#beastpdx

[aebwrites]

Beaujolais, it is you I love. #winesings #wine #vinotinto #morgon #foillard #lastbottleofthetrip #beastpdx

[salutethepig]

"Run from the beast, There's danger in his eyes"...

Unlike Pete Perrett, I’m planning on running hot foot towards the “Beast” (@BeastPDX), @NaomiPomeroy‘s restaurant. Butcher, chef, author (amongst other accomplishments), running a farm to table place, one that has a great ethos. (And a really rather good pig sketch logo seen below).

Service at Beast © Justin Bailie

With a centre-piece butcher’s block, plunked straight down in the middle of the room, from where Pomeroy & her fellow sous-chef (initially Mika Paredes) — with absolutely nowhere to hide — cook up a storm on their 6 course, prix-fixe menu for the 24 covers they handle. Zagat’s mention the “amazing carnivorous feasts” which totally works for me. I mean what’s not to like about a menu that includes a dish called “Beast Hash”?

Pomeroy calls her cooking style “refined French grandmother”. Called

“…simultaneously exquisite and accessible” by Food & Wine

focussing (of course) on local ingredients, including the whole hogs that she butchers and breaks down herself.

She also nailed the still endemic hypocrisy in an industry that even now in 2017 struggles to define a woman working as a chef and with big pieces of meat in terms other than that relating to her looks (or attitude):

“And then the other piece of the meat theme is that there is a level of, I think, marketability, irony, and interest in two young, attractive ladies taking down some hogs, you know what I mean? There’s something interesting about that juxtaposition that I’ve always really enjoyed. There aren’t that many female butchers.” Mother Jones interview, below.

and more recently in 2016, from a piece by Gastronome Geeta:

There is talk about women not getting their due in the industry but do women help other women?

“I think so and Dominique Crenn recently responded to a British male chef who made some misogynistic remarks about women in the industry. I totally agreed with her on how tired we all are of this subject of the gender issue and we want to be referred to as chefs, period.”

Her book “Taste & Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking“, with a recipe for a Milk-Braised Pork Shoulder amongst other delights, looks like a keeper and one that’ll regularly be grabbed down from the shelf. She joins the pantheon of female chefs & butchers that should act as an inspiration and source of support for women in this industry.

Read more in this (early) 2011 interview from Mother Jones (& yes, I’ve donated).

Two Young, Attractive Ladies Taking Down Some Hogs | Mother Jones

“Run from the beast, There’s danger in his eyes”… was originally published on Salute The Pig

[acehotel]

Portland, OR and New York City

Today we're celebrating along with all the Portlanders who eat food. We're celebrating with all the New Yorkers who eat food, too. The James Beard Foundation's Awards were just announced, and two of our favorite chefs in the wide world got the nod in two of the very best places to eat in our fine United States. 

April Bloomfield, holder of Michelin stars at count them two fine eateries in The Big Apple — including The Breslin, in our very own Ace Apple Outpost — champion of pigs both spotted and un- and person who straight up makes things happen. If you've been put through your paces in the restaurant world, you know Chef Bloomfield is as hardcore as they come.

Naomi Pomeroy, the fabulous and talented, the brains and brawn behind Beast and a badass mother to boot, just took home the 2014 James Beard Best Chef Northwest award. In her acceptance speech in New York City she said, "I feel like I'm taking this home for everybody in the Northwest." Bring it on home, you two. We'll be here, ready. We're the ones making all the glass-clinking noises. 

[novelnatives]

Oink Oink... Feed Me.

The past three days have been filled with amazing food. Now I need to go on a diet immediately!

day one: a great friend brought over lunch and she really made my day with these tulips, bottle of sake, and sea salted chocolate toffee bar from Whole Food. Those chocolate bars are just maybe the second best thing I've eaten. ever.

day two: Dinner at my most favorite pdx spot BEAST with two of my most favorite dudes and a new gal I think I'm gonna love having around. Six course set menu with wine pairing & foie gras bon bons (my most favorite thing I've eaten ever) = heaven to the max!

day three: cooked dinner for my amazing mama tonight. Spicy garlic shrimp with white beans & toasted Italian boule with a glass of melbec. Delicious. Now getting a gym membership first thing tomorrow. Seriously.