This year’s Pig Island returned for its 16th year on Staten Island. It is a sprawling salute to the pig and all things pork, along with cold beverages to pair with it all. With one dish better than the next this year, it was a tough event to pick the Number One, agreed the judges, including yours truly. Read the full recap at SILive from Pamela Silvestri.

Best in Show
KAM RAI THAI

Best Whole Hog
Holy City Hogs

Friends of Firefighters People’s Choice Award
Brothers BBQ

La Más Sexy
Kevin Morgan with Mike’s Hot Honey Team

I’m Lovin’ It Award
Big Guns BBQ

Best Food On a Stick
Khaosan

When Pigs Fly
Morgan’s Brooklyn BBQ

Special Award for “Getting on the Highway”
Don Rodrigo

Support Food Karma Projects’ continued efforts to produce spectacular events that bring together farmers, chefs, bakers, brewers, distillers, and community members. Gift certificates are now available and can be used to purchase purchase tickets to any future Food Karma event, including Brisket King® NYC, Bowl Of ‘Zole, CiderFeast, Pig Island NYC, and more – at your convenience.

More About Pig Island NYC

Jimmy Carbone teamed up with James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Rachel Wharton to create a cookbook full of porcine goodness that captures the flavors of Pig Island NYC within its covers. I Like Pig serves up some of the most popular recipes from Pig Island NYC’s first four years.

Download I Like Pig

Congratulations to Pig Island NYC 2024 Award Winners! This past weekend, pitmasters from around the country gathered in Staten Island to show off their skills at Pig Island NYC. This annual event, now in its 15th edition, is both a pork-focused competition and a picnic where friends and family can spend the day. Read the full recap at The Smoke Sheet.

Best Whole Hog
Don Rodrigo Duarte

Best Whole Hog Runner-Up
Holy City Hogs

Best in Show
Kam Rai Thai

Best Bite
Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue

People’s Choice Award presented by Friends of Firefighters
Jase BBQ

Ménage a Pork
Avellino Family Barbecue

Bella Robusta
Empire BBQ

Rookie of the Year
Kevin Morgan and Francis Maling for Mike’s Hot Honey

So Long, Farewell, auf Wiedersehen
Blue Smoke

Support Food Karma Projects’ continued efforts to produce spectacular events that bring together farmers, chefs, bakers, brewers, distillers, and community members. Gift certificates are now available and can be used to purchase purchase tickets to any future Food Karma event, including Brisket King® NYC, Bowl Of ‘Zole, CiderFeast, Pig Island NYC, and more – at your convenience.

More About Pig Island NYC

Jimmy Carbone teamed up with James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Rachel Wharton to create a cookbook full of porcine goodness that captures the flavors of Pig Island NYC within its covers. I Like Pig serves up some of the most popular recipes from Pig Island NYC’s first four years.

Download I Like Pig

The 13th iteration of Pig Island NYC was a huge success. A big thank you to all of the participants, sponsors and attendees for helping make a truly memorable day. We were thrilled to be back at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Gardens for our third event and to work closely with the Snug Harbor Heritage Farm. 

Congrats to the award winners!

#Cho Award in Honor of Robert Austin Cho from Kimchi Smoke for the ‘XXX Pork Belly and Pulled Pork

Best in Show – Kimchi Smoke – XXX Pork Belly over Pulled Pork

Read All About It In NYC BBQ Weekly 

Watch the Official Recap Video Right Here

Check out Some Awesome Photos from the Event by Christina Holmes

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Support Food Karma with a Gift Certificate

Support Food Karma’s continued efforts to plan spectacular events that bring together farmers, chefs, bakers, brewers, distillers, and community members. Gift certificates are now available and can be used to purchase purchase tickets to any future Food Karma event: Brisket King, Bowl Of ‘Zole, Brewers Choice, CiderFeast, Pig island and more – at your convenience.

Get your gift certificate today.

More About Pig Island NYC

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!

