Providence’s Chef Jonathan Kirk talks about his newest food venture with GoLocalProv’s Laura Afonso. The Fat Pig is the new pop up style experience that has taken on much popularity amongst the city’s “foodies," serving traditional smoked meats in a shareable atmosphere.
Kirk’s partner Chef Kevin Mato’s owns and operates JC’s Butchershop in West Warwick, where the meat expertise developed.
“We decided that we would team up and put our knowledge of the industry and cooking together, and that is where the Fat Pig came from. He is fully Portuguese, and he works with pork more than any other meat,” says Kirk.
Beyond cured meats and barbecue style plates, The Fat Pig dishes out refined shareable smoked meat plates.
“At our first pop up, we did a smoked pig’s head platter and it sold out. You are looking at the whole pig; face, teeth, tongue and all. We serve it with house-made tortillas, chorizo lard, and dehydrated beet powder, along with salsa and chimichurri. We had a guest request a pair of gloves so he could really dig in,” says Kirk.
House-made products are the norm for Kirk and Matos when cooking for The Fat Pig, “Even when we made tacos, we make all of our own tortillas just to make sure we have control over just about everything that we are putting out.
The Fat Pig has a number of pop-ups in the works, with the next scheduled on March 23 at Buttonwoods Brewery from 2-7 pm, and will definitely be serving their smoked pigs head that has been a huge hit thus far.
Follow Chef Kirk on Instagram at @TheFatPigPVD to stay up to date with his pop-ups and menu offerings.
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