Baconfest Chicago celebrated its 10th anniversary on April 6 and 7. More than 4,000 people came to see and taste the latest bacon creations from Windy City participants.

More than 140 chefs displayed their latest bacon innovations. In each Baconfest session, judges handed out Golden Rasher Awards, the top distinctions of the contest. There was also an award given in the “most creative” category and for the first time, the “people’s choice” award.

On April 6, the winner for most creative was Heritage Restaurant & Caviar who showed off the bacon roasted sunchoke and cottage cheese pelmeni. The dish also included bacon dashi, butternut squash kimchi and bacon dough.

The people’s choice award for best bacon dish went to Victory Tap Chicago for bacon ricotta agnolotti with bacon, sage and brown butter.

The Honey Butter Fried Chicken group won for the third year for most creative entry, with a dish of bacon and fried chicken ramen with pimento cheese dash and candied jalapeños. The award was presented during the April 7 lunch session.

The people’s choice for the lunch session included the Rack House Tavern winning for The Flying Swine, a hickory smoked pork belly, fried chicken skin, homemade pickles, truffle Dijon sauce.

On Saturday night, Bar Takito won for the three sisters polenta with candied pork belly. Some of the ingredients included premium cheesy polenta with pickled chills, candied pork belly and freeze-dried corn.

The final people’s choice award went to McQ’s Bar & Grill for its sweet and sour bacon wings.

Baconfest Chicago is a nationally known event and one of the largest in the nation. In addition to hosting a food drive and raffle at the event, Baconfest donated a portion of proceeds from ticket sales to the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Since 2009, Baconfest’s support has resulted in donations of more than $400,000 to Chicago’s food bank, which translates into more than 1.3 million meals for hungry people in the area.