Meat+Poultry - August 2022 - 8

COMMENTARY
A passion for pork
This past May, I was thrilled to
be invited by officials at Certified
Piedmontese (CP) to attend a dinner
at its headquarters in Lincoln, Neb. On
tap was a multi-course tasting menu
featuring pork products sourced from a
heritage breed of pigs, the Mangalitsa.
The featured guests at the dinner
included Péter Tóth, a geneticist from
Hungary and one of the key people
who brought the Mangalitsa back from
the brink of extinction in the 1990s.
Tóth now holds the title of founder and
president of the National Association
of Mangalica Breeders (MOE), which
in 1994, became the breed's only
official organization recognized by the
Hungarian state.
Along with Tóth sitting at the table
at CP's recently opened special events
dining table, not unlike a chef's table
but located adjacent to its butcher
shop, The Mercato, and one floor below
the company's high-end restaurant,
Casa Bovina, was Tim Winkler, this
country's primary genetic breeder and
farmer of Mangalitsa pigs, based in
Sonoma County.
Also in attendance was Leon
Svoboda and his wife, Tami, the owners
and operators of Pender, Neb.-based
Eltee Mangalitsa's LLC, the only
certified producers of the specialty pigs
in the state of Nebraska since the breed
was brought to the states in 2007.
I sat next to an Omaha-based
food critic on my left, the host of a
restaurant-focused podcast covering
the region's food scene. On my right
sat the event's host and director of
CP's value-add program for beef and
pork, Tony Incontro, along with other
foodies including a restaurant owner
and a food safety researcher from the
academic sector. Incontro's love affair
with Mangalitsa pork began when he
was working in a restaurant in northern
California's wine country. He made
it his life's work to make this special
breed of pork a household name, as
this month's cover story chronicles
(See Page 16).
When Incontro found himself
still in pursuit of this dream after
relocating to Nebraska, he knew it
would take a special company like CP
to recognize his vision and how his
goals for his Certified Incontro brand
of charcuterie mirrored much of what
the beef company accomplished by
bringing the Piedmontese breed of
cattle to the United States marketplace.
Recognizing the value of partnerships
involving participants that are invested
in a common goal fueled by genuine
passion to succeed has been a theme
for the 35-year-old, Nebraskan salumist.
Another heavily invested principal
in the Mangalitsa, Tóth, an engaging
storyteller and an expert on the history
of the breed, its near demise and the
resurrection of it in Hungary and
beyond, shared his experiences over
the past 30 years and the process of
bringing the Mangalitsa roaring back
in his country and now promoting
it in the United States with the help
of ultra-committed partners, like
Incontro, CP, Winkler, the Svobodas
and many others.
Incontro worked for months
developing the tasting menu for the
multi-course meal which included his
signature Incontro Cured charcuterie.
Each course of the eye-popping, rich
meats were perfectly paired with
fine wines meticulously selected by
Incontro and the sommelier from
Casa Bovina. He shared details of his
culinary background and evolution
as a whole animal butcher, which he
showcased with each course of the
world-class meal.
I now understand why meat from
the Mangalitsa is often referred to as
the Kobe beef of pork, thanks to its
intense, clean and rich 'beefy' flavor
from animals that are known for
their wooly coats, excessively fatty
carcasses, healthy lard and heavily
marbled meat. I also understand and
appreciate the motivation of so many
people from across the world to share
the story and culinary delight of truly
unique products from an animal with
the rich history of the Mangalitsa.
JOEL CREWS, EDITOR | jc rews@sos land.com
I now understand why meat from the
Mangalitsa is often referred to as the
Kobe beef of pork, thanks to its intense,
clean and rich 'beefy' flavor.
8 MEAT+POULTRY | 08.22 | www.meatpoultry.com
http://www.land.com http://www.meatpoultry.com
Meat+Poultry - August 2022

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