a ramen pop-up from Jeff Osaka, a pie pop-up, cocktails, wine, and a jaw-dropping pop-up butcher shop from Western Daughters Butcher Shoppe.
Menus featured creative bites from savory to sweet voted on by attendees and local culinary professionals. At the end of the night, chef Troy Guard was ultimately crowned the Prince of Porc for his team’s menu featuring a chicharron cannoli, pig head pastrami, smoked pork belly, crispy shank and offal tacos, pork shoulder luau with trotter roulade, and a Meishan red velvet with pig liver cremeux. This isn’t the end of the competition for Guard, though—he and his team earned the opportunity to compete at Grand Cochon in Aspen on June 18th.
All photography by Brittany Werges
