Interesting afternoon yesterday — three other judges and I were served nine full meals (we didn’t eat them all) as part of the Taste of Elegance, one of a series of chefs’ contests using pork. There are a dozen or so of these competitions across the country, with the winners from each competing in a super cookoff in Chicago.

Ed Bass from the Missouri Pork Association coordinated this round, and he did a terrific job. Many times when I’m in a judging situation, we’re out in the open in front of the competitors, or the entries come out haphazardly, or the judging criteria are poorly defined. Yesterday, we started promptly at 4 p.m. and the nine dishes came out precisely at seven-minute intervals, with a 15-minute break after the fifth dish. We judged on 100-point scale: 50 for taste, 30 for appearance and 20 for originality. The judging was blind — we knew what the dishes were, but we didn’t know who had entered, let alone what they’d entered.

As it turned out, one of my favorite chefs, Lou Rook III of Annie Gunn’s, was one of the entrants, and I chose his dish — Confit of White Marble Farms Pork Rack with a Black Mission Fig Soy Caramel Glaze and Parsnip Yukon Gold Potato Gratin — as my first-place winner.

The overall winner, however, was Chris Stroup from the host Renaissance Hotel at the airport with a Pork Chop with House-Made Bacon and an Heirloom Apple and Sweet Potato Tarte Tatin wth Missouri Goat Cheese. (I scored this one in second place.) Josh Roland from F15teen did a lovely slow-braised pork belly and Thom Zoog of Portabella did a very unusual take on ribs, boning all but one and then wrapping the meat around that single bone so it resembled a shank when cooked.

These cooking competitions — interest in which has been amplified, no doubt, but all the TV food challenges — are a great deal of fun, but from my perspective, they also get me thinking about creativity and flavor combinations. In this case, I also reaffirmed my love of more interesting cuts of meat. This competition doesn’t allow use of pork tenderloin, but as we talked as judges, we also suggested that boneless pork loin also might not be the best example of pork flavor. Belly! Give us belly!