jamiemaw

Was their aggregate tip larger than the beverage tab? I have a theory that bev tab for groups like this will always and precisely reflect the average shoe size of the men in the group, in this case 7 ½. I'm only surprised that their hands were big enough to manage a steak knife. And as to your other question--How do they find each other? There must be some sort of Darwinian principle that applies to this very lowest level of Pond Life that goes beyond gravity (as they can't drop any lower) but stops short, hopefully, of actual reproduction. So I feel forced to ask--did they look like newts and salamanders? Did any of them lack ears? Just curious.

Thanks for posting the link to this cogent and well-written article, Daddy-A. It should be required reading for all Forum members.

Any idea who's doing her kitchen Jamie? Her Yaletown location used cabinets from her neighbours at Showcase. On W 2nd she'll be near the Redl showroom. As she hasn't come to see me, I have to speculate Redl got the job. A. ← I understand that her interior designer is recycling and updating wherever possible, although the new space is larger and won't be subject to the chokepoint associated with the current kitchen. More books=more cheese sandwich opportunities.

Here's the poop on Barbara-jo's various moves: 1. Barbara-jo will open a satellite 300-square foot culinary book store (no kitchen) in the Net Loft space on June 1st. 2. In late summer, probably around Labour Day, she'll be moving her main Yaletown store, complete with kitchen, to 1740 West 2nd Avenue into a delightful, high-ceilinged space that she was able to purchase. The new store will be next door to Les Amis du Fromage and just down the block from Patisserie LeBeau, completing a nifty culinary trifecta. Cheers, Jamie

What the world (and these awards) needs now is more eating out abroad.

We published 10,000 in the first run and have reprinted 4,000. The first run is sold out; 2,000 of the second run have already been sold to one corporate user. Royalties went from 10 to 15% for the second printing. The cover price is CDN $40 (US $32), quite expensive for a soft cover book, attractive as it is. Several book discounters sold as low as CDN $28. I conveniently left out several important points from my earlier post: 1. The Story: Really a Coming of Age meets Collaborative hook--how Vancouver has emerged as the West Coast's premier culinary destination and how 54 chefs could get together without ensuing lacerations. 2. I blithely skipped over the Recipe Testing, which is the real bullwork of any cook book. My co-editor, Joan Cross, expertly expedited that, including shopping, translation from professional chefs ("Take 15 litres of beefy stock and reduce until barely flacid . . .'), prep, cooking, note-taking, adjustment and presentation. We also had a few potluck dinners where we conived for some of the chefs to cook each other's recipes. 3. The 54 Chefs' Biographies were challenging: How not to repeat that "Rupert is an avid forager and is supremely interested in Okanagan Valley boar cheeks, Stoney Paradise heirloom tomatoes and his chef de partie." When I finally finished them (actually on holiday in Hawaii), my fiancee called them "Bio-Hazards." 4. In addition to signing in their restaurants, the chefs also promoed their recipes in one-night and month-long restaurant specials to promote the book, and attended signings in book stores around the province. That is still going on for the second printing. 5. Distribution: A culinary book seller, Barbara-Jo McIntosh, took some time out from hosting Bourdain, Oliver and other culinary flyweights and arranged small-distribution lots (i.e. by the caseload) of books to the restaurants. This allowed us to negotiate a benevolent price with the publisher and enhanced profit for The Chefs Table Society well above the standard royalty arrangement. This is a very workable template for other cities punching above their gastrotouristic weight--I hope that they follow suit.

Is there anything more parochial (or hilarious) than lists such as these? In this case it blithely ignores four-fifths or more of the world's population--with several continents paid only fleeting lip service--while propagating the smug and self-aware ignorance of western, media-centric cities. Rather reminds of the last days of Empire or that stirring rugby anthem, "All Pommies Are Wankers". That being said, I noted that in today's Times, that the winner, a Mr. Heston Blumenthal (apparently named after a service station on the M4), of Bray, England (apparently an exurb of London, England), indulges his "usual Monday night relaxation with Indian takeaway with his wife, Suzanna, in Marlow." Alas, and although it now furnishes the national cuisine of England, that sub-continent was also seen to be missing from the result. For non-English readers, by the way, the term 'Indian Takeaway' does not refer to the Raj. Can we focus on the real news now--Pope Benedict's secret wives? Jamie

