Join Food Karma Projects on September 7, 2019 for Pig Island NYC. More than 20 chefs will come together for this pork-laden festival on the Red Hook, Brooklyn Waterfront and compete for the most delicious porcine dishes. There will also be craft beer, hard cider, spirits, and other food offerings – all included with a general admissions ticket!
This year marks the 10th Annual Pig Island NYC and we are proud to honor our founding mission by supporting small, sustainable farms with the best practices!
All-Inclusive Tickets: Food and drinks!
The tickets are all-inclusive: food, drinks, craft beer, hard cider, whiskeys, live music and more! Get Your Tickets Now!
Check out past press in Eater, Gothamist, and TimeOut!
Pig Island NYC 2019 Chef Lineup
We Are Excited To Welcome A New Group of Chef Competitors!
Since Big Apple BBQ isn’t around this summer, Pig Island will be picking up the slack to provide a new home to these chefs!
- Tank Jackson of Charleston’s Holy City Hogs will be joined by Chopped champion Ed Randolph, the owner of Handsome Devil BBQ and author of Smoked
- Carl Ruiz and Mario Chape, La Cubana, New York featuring Smokey Boys BBQ and New England Meat Company
- Phil Wingo, PorkMafia
The Pig Island NYC Returning Champions
These former winners will be sure to bring their A-game to compete against a larger BBQ scene!
- Rodrigo Duarte, Caseiro e Bom, New Jersey
Rodrigo is the only pig farmer in America certified to raise pure ibérico pigs and he is the defender of the Best Whole Hog Award. His pigs are fed a special diet of vegetables, acorns, and chestnuts to give their meat a rich, nutty flavor. - Roxanne Spruance, The Butcher, The History Channel, New York
- Jason Fox, Hudson and Charles, New York
- Chef Jesse Jones, “POW! My Life in 40 Feasts”
That’s Not All!
This festival will feature over 20 chefs!
Danny Mena of La Loncheria, New York will be competing in addition to promoting his newest cookbook, Made in Mexico: The Cookbook: Classic And Contemporary Recipes From Mexico City
Flying Pigs Farm in Washington Country, NY will have a chef station featuring a special guest!
Jean Paul Bourgeois, former executive chef and pitmaster at Blue Smoke will be doing a special skillet demo over open fire.
Plus These NYC Barbecue Favorites!
Many of these chefs have collected trophies and honorable mentions this year at Brisket King NYC and Rib King NYC!
Humberto Guallpa, Freemans Restaurant, New York
Matthew Worgul, Gentle Giant Barbecue, New York
Cenobio Canalizo and Eric Springer, Morgan’s BBQ, New York
Jeff Lutonsky and Meghan Love, Mable’s Smokehouse, New York
Corey Cash, Cash Only BBQ, New York
Billy Kooper, Route 66 Smokehouse, New York
Jase Franklyn, Jase BBQ, New York
Thomas Perone, The Pig Guy, New York
Robbie Richter, Founding pitmaster of Hill Country Barbecue
Seth Beverly, Pig & Peach NYC
Rob Cho, Kimchi Smoke Barbecue, New Jersey
Community Partner
Pig Island is proud to partner up with Friends of Firefighters to support the FDNY!
FDNY Firefighters will be competing on behalf of Friends of Firefighters, a New York-based non-profit providing counseling and wellness services to FDNY Firefighters and their families.
Other Featured Food
Jerk Chicken by Darlene Lawrence, Sands Jerk Hut, Brooklyn NY
Nueske’s Bacon and Sausage, Wisconsin
Jon Bratton’s Smoked Chili Peppers
Grilled Vegetables, Just Add Beer Sauce
Cabot Cheese
Rocket Fuel Hot Sauce + Cheese
Roni Sue’s Chocolate-covered Bacon
Ritter Sport Chocolate
Featured Farm
Flying Pigs Farm, Washington County NY and Others
Beverages:
Craft Beer, Featuring Sixpoint Brewery
Hard Cider, Featuring Eden Speciality Ciders, Indian Ladder Farms Cidery, King’s Highway Fine Cider, Austin Eastcider
Spirits, Featuring Knob Creek Bourbon, Laphroaig Scotch, Irish Whiskey, NY Distilling, ESP Gins and Olde New York Farm Distillery
A Special Mezcal Zone with Mezcal De Leyenda and Several Other Brands of Authentic Mezcals from Oaxaca, Mexico
There will also be wine, non-alcoholic beverages, and plenty of water!
Celebrity Judges
Jean-Paul Bourgeois
Jean-Paul is the former executive chef and pitmaster at Blue Smoke. He has made it his personal mission to represent and revive the cuisine of his Louisianan kin and that of all southerners. He strives to honor and celebrate the traditions of southern cooking and cultures that came before us through sustainable food ways and new world techniques.
