Art Director Travis Gray takes on his personal bacon journey through last Friday's "Swine and Dine" event from BaconFest 2010:
(From left, Mrs. Benton, Laura Sohn, and Allan Benton)
(Photos by David Luttrell, who also took the photos for last week's BaconFest cover story.)
Luckily, my friend Zak couldn't find a date for BaconFest's Swine and Dine, so I scored his extra ticket, saving me from a listless Friday night of smoke-filled bars and cheap beer and whisky.
(From left, Mrs. Benton, Laura Sohn, and Allan Benton)Allan Benton certainly had his share of groupies for the evening. Who knew making the best bacon in the world (which was featured in all the dishes of the evening) would make you a superstar? Better tighten that leash, Mrs. Benton!
In the middle of the dinner, Allan got up to speak about the history of his family business, which he didn't intend to be a part of as a youngster. My favorite quote: "The product I make today was just sustenance for poor Appalachian families." Those folks had it much better off than I thought!
Jesse and Lauren Wagner on the left, they did all the Baconfest design and branding. They're talking to me, in the glasses, but I don't recall at any point them mentioning my hat hair.
The Glowing Body was certainly an odd choice to host a festival celebrating fatty meat, but as you can see...
More photos and odd reminisces from our scary art director after the jump!
...it was certainly beautiful in there. A lovely staff of local foodies served the food and drinks, and I have to say everything was so well coordinated and organized it ran seamlessly from one course to the next. On the table as a greeting were small cups of bacon-infused vodka. Mmm.
Laura gave us all a quick talk about the courses, the wines and who knows what else. All we wanted was the bacon foodstuffs.
The first course was Holly Hambright's Lobster bacon bisque, bacon-wrapped sea scallop, corn and bacon timbale paired with Raimat Vina 27 Chardonnay. I bit my tongue on this course, but so, so delicious. Holly, maybe think about serving this at Nama so I can go broke some more.
Lindsay Beeson and Meg Hunter-Parrish made what are the cutest bacon-flavored cookies I've ever seen. I didn't taste them, for I do not have a sweet tooth, but the rumor is that they were delicious. And didn't last on the table very long.
(photo by Jesse Wagner)
Toward the end of the dinner, everyone had their fair share of drinks--but lo! Bourbon in the next room!
Coda: I left Zak to find his own ride home. Thanks for the ticket, dateless!
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