Roasts put cook in hot water

Roasts put cook in hot water
Originally published Friday, Feb. 8, 2008

By Nadia Malik
Daily Herald Staff Writer

A Wheeling man cited for roasting and selling pigs from his home says the village has it all wrong.
Amante Enad insists that he was roasting the pigs -- known in the Philippines as lechon -- in his backyard for his family and friends as a cultural tradition and didn't make a profit from them.
That's the case he's going to make to a judge in Rolling Meadows next week, he said. The judge will decide then if Enad should pay a fine.
But Wheeling officials said Enad admitted last year to selling the food to make money for his child's college education.
"It's down to a point of selling or not," said James Lang, director of economic development for Wheeling. "If he's selling it, he's not a licensed business."
The dispute started last year, when a neighbor complained about the activity at Enad's house, Village Manager Mark Rooney said.
Village inspectors visited July 31 and found five roasters. That's when Enad admitted to selling the pigs, Rooney said.
Enad said the village misunderstood the remark he made about his daughter's education and never confessed to selling his products.
Rooney said the building department explained the citation, and Enad agreed to give up all but one of his five roasters.
The case was seemingly closed at that point, but Rooney said inspectors found a pig for sale in a market in November. The market's owner said it came from Enad.
Enad denies giving the pig to the market to sell to the public. He said he and the owner are friends, and the owner asked him to roast a pig for his own personal use.
He said the man, and others he's cooked for, purchase the pigs themselves, but he isn't running a catering business.
"If I'm selling the pigs, I'd be so rich," Enad said.
Rooney said Enad had brought in a letter to the village clearly stating he would cook only for his family and friends.
Enad said he still was abiding by his promise when he offered to bring one of his roasts to St. Catherine Laboure Church in Glenview for a Filipino festival in January.
Rooney said the village received another complaint about Enad and re-inspected his house about that time. They found the five roasters back there.
"They said I was supposed to stop, but I said, 'You told me that I could cook for the church,'" Enad said. "Because I had told them that there were 400 that attended that fiesta, they said it's illegal to feed 400 people."
But Rooney and Lang said the village never intended to stop anyone cooking for their church or any other religious organization.
"We're not the barbecue police," Lang said. "It essentially was a catering business in the guy's garage."
To run such a business, Lang said, Enad would need a license and to submit to inspections. Rooney said the village is not trying to trample on Enad's cultural freedoms.
The dispute will be taken to court Feb. 14. Enad said he will give the judge the facts as he sees them, and hopes for a good resolution.
"I'm not a guy who's used to going to court," he said. "I like to cook. When people say this is the first time we've had this authentic lechon here, that makes me feel good."