O what calumy has been visited upon us? Following swiftly upon your reports, I heard today from a regular correspondent. He was profoundly distressed at seeing an ad for Rob (Feenie) on the back of a bus and is even considering foresaking husky cocktails and kuri squash/mascarpone ravioli in favour of KFC. Could this, a bus ad, combined with the 'OOO Factor' already mentioned in this thread be a malevolent and vexatious one-two punch--a signal that the culinary sky is falling? Or is it merely a sign from above that Paul Martin is attempting to hire the Pope's spin team and that interest rates will rise calmly and and then dramatically in the fourth quarter? The short answer is that we may never know. But the longer one might be even more concerning because with rising rents, flatlined menu prices and lacrimose customers, it's seems that for restaurateurs fresh revenue streams have become a necessary fact of life. So what's next you might ask? Vikram Vij for Red Hot Tim Bits? Or Andrey Durbach's rebranding as Telus Parkside? Or F. Morris Chatters for anything? But wait, pehaps there's hope. Because we don't know yet the true nature of what Messrs. Feenie and Bishop will be promoting. So before this unruly lynch mob casts further stones maybe we should wait and see if there will be new menu items behind the message. Perhaps John Bishop's pioneering of organic produce and Rob Feenie's espousal of rediscovering our backyards will make the White Spot better. Better enough to lure Keith and the lesser Talents for a Feenie's Blini or Prawn to Bishop-4. We can only hope.

We wrote a collaborative cookbook last year called Vancouver Cooks--an aggregation of 110 recipes from 54 chefs. It was published by The Chefs' Table Socirty of British Columbia, with proceeds being allocated to providing scholarships, locums and stages for emerging local chefs. It was detailed work, but we survived the process because we built the book on a pyramid that was designed to maximize human assets: 1. The 54 chefs' recipes were collected by six of the top culinary PR professionals in the city--everyone involved with the project (excepting the photographers and food stylist) were unpaid volunteers. 2. Recipes were collated by my co-editor and me. We threw a lot out, balanced the book by way of starter, entree, dessert and also by ingredient use. We recalibrated recipes where required. We did not want a hardcover food porn book, but rather a stylish but useful book that would show up in home kitchens, boats and cottages. 3. The bottom line for ingredients was that they had to be available at major city markets, or a few specialty shops. 4. The bottom line re the accessibility of recipes was that they had to be straightforward for a mid-level home cook, but doable by all. 5. We paid the photographers (a major cost of any cook book) with modest advances and contra from the 54 participating restaurants. They will eat very well over the next year. 6. In addition to selling the book through the usual chain outlets and independents across the country, the book was also hand-sold (often autographed) in the 54 participating restaurants. One restaurauteur sold more than 300 over Christmas. 7. The six culinary PR professionals launched a marketing campaign that augmented that of the publisher. We also ensured that tourism authorities and major travel whoelsalers bought books by the caseload to use as presentos and corporate gifts. We also marketed to many companies as Christmas gifts to augment the usual bottle of wine. 8. The book exceeded expectations, borne out by the market: the press run sold out in two months and has already been reprinted at a higher royalty share. That's it.

David Kinch visited us in Vancouver last week to cook with David Hawksworth at his West restaurant. Last month Hawksworth had travelled to California for the Masters of Food + Wine. Hawksworth, who recently won both the Chef of the Year and Best Restaurant Awards at the 15th Annual Vancouver Magazine Awards (an event that attracts some 900 industry folks and has 27 media judges) also cooked at Manresa. Their styles proved highly complementary, the paired wines, including several Brtish Columbians, were well-matched. The three stand-out dishes are indicated by asterisk: Japanese Fluke (Kinch), guinea fowl with fresh Coquihalla porcini (foraged at roadside by Hawksworth), and Rhonda Viani’s exquisite dessert, where she deployed avocado ice cream over pineapple tatin. Hawksworth’s foie gras and quail terrine and Kinch’s onion-brioche soup (a rustic potage) were also worthy stalwarts, and in fact would have combined, with a good heel of bread, for a husky meal on their own. A very happy occasion with some stellar cooking: cleansing ales followed well into the night. David² Monday April 11th, 2005 David Hawksworth, West Restaurant, Vancouver And David Kinch, Manresa Restaurant, Los Gatos, California Amuse Bouche Mumm's Champagne First TERRINE OF FOIE GRAS & QUAIL, GOLDEN APPLE JELLY David Hawksworth Max Ferd Richter Reisling “Saint Hippolyte” ’99, Alsace Second JAPANESE FLUKE, SASHIMI STYLE * OLIVE OIL AND CHIVES David Kinch Third SLOW COOKED EGG WITH ONION-BRIOCHE SOUP, MANCHEGO CHEESE David Kinch Mission Hill Sauvignon Blanc/Semillion “SLC” ‘03 Fourth WILD STRIPED BASS ROASTED ON THE BONE MUSHROOMS WITH RED WINE David Kinch Fifth VEAL AND TUNA ROLL WITH SCALLION & ASPARAGUS David Kinch Lincourt Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County, ‘01 Sixth MILK FED GUINEA FOWL WITH FRESH PORCINI * HAND ROLLED PASTA David Hawksworth Dessert PINEAPPLE TATIN WITH AVOCADO ICE CREAM * LIME BROWN SUGAR SAUCE, HONEYDEW MELON Rhonda Viani De Bortoli Botrytis Semillon “Noble One”, Australia, ‘01 Petits Fours Selection of Cleansing Ales

