2 Top Chefs, 1 Pig: A Whole-Pig Dinner at Jar

Sometimes roasting a pig well, so that the skin is crisp and the meat unyieldingly rich, is best left to a trained professional. On Sunday, Aug. 18, there'll be not one but two highly skilled chefs — both Top Chef alums, no less. Suzanne Tracht and Nyesha Arrington will collaborate on a family-style Sunday supper of roasted pork with the trimmings at Tracht's West Hollywood chophouse Jar.

The menu will include an appetizer of crisp pork belly and melon, followed by roasted pork and sides of mustard greens, summer slaw and shelling beans cooked in a broth.

“We've been getting the lima beans from McGrath Farms and they've been out of this world,” Tracht says. “They're so creamy and really good. All of the shelling beans this year have been really good.” The meal will be followed by a dessert of banana cream pie.

The whole Berkshire pig will be roasted in a Cuban-style roasting box known as La Caja China. “We're actually going to cook one in the box borrowed from Lindy & Grundy. They have quite a few and they're in the neighborhood,” Tracht says.

Tracht and Arrington plan to brine the pig, whereas the pork belly will be treated with a dry rub of dried red chiles, coriander, salt and sugar.

Tracht has been wanting to invite the former executive chef of Wilshire to team up on a roasted-pork dinner at Jar ever since she tried Arrington's version at an event last year. “She did this wonderful whole pig in a box and it was so delicious. I've had it cooked that way before, but it never tasted like the way she made it.”

To pair with your plate, Margo Tyler, head bartender at Jar, suggests either the French General (a Square One cucumber-infused vodka-based drink with watermelon juice and fresh lime) or the Baked Cherry Margarita (Peligroso Silver Tequila with juices of lemon and lime followed by muddled baked cherries and simple syrup). The margarita, a seasonal cocktail, will make its debut on the night of the dinner.

The multicourse dinner special will be $55 per person. Reservations are recommended and can be made at (323) 655-6566. The regular menu will be available to diners as well.

Banana cream pie at Jar; Credit: Lisa Thompson Photography

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– Jar: 99 Essential Restaurants 2013