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World Pork Expo June 6, 2003 Report 10
(Episode 1267)

One of the Celebrated Chefs, on hand for this year's edition of World Pork Expo, says the popularity of pork on restaurant menus is on the verge of eclipsing that of chicken.

Mark Salter is the Executive Chef at the Inn at Perry Cabin, in St. Michael's, Maryland and he was on hand to prepare one of his award winning pork dishes.

He says the combination pork's cost and convenience is boosting its popularity among patrons.

"I think everybody in America likes to go out and eat I think when you go out to a restaurant and you tastes a great dish with pork...

A lot of chefs these days give away recipes and obviously that's good for the consumer to go out to the store and then to look for that cut of pork in the supermarket and take it home and try the dish out themselves.

We offer several pork dishes because pork is becoming very popular now.

I know chicken was very popular at one time and it still is but I think pork is going to take over pretty soon because it's got a lot of flavor to it.

People are developing more flavor in pork right now, especially with the Berkshire pig. We're doing a lot of experimenting with that and that figures a lot, especially with chefs in our industry today.

They're looking for meat that can be cooked easily that is fairly inexpensive for the consumer because the price on the menu dictates that as well and they want something very tasty to offer".

Salter says pork is still a very inexpensive dish, especially the loin.

He says the tenderloin is a little bit more expensive but it doesn't come even close to beef or lamb or veal so it's a very good substitute.

He says, even in today's economy, people are more willing to try these pork dishes because of the cost on the menu.

At World Pork Expo, I'm Bruce Cochrane.