Superb quote, FannyBay. Huh? If I do have a beef, it's because I don't have a clue what you're talking about. I've never claimed here or elsewhere that Memphis Blues has the 'best beef' as you claim. In fact, to the best of my knowledge, Memphis Blues serves only one type of beef--smoked brisket. And while I quite like their version, I prefer the game hens. So perhaps you'd like to clarify your point for us.

AA Gill reviews The Fat Duck in today's Sunday Times.

And Jamie, What do you mean when you say we dine with someone "who looks like us"? Do you mean the person we arrive with or the people we can reasonablyexpect to see in the room? If it's the former, can you say more cuz it doesn't make sense to me and my experience. 3WC edited to death ← The latter. Unless the former defines the latter.

Not unlike women.

edited for emphasis A very interesting topic, tarteausucre. First, people tend to dine (just as they tend to engage other interests and activities) with their own cohort, i.e. people who look just like them. People are also, especially as they age, creatures of habit. To this mix you must also add the intimidation and cost factors related to fine dining. Interestingly though, the most commercially viable restaurants, by in large, are those that blur the demographic boundaries and make their menus, decor and price points accessible and broadly relevant. Example: Suppose I told you and your late 20s cohort that they could eat the food of one of Canada's leading chefs, but at less than half the price of his FD room, with hip decor, big buzz and a strong focus on cocktails and good value wines. Of course that's all true--at Feenie's. He broke the line between FD and CFD, and today, Feenie's is a powerful profit generator, much more so than the mothership that begat it. Unintimidating, the room attracts a broad demographic, from the Shaugnessy ladies-who-lunch (the so-called 'yummy mummie' demo) to children and their grandparents, and across racial lines too. But there are many other examples in Vancouver of CFD rooms too. (Vancouver chefs invented the small plate sphenomenon in 1997, long before it caught on anywhere else in North America), and I've used the expression here before: Vancouverites have more a sense of taste than one of occasion. Another cross-over restaurant (chain), Earls, attracts a very broad cross- section, again by age, race and income--it's a denominator based on a solid food and wine program and perceived value. Just as we pick brands when we purchase anything, we also ask ourselves subconciously if tonight's choice for dining represents what and who we are. As you point out, for some the right brand or type of bike brakes remain much more important than that restaurant choice. Programs like Dine Out Vancouver do fuzz the line, but then it reverts! Finally, after spending far too much time in restaurants observing the human condition, I'm convinced that design plays an important role, confirming and even validating choices. So, for example, if you are in your late-20's you might feel more comfortable being described (or even defined) by hipper design, say at Afterglow, the Opus, Crush, Lift: if it's hip so must I be. An older demographic might simply feel more comfortable elsewhere, but it all confirms my earlier point, that people will eat and drink with people who look just like them. Here's a further discussion on restaurant design and how it affects our choices. Cheers,

Do any of you have favourite Asian restaurants that combine both solid food and wine programs? The Pink Pearl has a well thought out wine list, but what works for you?

Well, you wouldn't, now would you. Although I suppose the fat content could be turboed in the grind to 20% or so, thus saving it from becoming as dry as, well, a Welshman, you might ask . . . why? Besides being the least flavoursome of the bovine muscles, when formed into hamburger patties chipped fillets are historically and unanimously unable to resist the urge to take on the texture of meatloaf, thus combining the mouthfeel of cellulite in a nunnery with the less attractive aspects of cellar damp. Or could it be that Mr. Peyton merely feels isolated?

