Chef John Hurkes creates signature Pentagram rillette dish

My name is John Hurkes, a chef from Minneapolis, MN. I have a great passion for heavy metal and cooking. I’ve been cooking since I was a child in my grandmother’s farmhouse kitchen, covered in flour, and throwing dough at the walls. It’s still the same, except now there’s also the deafening sound of Slayer in the background.

Now, let me start by introducing you to the first in a series of my own Perfect Pairings.

Dish: Sign of the Goat Cheese (photo: John Hurkes)

Ingredients: Lamb shank rillette, purple haze goat cheese, hop-infused communion wafers, crystallized bull’s blood micro greens, hibiscus salt and Surly “Pentagram” gastrique.

Album: Pentagram’s Relentless - The 1993 re-baked version of the classic doom metal band’s 1985 self-titled debut.

Tasting notes: Meat, cheese, and bread, primal like an ancient pentacle. Primitive at first glance, but hidden in the shadows, are a complex force of evil flavours and classic riffs. These house-made Ahtanum hops-infused communion wafers were made on a Sunday night long after kitchen mass had ended. Kneaded on a pagan altar, into the oven, and finished by the breath of the dark lord himself. This grotesque tapas is best paired with a sour ale and a good collection of old-school heavy metal records. The acidity of a sour beer flows harmoniously in rhythm with soft floral notes of lavendar, while the bitterness of the hop wafers are subdued by the sweetness of the Pentagram gastrique. The barnyard flavors of this tapas will surely lead you to devour the entire lamb in the manger. Primordial and heavy metal, man. It’s the sign of the goat cheese.

-Chef John Hurkes