Read more from NYCBBQ.com here

Congrats to the award winners!

#Ruizing Award in Honor of Carl Ruiz: Mario Chape, Big Papa Smoke’m for the ‘Queban Sandwich and more whole hog dishes

Don’t Sweat the Technique: Jesse Jones for his pulled pork strudel with bacon jam

When Pigs Fly Award and Prime Six Best Use of Charcoal Award: Team Matthew Deaton featuring Jim Jones of Comfort Farm, Jametta Raspberry, Lynn Wells, Michelle Bailey and Hipolito Sanchez for their pit roasted whole hog with Appalachian fry bread, pickled chow chow and Razzmatazz grape jam

Garden of Eatin’: Team Gentle Giant featuring Blair Machado, Tyler Trainum of Autumn Olive Farm, Matthew Worgul, Dana Reed, Alex Recchia and Braxton Naff for their whole hog with late summer salad

Best Handy Sandy: Mario Dibiase, Sotto Voce and Pork Mafia for his pork belly sandwich with pickled beets and beet greens

New Pig on the Block: Angelo Competiello for his porchetta pizza

Bad to the Bone Award and Friends of Firefighters Peoples’ Choice Award: Jase Franklyn, Jase’s BBQ for his Caribbean ribs

Fucking Brought It Award: Kim Plafke, The Meat Hook for her Hangover Cure breakfast sandwich and beer brined whole hog

Best Whole Hog: Rodrigo Duarte, USA Pata Negra

Best in Show: Tank Jackson with Rob Nelson and Trevor Kunk, Holy City Hogs for their pulled pork with collard greens

Please join us for our next events: CiderFeast NYC in Brooklyn on Saturday, October 2 and Bowl of ‘Zole in Brooklyn on Saturday, October 23. Both events require proof of Covid vaccination. Tickets are on sale now.

Food Karma: Tell us about your career trajectory.

Matt Fisher: My wife and I started an under the radar, independent barbecue catering business in the East End of Long Island in the Hamptons around 2002 and we did that for about five years. That was really the beginning of everything. We did the Big Apple Barbecue block party as part of Hill Country’s team. The event was the day they opened their first restaurant and my friend Rob was their pitmaster. He was at the opening of the restaurant and had me running their pits at the block party. I would say that that was probably my first professional gig where it was above board and I was affiliated with somebody.

In 2007 I was hired to open Wildwood Barbecue with Big Lou Elrose. He was the pitmaster and I was his sous.That was for BR Guest restaurant group who had about sixteen restaurants around the country at that point. I stayed there for about two years and then in 2009 I moved to RUB BBQ, which was on 23rd between 7th and 8th. That was Paul Kirk’s restaurant, he’s a barbecue cookbook author and editor. I worked with Chef Scott Smith there for about four years. 

In 2012 I went on and opened Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue with my partner. I was there for about seven years. In 2019 I went to Dinosaur Barbecue and was kitchen director of their Harlem location. I had an injury on the job and stopped working. Right as I was getting ready to go back, looking forward to starting a new job, the pandemic hit and everything kind of shut down completely. Now I’m back to working under my Atom’s Ribs brand, starting to do consulting and catering but working on plans to have a full scale project in the near future.

FK: How did you get into barbecue in the first place?

MF: I started cooking very young. My dad ran away from home in his teens and joined the merchant marines. He got deployed to their galley and was trained under someone who was actually a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu so he had this really great foundation in all types of traditional cooking techniques. From the earliest time I can remember, around five years old, I was standing on a chair and stirring pots and making bread and dumplings and drying pasta, not realizing I was getting a great education.

After college, I had various day jobs, but at some point around ‘96 or so, a friend moved out and left me his Weber kettle. I started remembering the road trips I had taken with my family in the South. We had family in North Carolina and Virginia and had driven through going to Florida, and the food that we had eaten there wasn’t really available in this area, so I started making it myself, not knowing that barbecue was about to become the next culinary trend. I just kept cooking it on the weekends and started to have people ask me to cater parties for 30 people, 40 people, 150 people and bought more and more barbecue pits.

