A plethora of pork-loving patrons filled the entire second floor of the W Hotel Austin last Sunday (Sept. 28) to mingle, munch and meander their way through a gastronomic adventure of piggy proportions otherwise known as the Cochon 555 Heritage BBQ Tour.

Four notable Austin chef teams, along with Houston chef recruit Justin Yu of Oxheart, each competed for the title of “King of BBQ” in a nose-to-tail cook-off representing the depth and breadth of cooking with pork. Each chef was given a 200-pound heritage breed pig to create six dishes that would wow the crowd.

The competition categories included pulled pork, muscle, bone, stew, mayo/fat and mustard/acid; chefs had to present one dish representing each classification. The resulting efforts were nothing short of true masterpieces reflecting the flavors of the individual breeds while also representing the distinct flavor profiles and creativity of the competitors.

Yu stood behind his tables laden with leaf lard pancakes with sauerkraut, grilled rib bones with gochujang (a Korean sauce), and pulled shoulder pain au lait with cardamom and “keffir” pear, all prepared from a Red Wattle Cross hog from Yonder Way Farm in Fayetteville, Texas.

Across the room, Austin’s competing chef Daniel Olivella of Barlata was serving Ossabaw hog from Black Hill Ranch, while Ned Elliott of Foreign & Domestic served Swabian Hall hog from Black Hill Ranch. Dustin Harvey of East Side King was paired with a Kunekune hog from Lonesome Star Farm, while Mat Clouser of Swift’s Attic had a Large Black hog from South Texas Heritage Pork.

Dishes ranged from a blood pudding with cabeza croutons and crispy innards from Harvey to pork soup dumplings and lardo strawberries from Clouser. Elliott offered fried bacon cornbread with whipped lardo, Canadian bacon and pickled peaches plus bite-sized oatmeal lardo pies – impossible to eat just one. Olivella served Heritage paella, among his six entries.

In addition to the Cochon 555 competition, a stellar line-up of Texas chefs participated in the “BBQ Traditions” series where each prepared one dish from their favorite global BBQ culture. Representing Houston were Ronnie Killen of Killen’s Barbecue, Philippe Gaston of Kata Robata and Patrick Feges of Feges Barbecue. While Killen demonstrated his prowess with ginormous succulent beef ribs that wide-eyed guests greedily grabbed and gnawed until only the bones remained, next door at the Kata Robata table diners were tempted by Japanese BBQ bites: furikake-smoked heritage pork shoulder with oshinko (Japanese pickle) and shaved bonito. Earthy pork with pops of bright and crunchy acidity created a wonderful balance of texture and flavor.

Photo by Robert J. Lerma

Feges wowed the crowd with his smoked pork jowl sliders with pickled red onion and watermelon barbecue sauce, while Jordon Asher and Daniel Toro of Houston’s Dosi restaurant presented an incredible blood sausage and pork belly dish, “Soondae Ssams,” with a pumpkin seed pancake, ssamjang (Korean spicy paste), shaved radish, scallion and pumpkin kimchee.

Amidst the revelry, a pop-up butcher shop manned by Bryan Butler of Salt & Time gave guests an up-close view of breaking down a whole hog. Later in the evening guests were encouraged to bid on cuts of the Red Wattle hog from Legend Meats, which they could take home. (Proceeds went to Le Cordon Bleu cooking school; the students were on hand throughout the evening to assist guests and competitors.)

Photo by Ellie Sharp

Other entertainment included hog races with wind-up pigs and a dance-off of sorts to win Cochon 555 BBQ T-shirts. Just before the BBQ winner was announced a mini ice cream social from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams provided a deliciously sweet capstone to the four-hours long evening “meal.”

Cochon 555 founder Brady Lowe is on a mission to bring heritage hog awareness to the masses and hopes each of his events extends the proverbial table to a few more seats. “The hospitality, the gathering, the friendship, that’s what BBQ is about for me,” he said. “It has nothing to do with tomato sauce, or vinegar base, or region. It has to do with the idea of having a good time and gathering as a community. There are amazing chefs out there doing this today, and it’s our choice to go out and support them. You guys think that heritage breed is worth it? Do you think it’s worth a few extra dimes? [Cheers and applause from the audience] If you see it on the menu, support it. Buy it. It’s not very easy to put it there. It takes time, it takes patience [and] it takes a lot of phone calls, a lot of logistics.”

While Dustin Harvey of East Side King emerged the official winner of the competition, the promotion of heritage breed hogs, the farmers and all those who work tirelessly to bring these animals from farm to plate came out on top, too.

Mark your calendar now: Lowe is planning a Cochon 555 Heritage BBQ event in Houston on February 8, 2015.