From the desk of: F. Morris Chatters Director of Community Well-Being Municipality of Richmond, British Columbia 'Home of YVR, Fantasy Gardens and the fabulous River Rock Casino' Dear Mr. Talent, Our Community Well-Being Team was on a recent neighbourhood garden invigilation when we were alerted to the scabrous state of your herb and vegetable beds. Please consider this a FIRST WARNING that you are falling even farther behind your neighbours this year. Richmond, BC is a horticultural hotbed and showcase, where loose and fertile elluvial soils lie in silent vigil, awaiting your signal to propigate crops of early bananas, Siberian peaches and April's melons. Even though Bill and Lillian are no longer your neighbours, surely you've noticed others in the municipality out bone-mealing their peonies and fondling their lovage and no doubt scowling over your fence, wondering exactly when the Talent family is going to get around to making their beds. We take a dim view of waiting until the Victoria Day weekend to till, fertilize and plant. We see this as a kind of stubborn protest that you may well see repaid with nocturnal deposits on your front lawn in the style of the hound, or even being shown to a questionable table at The Keg on a slow Tuesday! Or there's always outright humiliation. I have a lovely hi-res photo of you choking down dollar tubesteaks at Ikea (looks like a messy Ukranian blow-job) last Saturday, when you should have been roto-tilling. I am not afraid to share them with your little foodee friends if you continue ignoring your herbs and yellow creeper. The shoe's on the other foot now, my friend. Heave hoe! F. Morris Chatters Director of Community Well Being Municipality of Richmond, British Columbia

I didn't notice anyone pooping on Montreal on this thread, Lesley, but rather I think folks were attempting (with a little good-natured teasing thrown in) to explain differences between the cities and their sense of regionalism. For instance Vancouver, my home port, has much more in common with cities such as San Francisco and Sydney than with Toronto or Montreal, which is to be expected given the similarity of pan-Pacific ingredients, climate, relative (shortish) history and culinary provenance, and the demographic composition of their populations. Therefore, and because restaurants are acute barometers of both excess cash flow and in-migration, in Vancouver you might reasonably expect to eat especially well right now in pan-Asian casuals (Indian, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, and Japanese etc.) although their are also many good Italian and French-influenced rooms as well. The biggest trend now is in izakaya and Korean, small-room, low overhead spots offering kitchen food, comfortably. Regional restaurants, such as West, C, and Raincity Grill are in some ways the most interesting, because they borrow from many culinary mothers and describe more accurately the merged culinary DNA of where we live. That can be viewed here by clicking on '16th Annual Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards', which attracts about 800 industry folks each March. In my opinion, there are several areas where Vancouver needs some serious bucking up. Greek cooking of quality and love is virtually non-existent; the Greek restaurants of West Broadway have enshrined the green bell pepper as the Kelly Bundy of all high-margin fruits. South American cuisine, with the exception of a bright light called Baru, is also tough. And, compared to the older cities of the east, we don't enjoy the defining architecture of characterful, interesting spaces. Many new restaurants, with the exception of Coast and Chambar (a Belgian-Congolese restaurant that’s the toughest ticket in town right now), are often shoe-horned into the podia of modern condo towers: the rectangles are often too linear and do not admire the classic proportion of intimacy: 1.4 to 1. Lastly, some interesting math: Real estate prices are the highest in Canada but menu prices are not; Vancouver has the highest number of restaurants per capita only because its residents spend substantially more money in restaurants than other Canadians. Lesley brings up some interesting questions regarding Rob Feenie, the proprietor-chef of a French-influenced restaurant called Lumière, and Feenie's, his downstream brasserie. Feenie is prodigious at sourcing nationally, and patriotically employs Montreal’s La Mer as his eastern Canadian broker to access the same New York fish suppliers that his mentor Daniel Boulud utilizes. (for instance, Feenie uses a lot of dorado and walleye in the winter). His chefs de cuisine Marc-Andre Choquette (he has been a marvel at sourcing Quebeçois product—especially quality cheeses) and Wayne Harris are from Montreal and Kelowna (the centre of our Okanagan Valley wine country), respectively. Of the approximately 20 cheeses Lumière will offer on its spring trolley, their provenance will be roughly divided in thirds: Quebec, BC, France. O Canada. Feenie uses about 60 per cent Quebec (hot house, obviously) vegetables for about seven months of the year. In the spring and summer, that figure drops to about 20 to 30 percent, beginning right now with the arrival of early herbs such as mint, bay and rosemary. Finally, Feenie uses Quebec foie gras de canard because it is a superior product than US-grown (Hudson Valley or Sonoma), but also because Quebec is the only province in Canada where it is legal grow it. It is grown south of Montreal; I personally prefer the Quebec City product (450 gram lobes—both more humane and less grainy in my opinion) but they are not approved for inter-provincial sale as of yet. To my knowledge, chef Feenie is one of the few chefs here taking such full advantage of Quebec’s producers, brokers and suppliers (which also suits his cooking lexicon well), however because of his celebrity we can only hope that others would choose to follow suit--we'll trade you for some wine. As I so frequently take advantage of your hospitality, in closing let me extend an open invitation to all of our eastern friends to visit us this summer, whether on lower Vancouver Island, in the Wine Country, or right here--on the edge.

