Peace, Love & Baconfest

By Suzie Genyk, Intro by Molly

As you may or may not already know, FIG stands for For Intimate Gatherings. We cater smaller events – under 150 guests – and usually have an on-site staff of 2-10. Three years ago some fellow food friends approached me about helping them with a special event called Baconfest. At the time, Baconfest was a mere germ of an idea. In 2008, I helped plan an intimate VIP event at the Publican, last year we organized a bigger event (24 total chefs, 600 guests) at Stan Mansion, but this year (April 9th, to be precise) we catapulted into the big time with 57 chefs, 8 liquor sponsors, 20+ vendors, 9 sponsors, a great charity, and 1,800+ guests. I literally had all hands on-deck for this one – 2 supervisors (I was one of them), and 16 service staff.

It was a bacon-filled day full of garbage toting, water filling, and chef-managing. My staff was putting in a lot of hours (we started at 7 am and some of the staff were working a FIG wedding AFTER Baconfest) and I knew that to keep them satisfied I had to let them do more than just smell the bacon. Everyone got a break - time to go around and try as many dishes as they could/wanted to in 30 minutes. Some eyes lit up a little more brightly than others, including Suzie, who Tweets as @lakeviewfoodie, and fits right in with the FIG crew. Below is her personal account of Baconfest…

A pig came to my fifth birthday party. Not one covered in Nueske’s bacon, but a real live pig that waddled down my driveway, birthday hat and all, to celebrate the wonder of all that is being 5. Wilbur, the friendly pig from Charlotte's web, was my first love. This love affair meant not only did I collect everything pig but I most certainly did not eat anything "pig".

Knowing all this, my participation in Baconfest this year may shock you, however, Baconfest is the ultimate testimony to my evolving love affair with food. To cut the story short, Wilbur, my love, transformed into brown-sugared ham on Easter Sunday; he became the oh so delicious bacon that accompanies weekend brunches with friends and to my surprise the remorse never kicked in. When the opportunity arose to work at Baconfest this year with FIG Catering, I did not hesitate for one second!

I did not believe the claims that bacon would permeate the air of the whole UIC Forum, but boy, was I wrong. Setting up the event and seeing it from the ground up was amazing and it gave me a much better vantage point to what tasty concoctions I would stuff myself with at the end of my shift. And, let me tell you, I stuffed in a lot! There were lots of chefs, lots of bacon and a whole lot of happy and satisfied bacon lovers. In those 5 hours before I got to join the masses, I hopelessly craved the happiness that ensued from the massive bacon consumption by all those bacon fans.

Blah, blah, blah, enough about the scene, let's cue the food!

My favorites:
1) Chizakaya’s Grilled Bacon Nigiri (sushi). The rice was grilled, the bacon was oh so tender and whatever was in between was heavenly. Almost a week past the fact, I am still yearning for that nigiri, like a lover who went away too soon.
2) Naha’s Slow Roasted Slab Bacon with Rhubarb and Burton's Sorghum.
So simple=so delicious.
3) One SixtyBlue’s Pastrami Cured Pork Belly Rueben with 160 Blue Sauerkraut. I have a thing for sauerkraut and this was great with a ramp spread: A+ for seasonality!
4) La Madia’s Bacon and Spinach Ravioli with Browned Butter Sauce and Parmesan. I’m pretty sure the butter ran down my face during consumption, but, like everything I ate at Baconfest, I did not care how I looked gorging myself, I was in heaven!
5) A special shout out to the impressive Berkshire hog wrapped in a Nueske's bacon from Paddy Long's! Many were in awe; I was shocked. I never allowed myself to see a whole cooked hog before, but so happy when I ate that beauty and didn’t even flinch (outwardly) when someone took the tail to eat!

Picture courtesy of paddylongs.com.
I cannot wait for another afternoon full of bacon happiness, and honestly, I’ll pick up after you crazy bacon lovers for hours if I can have just one last morsel of bacon nigiri.

** I couldn't have done it without my FIG partner-in-crime, Mike Bigelow. Thank you for making me laugh (you know what you said!). **