Chef Jarrod Verbiak is nothing if not patient. Perhaps the quietest of Beijing's highest-flying foreign chefs, Verbiak is happy to invest three full days to prepare a new signature dish for his menu at Bistrot B: Porchetta.
Roast suckling pig gets star treatment in many cuisines. Verbiak's version gives a French twist to a dish with roots in Italian cuisine. His slow-cooked version boasts a secret-recipe stuffing made with fresh herbs from Provence, bacon, pork belly, spinach, carrot, rice, chilies, eggs and more.
The body of the year-old piglet is gutted, deboned and arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat and skin. Next it's rolled, sometimes spitted and then roasted, traditionally over wood.
Porchetta is traditionally heavily salted in addition to being stuffed with garlic, rosemary, fennel or other herbs, often gathered wild in the French countryside. Roasting with low heat avoids drying out the pork or filling, so each slice will be succulent after the pig gets a high-heat flash finish to make the outside nice and crisp.
If you've grilled some pork yourself, you may wonder what takes even a fancy French chef like Verbiak so long. Here's his rundown of the steps involved:
1. Blending of the salt cure;
2. Butchering, marinating and bathing of the piglet;
3. Preparation of the stuffing;
4. Grinding and mixing of the stuffing;
5. Poaching and peeling of the eggs;
6. Slicing the pork belly and rolling the stuffing;
7. Stuffing and stitching of the piglet;
8. Bathing, shaving and wrapping of the piglet;
9. Poaching and chilling of the piglet;
10. Washing, drying, seasoning and roasting of porchetta;
11. Preparations of the accompaniments;
12. Slicing and serving.
A more modest version has become popular in North America, a skin-on pork belly that's just long and wide enough to wrap around a trimmed, center-cut pork loin for slow-roasting. Online recipes for this shortcut average about 24 hours of preparation time.
Verbiak, however, isn't cutting any corners, and the result is sublime pork and crispy crackling, cooked to perfection along with two sumptuous side dishes. If you're quick enough, you'll get one of the pig's ears, which the chef considers a special treat.
With so much preparation required, porchetta requires pre-ordering five days in advance. It will take that long anyway to organize a party for six to 10 of your closest friends or favorite gourmands. (That's the same list, right?) The complete meal for the group, including the porchetta and two side dishes, is 2,880 yuan ($443), or 3,500 yuan with a magnum of Chateau d'Esclans Whispering Angel rose wine or two hours of free-flowing craft beer. (Prices subject to 15 percent service charge as well as the new 6 percent value-added tax.)
If you go
Bistrot B
At the Rosewood Beijing, Jing Guang Centre, Hujialou, Chaoyang district.
010-6536-0066.