During that time, I had a job for about seven years where I got to travel throughout the country. Everywhere I went I started talking to chefs and pitmasters and getting secret tours of the kitchen. In New York City at that point, there were probably half a dozen at most really serious barbecuers that were around. It was a very small circle, and as I networked I got to know everyone. There really weren’t a lot of us had received the religious calling of the smoke. I was out there keeping a journal: it’s 61 degrees when I fired up the pit with wind out of the southwest 15 miles per hour, I put one log in a criss cross pattern (see diagram). I was so geeking out about what I was doing and didn’t know that it was really kind of rigorous training for the career.

So that’s how it happened. It was a passion turned hobby slash calling slash, “you need somebody who has cooked a hog in the pouring rain? I’m your guy.” Suddenly, ten thousand hours had passed, and I was lucky to turn what I love into a career without destroying it. It’s cool, not very many people walk sideways into it. I didn’t work up from dishwasher, so the culture shock of going from a cubicle and wearing a tie and having a case of the Mondays to somebody yelling, “get that goddamn plate into the dining room,” it’s a really different world. I was lucky to work with great chefs who were patient and really grilled great information into me.

The truth is, I consider all of my barbecue friends to be mentors and colleagues. I think the cool thing about loving barbecue is that you continue to learn about it every time you do it or every time you talk to someone else or you eat their food.  You think, “oh wow, that’s a really smart way of solving that problem” or doing that dish that’s been done before but in a way that you honor it but bring your own personal slant to it. I think it’s just natural that being in New York City and being exposed to the wealth of ingredients and cultural touchstones that we have, that if you’re a curious eater or a curious cook that it will come into your process. I think about that in the great barbecue that I’ll get at Mabel’s or Mighty Quinns or any of the other really awesome cool newer generation barbecue places in the city. There’s just some really interesting things that are going on. It’s all kind of mentoring if you’re open to it. You never want to steal someone’s great idea, but if they can spark your own, that’s the whole process.

FK: What are your thoughts on all the great Jewish and kosher barbecue in New York?

MF: There’s some really great participants in Brisket King for sure who are from New York City and the neighboring areas who have come and presented their food and competed and won. The idea of a kosher barbecue restaurant was always kind of in my mind. I don’t mean to say I’m taking credit for the boom, but growing up Jewish and having a father that worked with a lot of prominent rabbis in his career and being surrounded by that, Iloved the idea of doing a food that would seem kind of off limits and finding a way to make it available to an entire other culture, an entire other part of the world should be feasting on barbecue.

I could never really figure out the Friday night problem into Saturday, how do you keep it going? My friends have done that. Izzy in Brooklyn and Ari from Wandering Que and a lot of these guys who have found ways to not only adopt barbecue to some of the cultural laws, but also really innovate within it and take traditional Jewish cuisine or kosher Jewish cuisine and American Jewish cuisine and really bring it organically through the process of reflecting the food of their dietary laws.

The inventive dishes are very much in keeping with the spirit of the way that I approach barbecue where you marry it with other things in unexpected ways. They’ve certainly really done that and not to mention through cooking very, very expert craft barbecue at the same time, consistently. All of those things are hard to do.

I haven’t heard this, but for anybody who would call it a fad or a novelty, that’s crazy talk. Because of the sourcing of the ingredients and some of the other complications of making it, it’s certainly a higher priced product than traditional barbecue, but the cost of all kinds of food and craft foods and labor are going up. It’s not a limitation on what they can do.

FK: What should we expect from you at Brisket King and in the near future?

MF: I am going to be doing a series of pop ups over the next couple of months. You can find them on my website as they are announced. At Brisket King, I’m coming to bring our signature hospitality and strong flavors, plenty of good smoke flavoring, and my charming team who have been with me at the most recent Pig Island events and other food events that I’ve done around the city of Adrian Ashby and Jonathan Forgash along with my wife, Amy. We’re going to be dishing up plenty of tasty, tasty brisket goodness.

