Raise your fork to different cuts of pork: In fine dining, unusual choices are head and shoulders above the rest

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 15, 1999 by Mary Caldwell

At Mas in Chicago, chef John Manion's fall menu will include tamales made with pork butt boiled with chilies, onions, garlic and tomato, in the style of Oaxacan home cooking. Tamales made with pork butt are also on the menu at Printer's Row in Chicago, along with a more esoteric item, pork cheeks, served in seafood bouillabaisse. Is the world ready for pork cheeks? Back in New York, David Burke intends to find out at his Park Avenue Cafe. Pork cheeks have been running as part of the special tasting menu and he's planning to promote the item to a menu regular. "It will be interesting to see if we can sell it as a cheek alone," he says. "The cheek is juicy and tender. It's served with gingered plums, braised in sweet wine, with lots of onions. We've been playing around with types of dumplings and gnocchi to go with it."

According to Alex Patout, the tendency of restaurants to highlight the "finer" loin cuts misses the full story. "One of the misunderstandings is that a whole, fresh leg is full of fat; in reality, it's not; it's almost as good as an inside round. The slices are consistent, and the marbling is beautiful; there's no fat at all on the plate whatsoever. The muscle runs straight up and down, so you get beautiful slices coming right off but hardly any loss from the product, and it's so easy to serve that it's perfect for kitchen operations. We get about 15 orders per leg, and the leg costs a lot less than tenderloin. It does have a bone, but with the bone and the outer skin, you get so much more flavor."

While it's possible to turn the inexpensive cuts into fancy fare, it's possible to reverse the concept and turn premium cuts into comfort food, too. At Mas, Manion prepares lombo, a dish his family grew to love when they lived in Brazil. Manion cures tenderloin with salt and homemade chili powder for at least a day; then he sears the meat and braises it. It's served with great northern beans that have been cooked slowly with bacon and thyme, plus sauteed spinach. It's garnished with an elegant touch: a bit of truffle oil.

Tenderloin gets a similar homey treatment from executive chef John Castro of Winston's Restaurant at Sullivan College in Louisville, Ky. Herb- and salt-crusted, the roasted tenderloin is incorporated into a cassoulet-style dish made with beans that have been cooked with pork fat, roasted pork, cured ham hock and seasonings. To finish the dish, he coats the beans with pork jus that's been reduced to a glace.