Nick Solares
Nick is a food writer, photographer, TV presenter, and an expert and thought leader on meat eating. He has over a decade of experience in the food space, with over a thousand published articles and many hours of video content online. Nick currently hosts the Emmy nominated video series, The Meat Show for Eater Video.
Gennaro Pecchia
Gennaro has served on the Executive Board for the American Institute for Wine and Food, can be heard on SiriusXM radio as a co-host to Roland Campos on Roland’s Food Court in New York City, and he is is the co-creator of Men Who Dine online food magazine.
Jill Rittymanee
Jill is a freelance food photographer who has worked with over 660 restaurants. Her work can be seen in Buzzfeed, Cosmopolitan, PureWow, New York Post, and more! Her main clients include Uber Eats and GrubHub. She will eat nearly everything and especially loves pork.
Adam Poch
Adam travels the country as a Bacon Spokesman & Food Judge. In 2012 Adam proposed to his girlfriend at Pig Island & they had a bacon themed wedding in April of 2013. Adam has also officiated Bacon Themed Weddings at Bacon Festivals around the USA. This is Adam’s 7th year as a judge for Pig Island.
Dara Pollack
Dara is the founder of The Skinny Pig, a top New York food blog born in 2008, covering “the Three R’s”: restaurants, recipes, and rants. Dara started the Instagram account @skinnypignyc in 2014, attracting the masses with her sarcastic, witty humor, love of bacon, and unapologetic honesty in tackling topics like depression and PTSD.
Ethan Fedida
Ethan is the co-founder of Campfire Group – a digital consultancy focused on the intersection of social impact and storytelling. But Ethan’s true love is all things food. From small dinners to massive dinner parties, Thanksgivings, Friendsgivings and his annual crawfish boil, you can always expect to find Ethan in a kitchen or at a grill somewhere, preparing a meal for friends or family. At the top of his food pyramid, is heat. Ethan LOVES everything spicy – the hotter the better and he is an annual judge at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo as well as the Porktacular Pig Island Food Fest.
William ‘Brimstone” Kucmierowski
Brimstone has participated in numerous entertainment fields boasting a list of titles including professional wrestler, host on The Grindhouse Radio, and co-founder of Hound Comics Inc., in addition to actor, author, musician, philanthropist, and food critic.
Steve ‘Zambo’ Zambito
Stephen is a professional audio producer, actor, model, singer, voice over actor, radio host and brand influencer more widely known internationally under his stage name, Zambo. He’s best known for his work on iHeartRadio’s pop culture ‘talk radio’ series, The Grindhouse Radio.
Judges Will Award Prizes in the Following Categories: Best Hog, Best Dish, Best Degustation, Best Pork Butt/Shoulder Dish, Best Bacon, Best Sausage and more!
And there will be live music by Dusty Wright Band!
Pig Island is sponsored by Prime 6 Premium Charcoal.
Prime 6 Charcoal is engineered to perform. You can expect 6-8 hour burn time. No ash. No smoke. Intense heat and even heat distribution throughout the grill.
Buy Your Tickets Now!
Early Bird All-Inclusive Tickets –$65 Food, Drinks & Fun with nothing to buy onsite! Increasing to $75 later this summer.
VIP Private Table, Includes a private tent, table, chairs and all-inclusive tickets for 6 people. Includes 6 t-shirts and your own cooler of beer, wine, and cider. $1,000. Limited number available.
All sales are final. Rain or shine.
21+ event.
How did it all start?
Pig Island was conceived after Jimmy Carbone and Josh Ozersky teamed up to produce Meatopia 2010. While Meatopia has since developed into an international food festival, Food Karma sought to embrace the burgeoning farm-to-table movement and support sustainable practices. This is how Pig IslandNYC was born.
By providing NYC Chefs with pigs purchased directly from small farms, PigIsland aims to educate consumers and serve delicious food! This year PigIsland is proud to source from Flying Pigs Farm in Washington County, NY.
In the 10 years since Pig Island was founded, Jimmy has worked to uphold the original vision for Pig Island, expanding the event’s reach, growing relationships with more farms and chefs, working with community partners like Friends of Firefighters, and creating the I Like Pig cookbook. For the 10th anniversary of Pig Island, we would like to honor Josh Ozersky, whose passion and creativity continue to inspire this event.
I Like Pig Cookbook
Jimmy Carbone, the producer of PigIsland, NYC teamed up with James Beard Award winning cookbook author Rachel Wharton to create a cookbook full of porcine goodness. Every year dozens of chefs come together and celebrate the agricultural bounty of the tri-state area at Pig Island. I Like Pig serves up some of the most popular recipes from the first four years of PigIsland.
Download the eBook here for $1.99
Pig Island 2018 Judges’ Chef Awards
Best in Show:
• Chef Jesse Jones. Author of ‘POW! My Life in 40 Feasts’. His dish: whole hog pulled pork, cornmeal pancakes.