FK: Anything else you want to share?

MF: Just that I am always happy to support the events that Jimmy puts together. I appreciate that there’s always a component of some kind of giving back and that there truly is a great community of chefs that consistently show up for him, and there’s obviously a reason for that. We always appreciate the people who come and support the events, and they’re always really enthusiastic. It’s always one of the things I really look forward to as a New York City chef. I’m really happy that he continues to do them and that he’s feeling better.

Read All About It:

In The Smoke Sheet: Frankly, it was the first time in a long time where I felt like I was living back in the reality I’d known prior to a pandemic that still looks far from over…As for the food, there were a ton of delicious bites to be had….Some of the best dishes included the tender whole hog from Holy City Hogs of South Carolina; Laphroaig-glazed pork belly burnt ends from pitmaster Matt Fisher of New York; spare ribs and mac and cheese from Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue of New York; and the Puerto Rican slow-roasted marinated pork (pernil) from Que Chevere of New York. It was a relief that so many of the food and drink options were available just like there would be any other year.

In NYC BBQ Weekly: Thankfully, great food, big pitmaster personalities, and tasty drinks were all present, which made everything feel more enjoyable…It was a joy to stuff my face with creative dishes from multiple pitmasters and chefs in one outing…. and frankly, there wasn’t a bad bite I had all day.”

In SILive: “To caramelize his signature burnt pork ends, Matt Fisher sprays the meat with apple cider and whiskey before it hits the grill. And to complete the carnival of flavors, the Great Kills native and owner of “Atom’s Ribs” supplies a little taste of summer corn pudding.This dish and other porcine perfection came from the pit masters of “Pig Island,” a barbecue showcase at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Gardens, Livingston, that treated guests to a smoky, sprawling, very sunny picnic on Saturday.”

In New York Events: “We have been attending for years and look forward to it every year. The event has historically taken place in Red Hook Brooklyn where we would also ferry over. However, this year the venue was in the borough of Staten Island. We were hesitant about the change at first but fell in love with the space upon arrival….The garden is gorgeous, serene and the perfect place for a BBQ!“

And the Award Goes To….

Best in Show: Mario Chape, Big Papa Smoke’mMario will be cooked with the crew from La Cubana to honor Carl Ruiz. Mario took home the award for his team’s the CuBOMBo sandwich and ribs.

Best Whole Hong: Tank Jackson, Holy City HogsTank made overnight slow smoked whole-hog barbecue with collard greens. 

Prime 6 Charcoal Award: Rodrigo Duarte, Caseiro E BomRodrigo served his famous iberio presunto – he’s the only farmer in the U.S. certified to raise pure ibérico pig from Portugal. 

Best Bite: Matt Fisher, Pitmaster formerly with Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue

Matt made Laphroaig glazed pork belly burnt ends with summer corn pudding. 

Best Pulled Pork: Mike Petrovitch, Que Chevere

Mike made pernil y arroz con gandules (roast pork with rice and pigeon peas) – a traditional Puerto Rican rice dish! Their pork shoulders marinate for eight hours and then are slow roasted for 48 hours resulting in fall-off-the bone meat.

Hidden Gem: Jase Franklyn, Jase BBQ

Jase will be cooked jerk pork and his signature BBQ pigtails.

Sexiest Dish: Jesse Jones, Pow: My Life in 40 Feasts

Chef Jesse is preparing dirty corn muffins topped with North Carolina-style pulled whole hog, pickled slaw, and his sweet heat barbecue sauce.

“The Other Side:” Mike Lapi, SUNY Cobleskill and Chefs’ Consortium

Mike used his expert butchery skills to create custom sausages. He won for his charred slaw with house made fish sauce and pickled chanterelles.

