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Calgary’s Inaugural Swine and Dine Dinner at Charcut Roast House
After months of success in Edmonton, Alberta Pork decided that this fall it was time to bring the ‘Swine and Dine’ dinner series to Calgary. And what better place to kick off a pork-focused event like this one than at a restaurant like Charcut Roast House who are all about local producers and suppliers from their produce to (of course) their pigs!
The dinner was limited to 40 seats and sold out quickly. You could tell everyone in the room was excited to see what co-chefs John Jackson and Connie Desousa would be serving them for dinner. Either Desousa or Jackson came out with each course to explain their dishes and chat with everyone in-between their forkfuls of food.
The coziest table in the house at this popular downtown eatery is always their large communal table next to the bar. When you’re sitting there, you are a little more elevated than the rest of the restaurant, so it’s easy to see all the action from the open kitchen in the back to buzzing dining room. It also makes for a nice opportunity to mix and mingle with strangers that you know that you already have one thing in common: food!
Following the first course (the tomato salad pictured at the top of this piece!), everyone was served a big bowl of tomato and bean stew, loaded with a rich, house-made sausage and tender octopus and a crispy piece of bread to soak up all the broth-y goodness. Seeing as it’s getting chillier, I think everyone appreciated the comfort they found in this second dish.
Admittedly, this picture doesn’t really do this main course justice, but if we were filming video this night, the exciting sight to see was definitely watching John Jackson carve these tomahawk pork chops table-side. After being sliced, the tender chops were finished off with a little pan jus and some shaved truffles. For truffle fiends, Desousa also worked the room shaving a few more on top for anyone who was keen. Of course a pork chop is nothing without some accompaniments, so there were roasted brussels sprouts and cauliflower, along with a rich cheddar polenta!
Last, but not least…dessert! These fun dessert platters were served up to the tables for all to share. At my table, the bacon chocolate chip cookies were definitely the big hit, but the pie, ice cream and cute little fondant piggy cake were happily devoured by all.
And that, my friends, was our first Swine and Dinner dinner event in a nutshell. The second one is set to take place in November at Farm, so we’ll share more (likely delicious) details about that evening as soon as we have them!