By John Howell
Home Place Plantation wound up its two-day celebration with a near sellout to Sunday’s Boucherie featuring chefs from renowned restaurants from Memphis to New Orleans.

This year’s celebration included anticipation of the pending approval from the USDA for a new slaughter and processing plant on the farm that has been in the Bartlett family since 1871. Home Place’s President Marshall Bartlett has been converting the farm into a sustainable pastured pork operation.

Saturday night’s activities featured barbecued pork from Home Place pastures and music from the surrounding Hill Country.

Sunday afternoon offered dining on a variety of pork, beef and other dishes prepared by top-notch chefs. Guests paid $75 each to sample dishes ranging from pork “Key Wat” stew prepared by chefs Melissa Montero and Slade Rushing of New Orleans’ Brennan’s restaurants to lightly fried quail eggs served on hash brown potatoes prepared by chefs Matthew Kajdan and Brian Campbell of Jackson’s Parlor Market.

From Memphis’ Porcellino’s Craft Butcher’s head chef Brad McCarley, guest sampled pork crepinettes; New Orleans’ David Barbeau gave guests a sample of grilled pork like he prepares in New Orleans’ Toups’ Meatery. Guests also enjoyed dishes from Memphis’ Miss Cordelia’s, Hernando’s Juniors, Oxford’s Snackbar, Cleveland’s Delta Meat Market, among others.

Guest then dined on pork pulled from whole hogs cooked in a outdoor pit.

Half of the proceeds from ticket sales were donated to Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture