A look at the pork-mad garden party that was the Group of Seven Hogtown Throwdown

By Renée Suen | June 21, 2012

By Renée Suen | 06/21/2012

Matty Matheson and Derek Dammann at the Hogtown Throwdown (Image: Renée Suen)

What do you get when you give eight chefs a Perth Pork pig, some beer and wine and an open-air venue to host an event? A throwdown, naturally. Tuesday night, The Group of 7 Chefs—Bertrand Alépée (The Tempered Chef), Chris Brown (The Stop), Mark Cutrara (Cowbell), Marc Dufour (Earth), Kevin McKenna (Globe and Earth), Matty Matheson (Parts and Labour) and Scott Vivian (Beast), sans regular Nick Liu (Gwailo)—were joined by “Deadly” Derek Dammann, until recently of Montreal’s DNA, at the Evergreen Brick Works’ Chimney Court to pack eight solid punches of swine-based plates. The chefs and guests, including Jeff Crump (Ancaster Mill), Tobey Nemeth (Edulis) and Ivy Knight (Swallow Foods), braved the sweltering heat to raise funds for the group’s trip to New York’s prestigious James Beard House in September (only a handful of Canadians have been extended the invitation to host a dinner there). Hungry Hogtown guests dined al fresco, washing the inventive porcine dishes (including a pig’s head ramen) down with wines from Cave Springs, Fielding Estate and Hinterland and beers from Kronenbourg 1664. In the end, no throwdown winner was announced, it being generally accepted that the heat pretty much knocked everyone out. Check out our slideshow of the whole piggy affair »