Vail Buzz: Chef Kelly Liken Joins Cochon 555 in 2013

Chef Kelly Liken from Restaurant Kelly Liken in Vail will join the Cochon 555 line-up in 2013. A stop for the tour will take place in Vail on Sunday, March 10, 2013.

Cochon 555 is a traveling culinary competition and tasting event created to promote sustainable farming of heritage breed pigs. Each porky bash challenges five local chefs to prepare a menu created from the entirety of heritage breed pigs. Guests feast on the dishes prepared and wines from five family-owned wineries plus special tastings from celebrated food and beverage producers. Judges and guests help decide the winning chef, who then competes against other regional winners at the finale Grand Cochon event at the FOOD & WINE Classic in Aspen on Sunday, June 16.

The 2013 tour marks the fifth anniversary of Cochon 555 and will spotlight heritage breeds like the Gloucestershire Old Spot, Mangalitsa, Tamworth, Red Wattle, Mulefoot, Ossabaw Island Hog, among others.Liken was part of Cochon 555 in 2011 when the competition had a stop in Denver. That event, which that pitted Frank Bonanno, Lachlan Patterson, Jen Jasinski, Kelly Liken, and Alex Seidel in a pork-centric cooking battle sold out and crowned the Fruition chef, Alex Seidel, as the winner.

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