Convivo x Stolpman Boar Dinner
Chef Peter McNee Is Preparing a Special Wine-Paired Pork Meal at the Santa Barbara Inn on March 21
Before opening Convivo Restaurant in Santa Barbara almost eight years ago, Chef Peter McNee spent a lot of time in Italy, where the culinary culture surrounding wild boar, known there as cinghiale, is quite robust.
“It’s an ingredient important to the peasant cuisine of central Italy,” said McNee, explaining that it is usually braised with red wine and cacao there, served atop polenta or pasta. “It was also one of the dishes I learned to prepare while living in San Gimignano 20 years ago and tasted for the first time in a tiny osteria in the walled city of Lucca. Those culinary memories are often called upon cooking at Convivo.”
So when he was approached by Arroyo Grande farmer Jesus “Chuy” Mendez about whether he’d want to buy a farm-raised boar, the chef jumped at the chance, excited to use his butchery skills to respect every edible part of the animal. Then he enlisted the wines of Stolpman Vineyards to develop a one-off “Wild Boar Dinner” for March 21.
The menu is deep in the meats, from boar and porcini arancini served with Stolpman sauvignon blanc and boar tonnato and boar liver mousse crostini with Stolpman grenache to a sangiovese-paired smorgasbord of boar that’s been roasted, made into sausage, and slow-cooked into a pasta accompaniment.