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Ronnie Rainwater, besides having the greatest name in steakdom, has a way with pork.
As Delmonico Executive Chef, we imagine he gets a bit bored sending out slab after slab of prime seared sirloin succulence. So, what better way to pass the time than to stuff your own pig’s trotters and do a mini-cure on your own hams — or pork chops as the case may be.
The ham is brined and cured (for all of you chemical heads out there, ELV knows they’re not necessarily the same thing) in local cider (from Gilcrease Orchard), before being smoked over Gilcrease fruit wood. These processes give it a sweetness and juiciness that you will not find in any other pork chop…anywhere!
The result is a championship chop that may be the apotheosis of pork. The pinnacle of pig, if you will. With hints of fruit, spice and smoke that haunt the senses long after you’ve swallowed a bite.
Yeah, this pork chop is that good. So good it needs nothing but a small bed of Anson Mills grits underneath it for a creamy side note to all that porcine perfection.
As we’ve noted before, his stuffed trotters are no slouches either, and neither is his delicate-yet-intense, house-cured, citrus trout over an addicting little corn cake. (If you think it’s easy to cook anything and make it delicate-yet-intense, least of all a piece of fish, just try it sometime.)
Just as you should try David Trevizo’s coating-the-sides-of-the-bowl-technique the next time you make a Caesar salad:
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It may not be the classic preparation, but then again, neither is the use of mustard in the dressing, but the whole enchilada tasted mighty fine to us.
DELMONICO
In the Venetian Resort and Casino
3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.414.1492