When it comes to the best gourmet pulled pork sandwich on PEI, it's clear there can be only one “Boss Hog.”
Once all the votes were counted after the month-long culinary campaign, the Best PEI Porktoberfest Chef was Mike Clarke and his culinary team at Terre Rouge. Using a voting scale of originality, flavour and taste, Terre Rouge's entry called “The Boss Hog” was voted on by Islanders as the best pulled pork sandwich.
This was the third edition of PEI Porktoberfest, a celebration of PEI Pork. The campaign is presented in partnership with the Prince Edward Island Hog Producers, the Department of Agriculture and Forestry, PEI Flavours, PEI Restaurant Association, Cooke Insurance Group, Hometown Pork and Fresh Media.
The Boss Hog featured molasses braised PEI pulled pork on a toasted Italian roll with thyme lard butter. Topping the local pork was house smoked back bacon, apple sage chutney, crisp apple salad and walnut pesto.
“The voting for Best Chef was by far the closest it's ever been with just a quarter point separating first from second, and only one point separating first from tenth,” added Melody Dover, owner of Fresh Media, the Charlottetown marketing agency behind PEI Porktoberfest. “Our local chefs raised the bar this year and across the Island, people were absolutely loving local!”
For the full campaign results, there were over 9,300 sandwiches sold in just 31 days, resulting in over 3,100 pounds of pork consumed. That equalled over $117,500 in sales of just the sandwiches alone.
“PEI Porktoberfest generates business for our local restaurants and is a great way to create greater awareness of our high-quality Island pork,” said Minister of Agriculture and Forestry George Webster. “My department is pleased to support this campaign and the hog industry of Prince Edward Island.”
There were 27 restaurants taking part in this year’s campaign, with several new restaurants joining in for the first time. For example, Scapes in Borden-Carleton is a small take-out-only rural restaurant, who was excited to take part in this Island-wide community campaign.
“Porktoberfest was really awesome for us, and brought customers that hadn't heard of us before,” said Sarah Bennetto O’Brien, Owner and Chef of Scapes. “I've been telling chef friends all across North America about Porktoberfest, and they’re totally jealous how our little Island can come together to support our pork farmers and local chefs in such a big way.”
The campaign also received tremendous off-Island exposure as it was featured as one of the “cool things to do” by Chatelaine.com, and was also highlighted in the Genesus Global Market Report, an international hog industry newsletter with subscribers across the globe.
“The Hog Board is very pleased with the continued awareness in PEI Porktoberfest and our local industry,” said Tim Seeber, manager of the PEI Hog Marketing Board. “We’re pleased that Islanders once again came out to support our hardworking Island pork farmers.”
As part of their 2014 PEI Porktoberfest victory, the Boss Hog will be returning to the Terre Rouge menu for all Islanders to try.