The Northwest Food and Wine Festival was held on Saturday, and for the second year running they asked me to judge their pate competition. Thirteen entrants provided beautifully-composed works of labor-intensive charcuterie, and six local food journalists, veteran chefs, and purveyors spent two hours tasting. By my math we each put away a pound and a half of pate, but that's not really where the focus should be here. The take-away was, of course, that the institution of the pate is alive and well in Portland. We didn't see any en croute like Olympic Provisions did last year, but the field was much steadier, with only one explosive disappointment.*
The winners:
Traditional
1st - Laurelhurst Market
2nd - Jamison
3rd - Tie (Papa Haydn, Feastworks)
Country
1st - Feastworks
2nd - Hall Street
3rd - Uptown Billiards Club
* There wasn't really an explosive disappointment, unless you count me having to work and not getting to lose my shit to the funk over where the nice man was playing synthesizers in front of all the glossy Mercedes displays.
If those pates in the photos are named in error, please write in. The tasting was blind, and I'm not certain I got every corresponding name right.