Frasca's Bobby Stuckey at the center of Denver Cochon 555 pig fight

You be the judge.

Cochon 555, the porkeriffic national competition that trots into Denver on Sunday, April 3, recently announced the five Colorado chefs combating for the Prince of Porc title: Jennifer Jasinski (Rioja, Euclid Hall and Bisto Vendome); Kelly Liken (Restaurant Kelly Liken); Alex Seidel (Fruition and Fruition Farms); Frank Bonanno (Bones, Green Russell, Luca d'Italia, Lou's Food Bar, Mizuna and Osteria Marco); and Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson (exec chef of Frasca Food and Wine).

And late last week, Brady Lowe, the founder of Cochon 555, released the names of the judges who would be casting their own votes for the High Priest/Priestess of Pig. Among them: yours truly; Top Chef victor Hosea Rosenberg; Mark "Meathead" DeNittis (owner of Il Mondo Vechio); Jorge de la Torre (dean of culinary education at Johnson & Wales University), Jon Emanuel (exec chef of Project Angel Heart)...and Bobby Stuckey, co-owner of Frasca Food and Wine, the same restaurant where MacKinnon-Patterson cooks.

And that caused a brouhaha -- a big one. So big, in fact, that Lowe sent the following letter (shared with me by a source very closely connected to Cochon 555) to address the whines and squeals voiced by those opposed to Stuckey judging one of his own: