Course IV · Second Course · Secondo Piatto
Spit-Roasted Sardinian Suckling Pig with Wild Myrtle, Lentisk & Strawberry Tree Honey
Section I · Sense of Place
Long before the hedge funds and the horse farms, before the stone walls and the shingled estates rising above the Sound, this stretch of southwestern Connecticut was simply beautiful country. The Mianus River carved through ancient woodland. Oysters fattened in the cold shallows of Greenwich Cove. The Saugatuck and the Housatonic slipped quietly to the sea.
What grew here, over centuries, was something rarer than wealth — it was a culture of discernment. Greenwich and its neighbors — Westport, Darien, New Canaan, Ridgefield, Wilton, Fairfield — became home to generations of Americans who knew the difference between comfort and excellence, and quietly demanded both. They planted kitchen gardens in the backyards of their Colonial Revivals. They drove to Stew Leonard's in Norwalk when it was still a single dairy barn. They discovered Aux Délices on Greenwich Avenue long before the rest of the country found its appetite for fine prepared foods.
The Long Island Sound shaped this region's palate as profoundly as any imported ingredient. Fresh striped bass pulled from the water on a Saturday morning. Blue crabs steamed on newspaper-covered tables. The salt air itself. That relationship — between land, water, and table — remains the animating spirit of Fairfield County's culinary culture, one that Private Chef Robert honors every time he enters a kitchen here.
Section II · The Private Chef Difference
The most meaningful thing a private chef brings to your Greenwich home is not a recipe. It's the reclaimed evening — the dinner party where you are actually present at your own table, unhurried and fully engaged with your guests, while every detail of the meal is already handled. That is the experience Private Chef Robert delivers.
Where a catering company arrives with pre-portioned trays and a staffing timeline, Chef Robert arrives with a menu built around your household: your dietary preferences, your guests' sensitivities, the seasonal produce he sourced that morning from Stew Leonard's in Norwalk, or the premium whole fish from Fjord Fish Market on Greenwich Avenue. He handles every element — mise en place, service, and a spotless kitchen at the end of the evening. What remains is the memory of an extraordinary meal and the rare feeling that someone thought of everything.
For this Sardinian secondo piatto, that vision begins with a whole suckling pig, sourced with the care this dish demands — and it arrives at your table with the wild, aromatic soul of the macchia mediterranea. Reserve your evening with Chef Robert, and let Sardinia come to Greenwich.
Section III · Featured Recipe
Course: Second Course · Secondo Piatto | Yield: Serves 10 | Cuisine: Sardinian
Porceddu is Sardinia's most ceremonial dish — the one that marks weddings, harvests, and homecomings. What moves me about bringing it to a Greenwich table is the contrast: a wildly aromatic, ancient preparation landing in a modern dining room with candlelight and Vermentino. The corbezzolo honey glaze is the detail I find irresistible — bitter-floral and rare, it pulls the whole animal toward something almost luminous. For a dinner party of ten, it is unambiguously the centerpiece of the evening.
Organize your prep into three dedicated stations before touching the pig. This is not optional theater — it is the structure that keeps a large-format roast coherent and calm.
Remove the suckling pig from refrigeration 90 minutes before cooking — this is non-negotiable for even cooking throughout such a large mass of meat. Set it on the roasting rack inside the pan and pat every surface, inside and out, completely dry with paper towels. Moisture is the enemy of crackling skin; be meticulous, especially inside the cavity and around the legs. The skin should feel dry and slightly tacky to the touch before it ever sees heat.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the stripped myrtle leaves (reserving the whole branches), rosemary leaves, sage leaves, bay leaves, smashed garlic cloves, lentisk leaves, and lemon zest. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, season with 1 teaspoon of coarse salt and ½ teaspoon of cracked pepper, and toss to combine. The fragrance at this stage — wild myrtle, resinous rosemary, the faint medicinal bite of lentisk — is unmistakably the macchia mediterranea. This is Sardinia.
Season the interior cavity walls generously with 1½ tablespoons of coarse salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper, rubbing the salt into every fold of the interior. Pack the aromatic herb mixture firmly inside, then tuck the reserved whole myrtle branches in alongside the herbs — they perfume the meat from within throughout the long roast. You are not simply seasoning a roast; you are building an aromatic chamber.
Truss the rear legs together firmly with butcher's twine, pulling them toward the body so the pig roasts in a natural, compact form. Brush the entire exterior — back, belly, legs, ears, snout — with olive oil. Season the skin with the remaining 1½ tablespoons of salt, pressing it in firmly with the flat of your hand. The skin should feel uniformly coated, tacky, and glistening. Lay the pig, back side up, on the roasting rack. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Pour the cup of Vermentino and ½ cup of cold water into the bottom of the roasting pan, beneath the rack. This liquid will baste the air around the pig, contribute to the pan drippings, and prevent scorching during the long initial roast. Set your timer for 30-minute intervals — consistent basting is the discipline that separates a memorable Porceddu from a merely adequate one.
Roast at 325°F for 2½ to 3 hours, basting every 30 minutes with the accumulated pan drippings — tipping the pan slightly and using a large spoon or basting brush to coat every surface. The skin will progress from pale and matte to a deepening ivory-gold. Expect the kitchen to fill — gradually, then completely — with the wild, resinous scent of myrtle and roasting pork. That is your sensory timer. Begin checking internal temperature at 2 hours, inserting the thermometer into the deepest part of the shoulder without touching bone. Target: 160°F.
While the pig roasts through its final hour, whisk together 3 tablespoons of corbezzolo honey with 1 tablespoon of warm olive oil and a pinch of fleur de sel. Corbezzolo honey — produced from the blossoms of the arbutus (strawberry tree), harvested in Sardinia's autumn macchia — is one of the world's most unusual honeys: persistently bitter at the back of the palate, faintly floral, with a mineral finish. It does not sweeten; it completes. The glaze should be fluid and fragrant, the color of dark amber.
When the pig reads 160°F internally, raise the oven to 450°F. Brush the skin generously and evenly with the corbezzolo honey glaze. Return to the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, watching carefully after the 12-minute mark. The skin will deepen from gold to a mahogany lacquer, beginning to blister and crackle at the surface. You will hear it — a gentle, papery crackling from the oven, like distant applause. The skin is done when it has the color of dark caramel, a matte-to-glossy sheen, and sounds hollow when tapped with a knuckle. Do not walk away from the oven during this stage.
Remove the pig from the oven and tent loosely with a single sheet of aluminum foil — not sealed, just draped. Rest for a full 20 minutes. The juices redistribute through the meat; the crackling firms from a soft caramel to a brittle, shattering glass. Cutting into the pig before this rest is the single most common mistake made with large-format roasts. The 20 minutes are not lost time — they are the final act of cooking.
Line a large, warmed oval platter generously with fresh myrtle branches — this is the Sardinian way, as much tradition as garnish. Begin carving by removing the shoulder sections, then the hindquarters, then slicing the loin across the back. Break the crackling into irregular shards and distribute across the carved sections — every guest deserves a piece. Drizzle the platter with a thin thread of corbezzolo honey. Scatter dried myrtle berries if using. Serve immediately — Porceddu waits for no one, and your guests have been patient long enough.
| Task | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mise en Place & Prep | 60 min | Herb stripping, stuffing assembly, trussing |
| Tempering (passive) | 90 min | Plan ahead — begins 1½ hours before oven |
| Slow Roast at 325°F | 150–180 min | Baste every 30 minutes |
| High-Heat Glaze Finish | 15–20 min | Watch continuously; corbezzolo honey glaze |
| Rest (tented) | 20 min | Non-negotiable for crackling & juices |
| Carving & Plating | 15 min | Myrtle branch platter, honey drizzle |
| Total (Oven to Table) | ~4 hours | +90 min tempering = 5.5 hr start-to-finish |
Serve Porceddu on myrtle branches over a warmed oval platter. Provide individual ramekins of additional corbezzolo honey at the table — guests will use it. Pair with a lightly dressed bitter green salad or roasted seasonal vegetables and a chilled Cannonau di Sardegna or Vermentino di Gallura. The crackling is meant to be eaten by hand — set the table accordingly, and own it.
Section IV · Grocery Shopping List
Organized for efficient shopping across your preferred Greenwich and Fairfield County sources. Check each item before you leave for the market — this is a dish where substitutions in the aromatic department matter.
Section V · Reserve Your Evening
Private Chef Robert · Greenwich, CT
Imagine the evening: your guests arrive to a kitchen already at work — the fragrance of wild myrtle filling the house, Vermentino open on the counter, nothing left for you to do but welcome the people you love. This is what Private Chef Robert brings to Greenwich and Fairfield County homes — not just a meal, but an evening genuinely freed from the labor of it.
