Saratoga News
Dining
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Manresa Restaurant will host a two-day pig dinner May 23 and 24. Jeremy Fox, chef de cuisine, will oversee the dinner that will feature a 14-course menu.
Manresa's special pig dinner is no Texas ranch barbecue
By Suzanne Cristallo
By some accounts, Ponce de Leon landed on the Florida coast in 1521, bringing with him the first hogs to the American continent. Since then, pigs and all of their parts have been a culinary mainstay. Cooking the pig can bring to mind a Texas ranch barbecue or a Hawaiian luau. Both methods have an outdoorsy, primitive charm, unchanging over a century. So it's high time for a different approach, one that can be provided with aplomb by a restaurant that is recognized internationally and commended locally by the Los Gatos Town Council.
Manresa Restaurant in Los Gatos is throwing a two-day pig dinner May 23 and 24. It is the first of its kind put on by the restaurant and is serving to introduce Jeremy Fox, chef de cuisine, who, as second in command under restaurant owner and celebrity chef David Kinch, will oversee the dinner.
It's not outdoorsy and it's not primitive. Planning has taken months, involving drying and curing some of the pork for special dishes, such as salami or the smooth, buttery, thinly sliced lardo, an Italian cured pork fat that soaks for six months in brine.
The 14-course menu is a work in progress. "We've changed the menu about 40 times in the last two weeks," Fox says, hinting at the excitement that pervades the kitchen. "We keep thinking and thinking and deciding another way."
During each night of the dinner, a full staff of up to 15 cooks will be on hand to cater to 75 guests. They include several stages, or trainees, on externship from culinary schools in Campbell, San Francisco and New England who are working strictly for the experience. "I did a lot of that as a young cook," Fox says. "That" includes everything from peeling onions and potatoes to actually working in one of six food preparation stations, such as saucier where up to 12 sauces are prepared, or amuse bouche where the "small bites" offered before the start of the meal are made.
The eight suckling pigs chosen for the $110 dinner were raised naturally in California on organic feed. Among the courses, fresh pork jowls will be served braised and cured in a sauerkraut, puff pastry-based tart. Belly comes with braised black radish and porcini mushrooms. Tripe is crispy in a homemade cola with sesame. Trotters, or pig feet, will be offered both braised and pickled. "The big finisher is the pork shoulder," Fox says. "It's based on my upbringing in Georgia with corn bread, black eyed peas, collard greens and glasses of sweet tea. It's fun what you can do with pork."
Fox has spent three years at Manresa. His interest in cooking began during high school, when he spent time hanging out at his grandparents' pizza restaurant or going to the store to see what looked good, so he could bring it home and cook it. At 20, he entered Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, S.C. After graduation, he worked as chef de cuisine at the Mumbo Jumbo restaurant in his hometown of Atlanta, spent time in a two-star hotel restaurant in Belgium and came to San Francisco to cook at Rubicon and the four-star Charles Nob Hill.
In 2003, he started at Manresa by cooking staff meals, eventually working his way up to charcuterie, the art of meat preparation. A year later, he took leave to travel to London to take stage positions at the Michelin three-star Gordon Ramsay restaurant and the St. John. He returned to Manresa to assume his present position, directing the menu and cooks and training the staff.
The month of May is significant for him. He turns 30 on May 20, heads the pig dinner on May 23 and 24 and marries Deanie Hickox, Manresa's pastry chef, on May 27. They met when both were on staff at Rubicon four years ago. "I liked her," he says, grinning.
Manresa Restaurant, 320 Village Lane in Los Gatos, is taking reservations now for the May 23 and 24 pig dinner. Call 408.354.4330.