Carl Ruiz Humanitarian Award: Jimmy Carbone

Shoutout to Our Judges

Jaymee Sire, TV Host and Food + Travel Blogger

Matt Bruck, Eaters Drinkers

Eric Eisenbud, The Grateful Chef

Ethan Fedida, Campfire Group

Steph Perez, Yeah Food Beer

Valley Lomas, Foodie In New York

Adam Poch, Big Brothers

Thank You to Our Sponsors

This year we are offering a special Holiday Package – buy your tickets now, and get a Super Early Bird discounted ticket! For those who return to Pig Island year after year, give this experience as a gift!”>Holiday Package – buy your tickets now, and get a Super Early Bird discounted ticket! For those who return to Pig Island year after year, give this experience as a gift!

More than 20 chefs will come together for this pork-laden festival 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!

For $55 the Holiday Package includes a ticket voucher for an all-inclusive ticket and a t-shirt to be collective on the day of the event. 

Get your tickets now!

No Refunds.

Rain or Shine.

21 and Over.

Thank you for celebrating the 10th Annual Pig Island NYC! We could not have asked for a more beautiful day on the Red Hook waterfront. We believe it was our best Pig Island ever thanks to the delicious porcine dishes prepared by 20 chefs, flavorful craft beers, ciders, and spirits, live music, and of course, the energy and enthusiasm that all our guests bring to the event!

Photos by Paul Cheney @pecheney

Pig Island Prizes

The Josh Ozersky Memorial Award – AKA Best in Show 

Thomas Perone, The Pig Guy, New York

Smoked Chorizo stuffed with  provolone and topped with pickled shallots and a chimichurri aoili

Judge Adam Poch says: “This dish just hit every note – it was savory, sweet, spicy, the casing had a great ‘snap’ – it was the perfect bite to showcase the pig.” 

Photo by Paul Cheney @pecheney

The Whole Hog – AKA Best Use of the Whole Pig

Tank Jackson, Holy City Hogs, Charleston, SC

Tank prepared a pure-bred Ossabaw Island Pig, which he calls “one of the oldest and tastiest pigs in the world,” accompanied by collard greens.

Judge Adam Poch says: “This pig is over 40% fat – and that’s where the flavor comes from – this pig was literally dripping with flavor.”

Photo by Paul Cheney @pecheney

Prime 6 Charcoal Pit Boss Boss – AKA Best Charcoal Dish

John Fuchs and Vinny Ferrante, Red Hook Raiders, FDNY

 Slow Braised Ribs finished on the grill with homemade BBQ sauce, and topped with pickled jalepenos and cilantro

Pig Island is proud to partner with Friends of Firefighters, a non-profit providing counseling and wellness services to the FDNY and their families. 

Photo by Patricia Brown @pattyybrown

The Ingenious Pig – AKA Most Creative Dish 

Roxanne Spruance, “The Butcher,” New York
Vietnamese Larb: A Southeast Asian salad that’s made with pork shoulder and veggies, then seasoned with cilantro, mint, and a ton of fish sauce

You Look Mahvelous – AKA Best Presentation

Carl Ruiz and Mario Chape, La Cubana, New York featuring Smokey Boys BBQ and New England Meat Company
Puecro a ló Cubano: A whole rotisserie hog wrapped in bacon

Bad to the Bone – AKA Best Rib

Rob Cho, Kimchi Smoke Barbecue, New Jersey
Smoked Baby Back Ribs with Memphis style dry rub topped with gochujang glaze, sesame seeds, and scallions.

