The Pitmaster Who Roasts Whole Pigs In The Woods Of New York

Whole hog cooking has been around for centuries — it's one of the oldest styles of cooking found in the United States, but it's more often associated with Southern pitmasters. In fact, you don't find the tradition much outside of Tennesee and the Carolinas. Food historians can trace whole-animal cooking back to the Native Americans, but it was enslaved people on plantations who used the method to feed a crowd, and the tradition was passed down through the generations. Most of the whole hog barbecue restaurants open today are family-owned and operated, according to Eater. 

Unlike Texas-style barbecue and its briskets or quick-cooking Santa Maria-style grilling, cooking a whole hog is, well, a whole other animal. Because pitmasters are cooking the whole animal — which includes parts like the shoulder, loin, and ribs that all cook at different rates — they must ensure the meat cooks evenly and that the loin isn't overcooked, dry, and stringy before the shoulder is ready. Time management and temperature regulation are key to ensuring that faster cooking parts like the leg cook slower and match the pace with the slower cooking shoulder, according to Sask Pork.  

So, whole hog roasting isn't something you would necessarily associate with New York State, but there's a chef hiding out in the woods of the Catskill Mountains doing just that.

Although he hails from Argentina, perhaps one of the best meat and barbecue capitals of the world, chef Norberto Piattoni's journey through the world of cooking brought him to open-fire cooking and fostered an appreciation for local sourcing and being mindful of the seasonal availability of ingredients. To achieve that, he left New York City for the Catskill Mountains and launched The Modestos with friend and chef Danny Newburg, according to Chefs for Impact. Piattoni describes the concept of The Modestos as "an outdoor cooking series of dinners" and "to show people that delicious food doesn't necessarily have to be complicated."

Piattoni collaborates with regional farms to support local agriculture, so he sources his pigs and ingredients from Catskill-area farms and is not afraid to experiment. He uses ingredients like palm sugar, galangal, and coriander seeds to season his pigs, a far cry from the smokey spice rubs found down South. He gathers sticks from the forest to build the crosses and structures on which the pork rests while it roasts. Early in the morning, he sets the pigs up to cook for a 5 o'clock dinner service with constant fire monitoring. His team of chefs also cooks the complementing sides over the live fire on planchas, per Eater. The proceeds from dinners at The Modestos are used to support programs that fight food insecurity.