Restaurants focused on vegetables. Pork belly missing from appetizer lists. Bacon ice cream, doughnuts, mouthwash, all publicly denounced.
What’s going on? Is bacon – that fatty, salty, decadent food, that icon of recent excess – over?
“Bacon as a cult food is chilling out some,” said Chris Crowl, chef and co-owner of Eolus Bar & Dining. “People are like ‘OK, we’ve seen enough bacon, we all love it, but enough already.’”
Could it be? Bacon, that staple that succored the Pilgrims, the industry that built Chicago, the base of American breakfasts everywhere has been not a trend, but an obsession for almost a decade. How else to explain its appearance in such unimagined places as chocolate chip cookies, air fresheners and sex aids?
So after almost 10 gangbuster years, is it really, truly, on the outs? I fired that shot across the eateries of Durango, through the breakfast joints, to the high-end restaurants, into the steak houses and the catering companies. Everyone has an opinion about whether bacon is dead.
“I think it’s growing,” said Robynn Moore of Hot Tomatoes Cafe & Catering. “When I go out to dinner, I notice pork belly is a big thing.”
In her own business, bacon-wrapped pineapple and the BLT crostini, featuring bacon, pesto mayonnaise and cherry tomatoes, are as popular as ever.
Some date the all-things-bacon trend back to the beginning of the millennium, when Americans were punch-drunk on low-fat diets and craving the taste of real food with real flavor once again. Some point to the Great Recession for the rise in the pigs bellies’ fortunes, as it’s both succulent and affordable, a trait not unnoticed by professional chefs. Yet others say the reason for bacon mania should be no secret – a long-beloved protein finally getting its moment in the sun.
But is too much of a good thing sometimes, indeed, simply too much? Do we really need it in desserts, perfume and barbecue sauce? Do we require it to adorn aprons, T-shirts and bandanas? Must it crown or wrap everything from scallops to waffles?
And not that one wants to put a damper on the pork belly craze, but have you looked at the nutrition label lately? This is not the pork-the-lean-white-meat so sought after in the no-fat ’90s. Back then, demand for fatty bacon was so low pork producers sold it for pennies on the pound to destitute African nations.
Bacon, whether the pig is a heritage breed raised sustainably on a local farm or your average corn-fed animal on a commercial feedlot, is still essentially half to two-thirds fat, possessing 541 calories a serving.
No matter. People love it. More than two out of three American restaurants offer at least one bacon-based dish, and retail sales are growing at 10 percent to the tune of $4 billion a year. Turn on the Food Network or Cooking Channel at any hour and some chef is extolling the virtues of chocolate-covered bacon or the Bacon Explosion, a bacon-wrapped dome filled with bacon-stuffed sausage.
“Chefs are never not going to use bacon. It’s like candy in the kitchen,” said Aaron Brandes, general manager of Mahogany Grille. “Over the years, it has become a chef’s best friend.”
God forbid you’re a vegetarian. The national direction to feature pork belly in appetizers, entrees and dessert isn’t enough – chefs also use it as a flavoring agent. The meat-averse could be surprised to discover it in their asparagus soup, unearth it in the Brussels sprout salad and encounter it in their mushroom pasta. Bacon lurks everywhere, taking the diligence of a private eye to reveal it in a restaurant meal.
There are signs, however, that at least locally, the bacon craze is dwindling. Around town, chefs at high-end restaurants say it’s still on their menu, but they’re using less of it overall.
“We’re backing away from the trend a little bit, yeah,” said Dave Stewart, executive chef of Seasons Rotisserie & Grill, noting that his use of bacon is down across the board. “We’re more thoughtful about how we use it.”
Chefs have noticed that in our fitness-crazed town, people care about what they put into their bodies. Many restaurants go the extra mile to buy bellies from naturally raised pigs from local farms and cure it in-house, removing the unfavorable perception of commercially processed animals.
They also recognize that for health-conscious diners, bacon is a splurge, not an essential. Brandes says he’ll often see a diner order the chicharrones – an appetizer of pork belly cooked in duck fat, then flash fried and served with sweet corn coulis – but have the trout for dinner.
But not to fear, all you unremorseful bacon lovers – breakfast and brunch are still here. The pairing of bacon with eggs is as iconic as champagne and caviar, hamburgers and cheddar. You’ll find it every day of the week at Carver Brewing Co., College Drive Cafe and Oscar’s Cafe. It’s tucked into the divine smoked salmon hash at Chimayo Stone Fired Kitchen and stuffed into the tasty mushroom and havarti omelet at Kennebec Café.
And should you just have to have it once morning is gone, the Ore House is happy to oblige you. You’ll find your porky crush fulfilled in the bacon-wrapped steaks, the braised pork belly appetizer and the bacon-infused butter.
“We use bacon all over the place,” said chef Cliff Bornheim. “People love it.”
If bacon has aided in Americans rediscovering the flavor of meat and the healthfulness of good fats after years in the lean-meat, no-fat desert, all the better. If it has helped boost the number of small farms raising free-range animals free of artificial hormones and antibiotics, better still.
But please, please, can we eradicate it from baked goods and vegetable soups; can we banish it from candy and cocktails? Bacon is smoky, salty, fatty and fabulous. Can’t we just let it be itself?
phasterok@durangoherald.com