Best Whole Hog:
• Rodrigo Duarte. Special dish: Ribs in bladder. Writer Joe Distafano days Rodrigo is the best pork chef in the USA, at “caseiro e bon” In Newark, NJ
Best Traditional Ribs:
• Big Papa Smokem. He brought a unique hog roaster. And came to win! Pitmaster Mario Chape.
Best Original:
• Robbie Richter crew Ali, big Lou. Roasted pork, curried peach and cilantro
Best Presentation:
• Chef Roxanne Spruance of The Kingsley
Best Non-Traditional Ribs:
• Ladder 101 friends of firefighters. With toasted sesame seeds
Most Creative:
• Jason Fox of Hudson & Charles Craft Butchers. Sausage made from whole pig
Most Bad Ass Ribs:
• La Loncheria / Chefs Danny Mena & Luis Jiménez of La Loncheria.
Lifetime Achievement Award:
• Matt Fisher of Fletcher’s Brooklyn BBQ, Ribs
9th annual Pig Island NYC event was Saturday Sept 8th. on the Red Hook, Brooklyn waterfront.
This event included:
- Craft Beer, Cider & Spirits
- Celebrity Judges
- Flying Pigs Farm Ribs Challenge
- Live music
- Special Features
2018 Chefs, Special Features, and Celebrity line up:
Chefs
- Robert Cho of Kimchi Smoke
- Matt Fisher of Fletcher’s Brooklyn BBQ, Ribs
- Hoodoo Brown BBQ. #1 in Connecticut
- Gentle Giant Brewing & Barbecue. Pearl River NY
- Chef Billy Kooper of Route 66 Smokehouse. NYC
- Humberto Guallpa of Row House
- Mr. Fubz of Just+Add Beer. Ribs
- Bill Cooper of Route 66 Smokehouse
- Chef Roxanne Spruance of The Kingsley. East Village
- Rodrigo Duarte of Caseiro e Bom – Metro NYC’s greatest pork specialist.
- Flying Pigs Farm – Multiple stations, guest chefs and culinary students.
- Chefs’ Consortium
- Jimmy’s No. 43 & East Village Meat Market. Ribs & Corn with Davide Navarro from Mexico City
- Jason Fox of Hudson & Charles Craft Butchers. West Village
- La Loncheria / Chefs Danny Mena & Luis Jiménez of La Loncheria. Bushwick
- Chef Jesse Jones. Author of ‘POW! My Life in 40 Feasts’
- Friends of the Firefighters, Our Community Partner, Rib station
And Featuring Firefighter teams: - John Fuchs and Vincent of Ladder 101, Brooklyn
- Chef Eric Howard, Top 8 Master Chef and Aaron Clark of Ladder 4 Manhattan
Food Purveyors
- RocketFuel Hot Sauce
- Roni-Sue’s Chocolates, bacon corn with Nueske’s bacon.
- Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company
- Krave Jerky
Beer
- Sixpoint Craft Beer
- Guiness Sampling Tent
Hard Cider
- Indian Ladder Farms Cidery and Brewery, NY
- Diner Brew Co., NY
- Barrika Basque Country Cider
- Original Sin
- Urban Farm Fermentory, Maine
- Others
Spirits
- Breuckelen Distilling, NY
- Pig’s Nose Scotch
- Van Brunt Stillhouse, NY
Celebrity Judges
- Gennaro Pecchia, Co-host @rolandsfoodcourt @siriusxm
- Joe DiStefano @ Chopsticks & Marrow
- Adam Poch, Mr. Bacon
- Cathy Erway, Cookbook author and Heritage Radio Host
- Matt Rodbard, Editor in Chief | TASTE at Penguin Random House
Live Music by Dusty Wright & The Bush Hogs
https://dustywright.com
Community Partner -Friends of Firefighters
Friends of Firefighters is dedicated to addressing the physical, mental health, and wellness needs of active and retired New York City firefighters and their families
All-Inclusive Tickets – Food, Drinks & Fun with Nothing to buy onsite!
VIP Tent Limited Offer still available.
Recent Press about Pig Island
Pig Island’s Celebration of Pork Is Back in Red Hook on September 9 – NYC BBQ By Sean Ludwig, August 17, 2018
Pig Island To Test Your Capacity For Pork This September In Red Hook – Post by Gothamist on last years Pig Island event By Nell Case, Aug 1, 2017
We’ll be going hog wild at the beloved Pig Island on Saturday, September 8th,2018, as we return to the Brooklyn waterfront in Red Hook (across from Ikea)!
All sales are final. Rain or shine.
9th Annual Pig Island Farm and Chef Festival
Saturday, September 8, 2018
11:30am to 4pm
Red Hook Waterfront, Brooklyn
General Admission tickets on sale now
Vip tables, sponsorships, chef participation, media please email foodkarma@gmail.com
Children under 12 free with ticketed parent
*Chefs subject to change