Marben Pig Roast—Goodbye Chef Misha

Last updated on July 26th, 2013 at 11:24 am

Despite only really making Twitter part of my life these past 18 months, it’s not as if I had any shortage of events in a year and a half! From celebrations to coffee dates, conferences and cinema—it’s been a wild ride!

But considering all that, there’s a special group of Torontonians on Twitter that I never really broke into—the foodies. (Foodies are way better at writing about food than I am; if you want to see how this event unfolded through the eyes of a foodie, you should check out mi amiga Joie’s post on it!)

I’ve made a ton of foodie friends over time—conversation with them will invariably turn to the new place they tried, new technique/device they used in their cooking, or the new tastes they’ve been acquiring in their lives.

For someone like me who usually sticks to their stomping grounds and doesn’t often cook as to avoid poisoning himself and whoever else might fall prey to his cuisine—this was all completely foreign!

So when I heard through the tweetvine that this guy named Ken was organizing a pig roast Tweetup as a send-off to Marben’s chef, Misha Nesterenko, saying “no” didn’t even remotely sound like an option.

I’ve said that over time as you use Twitter, you come to learn who you could see as part of your life beyond 140 characters and who will forever be “just someone I know from Twitter”. Fortunately, this event was shared with plenty of people from the first category!

Upon arrival, Ken presented us with funky name tags and manoeuvred us around the Marben basement masterfully, finding seats for everyone without too much of a problem.

For a mere $25, we go to gorge ourselves on:

• delicious kale;
• cranberry baked beans (thanks to Yvonne for reminding me!)
• coleslaw seasoned with a Dijon mustard;
• kim chi and apple salad;
• fries with sides of ketchup and truffle aioli;
• and of course—spit-roasted pig with a delicious BBQ sauce!

You’d get this all family style, so in servings meant to feed a group—so when the amazing ladies accompanying me in my group had their fill, I wasn’t left wanting for more—there was more than enough to go around!

Add the fact that Great Lakes Brewery was on tap (har dee har har) for the night to ply us with free and endless samples of several of their beers, and you had a winning combination!

The night was a testament to the good times that can come together on account of social media, and the fact that people who use social media every day of their lives can still keep the social in the equation (which was only further accented by the fact that this event marked my 1000th Foursquare check-in). While I didn’t get a chance to meet Chef Misha and wish him well, I’d like to think that the crowd that came out can be its own testament to the fact that his reputations preceded him, and preceded him well.

Thanks go out to Ken Samuel, Marben and Great Lakes Brewery for putting together such an enjoyable night!

–case p.