Chef Robert's services are designed for the way Greenwich families actually live: weekly meal prep that transforms Sunday evenings, intimate dinner parties for eight to twenty, landmark holiday gatherings, private cooking lessons, and corporate entertaining that leaves a lasting impression. Whether the table calls for a Sardinian secondo or a quiet Tuesday dinner built around what arrived fresh from the market, he brings the same precision, the same care, and the same conviction that the details matter.
Reserve Your Date — Contact Chef Robert TodaySection VI · Frequently Asked Questions
Section VII · About
Chef Robert Gorman brings a career shaped by two extraordinary food cultures — the Pacific Northwest's deep-rooted connection to wild seafood, sustainable sourcing, and artisan craft, honed in Seattle's celebrated fine dining and food-and-beverage scene along Puget Sound and Lake Washington; and the refined, ingredient-driven world of private chef work in some of America's most discerning households. That dual formation — rigorous kitchen discipline and intimate personal service — is precisely what his Greenwich and Fairfield County clients experience at their own tables.
Chef Robert's philosophy is straightforward: seasonal, local, and personal. He sources with intention, cooks with precision, and designs every menu around the people sitting at the table. His connection to the Greenwich community runs deeper than geography — it reflects a shared appreciation for the considered life. Contact Chef Robert at Robert@RobertLGorman.com or 602-370-5255.
Section VIII · Styles of Service
The way a meal is served shapes the entire emotional arc of an evening. Chef Robert is fluent in the full range of private dining service styles, and will guide you toward the format that best fits your table, your guests, and the occasion.
Each course arrives individually plated, restaurant-style. Ideal for formal dinner parties and celebrations where choreography and presentation are paramount. Every plate is a composed statement.
Generous platters placed at the table for guests to share. Warm, convivial, and perfectly suited to a Sardinian menu where the communal roast is the centerpiece. Encourages conversation and abundance.
Passed hors d'oeuvres and amuse-bouches for cocktail receptions and pre-dinner socializing. Chef Robert prepares; service is handled elegantly and continuously without disrupting the flow of the room.
Curated stations allow guests to move freely through the menu — ideal for larger gatherings of 20 or more. Each station is designed and arranged with the same precision as a plated course.
An intimate, immersive experience centered at or near the kitchen, where guests observe and interact with the cooking process. Best for 6 to 10 guests who appreciate the craft as much as the meal.
The classical multi-course progression — antipasto through dolce — with deliberate pacing between courses. Allows the evening to breathe, encourages conversation, and gives each dish its proper moment.
Section IX · The Table Itself
For a secondo as dramatic as Porceddu Sardo, the table should do two things simultaneously: honor the rustic, ceremonial roots of the dish and reflect the refinement of a Greenwich dinner party. The tension between those two impulses is precisely what makes the evening memorable.
Plates & Chargers: For family-style service, large oval platters in natural stoneware or cream ceramic — with a matte, handmade quality — echo the earthy sensibility of Sardinian cuisine without sacrificing elegance. If plating individually, wide-rimmed white porcelain allows the caramelized pig and myrtle garnish to read with full visual clarity against a clean ground. Charger plates in brushed gold or deep bronze amplify the warmth of the corbezzolo honey glaze.
Silverware: For a second course of this nature, guests need a proper carving-weight dinner knife — not steak knives, but a balanced, European-style dinner knife with sufficient heft. Serving the pig at the table with a dedicated carving fork and broad-bladed carving knife, brought out with some ceremony, elevates the moment of carving into an event in itself.
Serving Vessels: The main platter should be large and warm — a 16 to 18-inch oval in rustic ceramic or hand-hammered copper announces the nature of the dish immediately. Individual ramekins or small ceramic pots for corbezzolo honey at each setting are a thoughtful detail guests will notice. A ceramic olive oil cruet for those who want an additional drizzle completes the table's Sardinian character.
Glassware: Balloon wine glasses for Cannonau di Sardegna (if serving red) or tulip-shaped whites for Vermentino. Water in simple, generous stemmed glasses — nothing fussy. The visual weight of the table should come from the platters and the pig, not the stemware.
Linens & Atmosphere: Natural linen in undyed ivory or warm sand. No aggressive centerpieces — perhaps a low arrangement of myrtle branches, rosemary, and votives, which reinforces the aromatic language of the dish. The table should smell as good as it looks.