Case of Pinoy found guilty of roasting lechon ends

ROLLING MEADOWS, Illinois - It’s curtains for the case of a Filipino who was found guilty of roasting pigs or lechon in his home in this suburban city in Cook County. Last September 8, Judge Alfred L. Levinson of the Cook County Municipal Third District Court spared 55-year-old Amante R. Enad from paying a fine of $1,000 for barbecuing pigs in his own backyard without a license. Enad, a native of Minglanilla town in Cebu province, and a resident of Wheeling, Illinois, did not show up in the court anymore when the judge came out with the ruling. But Enad did not completely get off the hook. The court barred him forever from cooking lechon in his own turf. Cook County state attorney Steve Handler, prosecutor for the Village of Wheeling, told reporters that Enad did not need to show up in court as health inspectors did not anymore find evidence that Enad was again roasting pigs in his home. But the injunction was made permanent. Enad is prohibited from committing the same violations “forever," according to Handler. Enad cooked the delicacy for a church fiesta and was found guilty last February 14 of violating two counts of “operating a business in a residential area" and “preparing food for mass consumption without evidence of certification or license." After a three-hour hearing on Valentine’s Day, Judge Joel L. Greenblatt ordered Enad to pay $500 for each of the two counts. The case attracted public attention after Enad was cited by village officials, who became known as “barbecue police" trying to stop him from continuing a Filipino cultural tradition. Serena Fried, a Wheeling health inspector, told the court that the village received a complaint against Enad in July 2007. Inspectors went to Enad’s place several times and noticed five roasters on the man’s property, which seemed to indicate that the Filipino was into a food business. During each visit, Fried said the inspectors warned Enad that “he was not allowed to serve food to the public." In November, Beverly Slaby, another village health inspector, found a roasted pig at Oriental Market in Wheeling and saw that it was for sale. The owner of Oriental Market, Norman Nunag, told Slaby that Enad gave the pig for him to sell it. Enad, then, signed a handwritten letter, stating that he would cook only for his family and not for the public. But at the court hearing, Enad told the court that when he gave the roasted pig to Nunag, he did not know that Nunag was going to sell it. In January this year, Wheeling found that Enad had roasted three pigs for a Cebu fiesta called the “Sinulog," at a church in Glenview, Illinois. He was issued two citations for this — “operating a business in a residential area" and “preparing food for mass consumption without evidence of certification or license." “Any time the public is served, we regulate it," Fried told the court. Enad argued that he “was not into catering" because he never asked money for the pigs that he roasted. He insisted that he was merely continuing his Filipino tradition of roasting lechon. Handler told the court that Enad was not being prohibited from exercising his rights and observing traditions. Handler said the issue was about Enad’s lack of license to cook for the public on several occasions, which was also a “safety issue." The village has the duty to protect residents from food prepared by unlicensed cooks, according to Greenblatt. “I want you to celebrate your traditions, they’re wonderful traditions. (But) you cannot do it on such a mass scale in the manner you’re doing it." Greenblatt told Enad. - JOSEPH G. LARIOSA, GMANews.TV