Tacoriffic – AKA Best Taco 

Billy Kooper, Route 66 Smokehouse, New York
Gringo Taco: Asian bbq sauce, cucumber, slaw, salsa verde, hard shell

Rookie of the Year – AKA Best First Time Participant

Matthew Worgul, Gentle Giant Barbecue, New York 
Half Pig Porchetta wrapped in our house-cured bacon

When Pigs Fly  – AKA Long Distance Award, Best Dish by Non-New Yorker 

Phil Wingo, PorkMafia, Chicago, IL
Whole Hog BBQ with cole slaw

Pig Impact Award – AKA Making a Difference Through Food 

Mike Petrovitch, Que Chevere, New York 
Roasted Pernil: A Puerto Rican style roast pork shoulder with rice and pigeon peas

Judge Adam Poch Says: “They are donating some of their proceeds to Austism Speaks – bridging the gap between old school home recipes and helping the community.“

Thank You to All of the Chefs who Participated in Pig Island NYC

Jason Fox, Hudson and Charles, New York
The Foxy Burger: Sliders with ground beef, ground pork, and ground bacon, topped with kimchi, bacon aoli, and sliced bacon

Jesse Jones, “POW! My Life in 40 Feasts”
Apple Cider Brined Half Hog and buttermilk yeast biscuits topped with apple butter mustard and pickled slaw.

Danny Mena of La Loncheria, New York
Puerco Ahumado: Marinated yucatecan smoked pork shoulder tacos and a side of bacon

Humberto Guallpa, Freemans Restaurant, New York 
Freemans Hog with poblano-tomatillo, bean sauce

Cenobio Canalizo and Eric Springer, Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue, New York
Pulled Pork Tacos with grilled pineapple in salsa verde

Jeff Lutonsky and Meghan Love, Mable’s Smokehouse, New York 
Pulled Pork Bacon Cups: A little cup made out of bacon with a moist bite of pulled pork and a dollop of sauce.

Jase Franklyn, Jase BBQ, New York 
BBQ Pigtail with jerk pork and ribs

David Nevarro, Mothers Ruin, New York 
Mixiotes de Puerco: Tacos with corn tortillas and nopales, a Mexican cactus.

Photo by Patricia Brown @pattyybrown

Other Featured Food

Nueske’s Bacon and Sausage, Wisconsin 

Grilled Vegetables, Just Add Beer Sauce

Cabot Cheese

Rocket Fuel Hot Sauce

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 and Singha Beer

Hard Cider, Featuring Indian Ladder Farms, Kings Highway Fine Cider and Austin Eastcider

Wine: Tussock Jumper

Spirits, Featuring Knob Creek Bourbon, Laphroaig Scotch, Kilbeggan Traditional Irish Whiskey, NY Distilling, ESP Gins, and Olde New York Farm Distillery

Celebrity Judges

Jean-Paul Bourgeois 

Dara Pollak 

Nick Solares

Adam Poch 

Jill Rittymanee 

Gennaro Pecchia 

Ethan Fedida 

William ‘Brimstone” Kucmierowski

Steve ‘Zambo’ Zambito

Keep Reading

From Food Karma
Check out chef interviews leading up to Pig Island with Tank Jackson of Holy City Hogs, Meghan Love of Mable’s Smokehouse, and Roxanne Spruance of The Butcher!

On Beer Sessions Radio
Hear from Pig Island chefs Danny Mena of La Lonchería and Cenobio Canalizo of Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue, and spirits importer Arik Torren of Fidencio Mezcal on Beer Sessions Radio with Jimmy Carbone.Listen here.

From Jimmy Carbone on CulEpi
Sustainable Alternatives to the Big, Bad Meat Biz: Some Facts You May Not Know. Read it here.

Next Up from the Creators of Pig Island: Pastrami on Rye on October 16

Sample the world of rye with rye whiskey, farm beers, breads, and kosher barbecue at Food Karma’s featured event of NY Rye Week! This all-inclusive event will dive into the intersection between rye used in whiskey, beer, and bread! What better way to showcase rye grains, bread, and whiskey in NYC than pastrami on rye?

Get Tickets Here

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!

Buy Your All-Inclusive Tickets Now!

Pig Island NYC in the Press

From Timeout: “Every year this pork-centric food festival leaves us squealing with delight.”

From Gothamist: “Prep your palate for a plethora of pork at the 10th-annual Pig Island…There will be more than 20 chefs slinging porcine provisions…[and] plenty of craft beer, hard cider, and non-pork dishes if you need to take a break from pigging out.”

From NYC BBQ Weekly: Pig Island “will be one of the largest barbecue events in New York this year and a great way to close out the summer.”

Pig Island NYC 2019 Featured Dishes

We are excited to unveil some of the tastiest food you can except at Pig Island

Tank Jackson, Holy City Hogs, Charleston, SC
Tank will be bringing a pure-bred Ossabaw Island Pig to the competition, which he calls “one of the oldest and tastiest pigs in the world.”

For his Pig Island dish he will be using whole hog barbecue, 24 month-old ham cured by Dakota hams out of Somerset, Kentucky, ghost pepper cheese infused sausages, and South Carolina collard greens cooked down in Ossabaw Island lard.

Rodrigo Duarte, Caseiro e Bom, New Jersey
Rodrigo will also be bringing his own hog. He is the only farmer in America certified to raise pure Ibérico pigs, which are fed a special diet of vegetables, acorns, and chestnuts to give their meat a rich, nutty flavor.

Carl Ruiz and Mario Chape, La Cubana, New York featuring Smokey Boys BBQ 
Puecro a ló Cubano: A whole rotisserie hog wrapped in bacon

Roxanne Spruance, “The Butcher,” New York
Vietnamese Larb: A Southeast Asian salad that’s made with pork shoulder and veggies, then seasoned with cilantro, mint, and a ton of fish sauce

Jason Fox, Hudson and Charles, New York
The Foxy Burger: Sliders with ground beef, ground pork, and ground bacon, topped with kimchi, bacon aoli, and sliced bacon

Jesse Jones, “POW! My Life in 40 Feasts”
Apple Cider Brined Half Hog and buttermilk yeast biscuits topped with apple butter mustard and pickled slaw.

Danny Mena of La Loncheria, New York
Puerco Ahumado: Marinated yucatecan smoked pork shoulder tacos and a side of bacon

Humberto Guallpa, Freemans Restaurant, New York
Freemans Hog with poblano-tomatillo, bean sauce

Cenobio Canalizo and Eric Springer, Morgan’s Brooklyn Barbecue, New York
Pulled Pork Tacos with grilled pineapple in salsa verde

Jeff Lutonsky and Meghan Love, Mable’s Smokehouse, New York
Pulled Pork Bacon Cups: A little cup made out of bacon with a moist bite of pulled pork and a dollop of sauce.

Thomas Perone, The Pig Guy, New York 
Smoked Chorizo stuffed with  provolone and topped with pickled shallots and a chimichurri aoili.

Matthew Worgul, Gentle Giant Barbecue, New York 
Half Pig Porchetta wrapped in our house-cured bacon

Jase Franklyn, Jase BBQ, New York
BBQ Pigtail with jerk pork and ribs

Mike Petrovitch, Que Chevere, New York 
Roasted Pernil: A Puerto Rican style roast pork shoulder with rice and pigeon peas

David Nevarro, Mothers Ruin, New York 
Mixiotes de Puerco: Tacos with corn tortillas and nopales, a Mexican cactus

Phil Wingo, PorkMafia

Billy Kooper, Route 66 Smokehouse, New York

Rob Cho, Kimchi Smoke Barbecue, New Jersey

Community Partner
Pig Island is proud to partner up with 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

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 Pollak
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. Her blog has won multiple awards, including Best Food Blogs in the World” (BrandBallot) and “Top 40 Food Blogs in NY” (feedspot).

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!

Buy Your Tickets Now! 

General Admission Tickets: $75 Food, Drinks & Fun with nothing to buy onsite!

Early Bird All-Inclusive Tickets –$65  Food, Drinks & Fun with nothing to buy onsite! Available until August 31! 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.

We are family friendly – ticketed adults can bring your young child or baby.

You can also bring your own blanket to sit on.

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