Georgia Boucherie Festival 2022

Culinary Director and Executive Chef Nicholas Walker spent the weekend of Jan. 15-16 preparing delicious, locally-sourced dishes as part of a fundraiser and educational event on a Milledgeville farm.

The fifth annual Le Pied Du Mont Boucherie Festival, located at Comfort Farms, serves as a fundraiser and educational gathering of butchers, chefs, farmers and veterans coming together to celebrate the start of the growing season and work together to prepare seasonal and delicious meals from local, sustainable and organic sources. Most importantly, it aims to support the STAG VETS INC Agro-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy program to help combat veterans’ transition effectively into civilian life. Comfort Farms is the nation’s first Veterans Acute Crisis Agriculture Center.

Chef Walker was one of several prominent chefs who took part in the event, which was a throwback to literal farm-to-table meals. All proteins and some vegetables were sourced directly from the farm. Here is a sampling of Chef Walker’s dishes.

Chef Walker returned to his hometown for the weekend event. Le Pied Du Mont Boucherie is not only a celebration, it’s an opportunity to learn. The onsite education portion of the event consists of safe handling of livestock, humane dispatch, how to evaluate a healthy carcass, butchering techniques, understanding our growing season, identifying problems and solutions for a more healthy food system as well as how veterans can take an active role to provide food security for local communities.