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| Inside the Grand Tasting Pavilion at the Food & Wine Classic |
Mike and I had the pleasure of traveling to Aspen this past weekend for the annual Food & Wine Magazine Classic, specifically to attend our friend Brady Lowe's Grand Cochon 555 event, a competition between acclaimed chefs, preparing meals with heritage breed pigs, paired with wine from distinguished winemakers across the country. The Grand Cochon at Food & Wine was the finale to the 10-city tasting tour, featuring winners from each city. One of the ten finalists was John Sundstrom, chef/owner of Lark in Seattle (http://larkseattle.com/), where our very own Joel Cox (chef and butcher at Aspens Market) earned some of his chops. Although they didn't take home the crown (Joel traveled with us and cooked with John for the event), they churned out some downright amazing food. Please read more about Cochon here (http://www.cochon555.com/). It truly is a one-of-a-kind culinary evening.
In just 48 hours, we managed to hit the Saturday farmer's market, enjoy lunch outdoors (and fantastic people-watching) at Ajax Tavern, celebrate our 8th anniversary with dinner at Matsuhisa, take in the Grand Tasting Pavilion at the Classic, and of course attend one of the Cochon pre-parties on Saturday, and the main event on Sunday.... All while my loving and generous parents stayed in Jackson with the kids, managed the 3 am feedings, and made us feel 100% comfortable leaving for the weekend (for which I can never thank them enough).
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| A beautiful morning to arrive in Aspen |
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| Farmer's Market |
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| Pretty crappy scenery |
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| Aspen Mountain gondolas |
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| Lunch at Ajax Tavern |
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| The beautiful backyard at the Cochon pre-party |
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| Chef Sheamus Feeley of Farmstead restaurant & Long Meadow Ranch in St. Helena, CA prepares Cochon pre-party food... AMAZING meats and cheeses!!! Check out their inspiring farm-to-table operation here: http://www.longmeadowranch.com/Farmstead-Restaurant |
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| Michael Sullivan (AKA the "Reverend of Fat"), butcher at Blackberry Farm in Walland, TN, presents the gorgeous pork for the Cochon pre-party. Blackberry Farm: http://www.blackberryfarm.com/ |
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| Waiting to enter the Grand Tasting Pavilion at the Classic |
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| The crowd inside the Grand Tasting Pavilion |
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| A bit of Aspen history at the bar at Hotel Jerome |
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| Lattice ceiling in the lobby of Hotel Jerome, where the Cochon event was held |
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| Floor of the Hotel Jerome |
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| Souvenirs |
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| The crowd at the Grand Cochon |
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| Talk about knowing where your food comes from... |
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| John, Joel and the whole team, hard at work in the Lark booth |
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| Judges' tables at cochon - That's 2008 Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard with the curly hair and Travel Channel's Andrew Zimmern in the plaid shirt to the left |
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| John Besh, chef and owner of August in New Orleans, and several other award-winning restaurants under the Besh Restaurant Group banner |
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| Mike and I with our Aspens Market chef/butcher (and Grand Cochon soldier!), Joel Cox |
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| Brady announces the winner |
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| Here we are with friend and Cochon founder, Brady Lowe |
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| Party poopers.... Behind us is the pool that everyone evidently jumped into after we called it a night :) |
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Culinary celebrity sitings listed below (you will only appreciate most of these if you're a Food Network fan...and you still may have to look a few of them up) :)
Jaques Pepin
John Besh
Stephanie Izard
Andrew Zimmern
Angelo Sosa
Fabio Viviani
Ming Tsai
Andrea Robinson (Andrea Immer)
Susan Feniger
Kevin Sbraga
Hosea Rosenberg