Montreal was the commercial and financial centre of Canada for 200 years and, without question, the top city in all matters, including gastronomic. That there would even be a rivalry between Toronto and Montreal in anything other than hockey is only a 30 year old phenomenon. If the best dish in Canada is plated in Montreal, it's probably because the city has retained its cosmopolitain character and sophistication from those glory days. Toronto (and I'd venture Vancouver) are still relatively young rubes learning how to be big cities. ← As someone whose ancestors lived in Montreal for five generations, it is wonderful to see the city refreshing itself and its financial infrastructure recover from the travails brought on in the 70s and 80s. But if Montreal is “the Paris of North America” and Toronto is “New York-but- managed-by-the-Swiss,” what is Vancouver? Well, even if it's throwing its culinary weight around, Vancouver's certainly not a young rube trying to become a big city. That’s because—contrary to Malcolm’s amusing assertion—it has actually had to learn how not to become a big city. Simply put, our parents’ generation learned a good deal from some of the urban planning disasters of older, mainly eastern cities. (There has been, in fact, an advantage in getting to go last.) In turn, that has influenced the food service industry in Vancouver in no small way. Because they consciously disallowed freeways near the city core, which discouraged suburbanization and encouraged urban densification, Vancouver is a compact city that is less dependent on the automobile than Montreal, and much less so than Toronto. In neighbourhoods such as Coal Harbour, Yaletown, the West End and Kitsilano, arterial groups of restaurants flourish at all price-points because the local population is immediately adjacent to support them. So there is a concentration of restaurants unknown elsewhere in the country. As James Chatto of Toronto Life put it in The Globe last Saturday, “There’s an eager, concentrated population . . .” and “Vancouver enjoys a large and diverse Asian community with a tradition of everyday-restaurant going.” Those points, combined with a more casual approach (“more a sense of taste than one of occasion”, as I said in The Globe), might be one explanation as to why small-plates dining began in Vancouver in 1997, long before its advent in other North American cities. Add the heavy tourism factor, and you might understand why there are, for instance, 315 Japanese restaurants alone in the city alone, and also why Vancouver has been labelled 'The New Sydney' or 'The New San Francisco'. But the city’s culinary DNA—"that GPS that tells you exactly where you are dining", as I also said—is what truly sets Vancouver apart, year-round. Toronto does not enjoy a regional cuisine, and Montreal’s is seemingly limited to the summer months when the larder south of the river and from the Charlevoix move into high gear. But a longer growing season here, and the front-door provender of 82 species of Pacific seafoods, lend an obvious advantage, especially now that local chefs have rediscovered them. These factors may account for just some of the reasons that Vancouverites spend substantially more in restaurants than Torontonians and Montrealers. To this you might add the burgeoning Okanagan Valley, where the product of more than 100 wineries and an increasing number of cheese-makers land in Vancouver and Victoria every day. Interestingly, perhaps, if I were to spotlight two cities that ‘punch above their weight’, I would place Quebec City and Victoria—proportionate to their small populations—at the very top of the national list for exciting cooking: Messrs. Vezina and Boulay are at the top of the class and we even had an exciting Asian fusion meal in QC that defied where we were. In closing: Because culinary chauvinism is at least as strong a growth industry as the food service business itself, I would argue—in lieu of discussing ‘good, better, best’—that we should celebrate our differences. And that if profusion and diversity are the bellwethers of good dining, most of the major cities of Canada now offer them galore.

My daughters assure me that this is entirely adequate as I only think at 6.5 words per minute.

I noticed a passing resemblance, Keith. Some questions: 1. How does your uncle feel if he's having a 'slow service night'? Put upon, ridiculed for all to read? 2. What does your doting aunt give you for Christmas? Remainder bin copies of Joanne Kates Cooks Your Goose"? 3. This is not blandishment, but has she ever offered to turn The Globe post over to you? I for one would think this timely,as you now hold the Nyquil Cup for superior posting. Any answers gratefully received, J.

I agree with you, OG. Whenever I'm in Toronto restaurants I make a point of introducing myself as Joanne Kates. Seriously, I think that she sets herself up for the fall--sort of a professional victim. And her notion of anonymity is laughable--just look for the broad in the bad hat. Enjoying your posts and opinions, Jamie

I wouldn't disagree with your statement, Marcus, but taste, unfortunately, is hardly the issue. Or perhaps your thoughts simply underscore that issue: a vanished species tasted better, but it's essentially available no more. On the Pacific Coast, many are now working to avert the catastrophe of the Atlantic wild salmon fishery.

I enjoyed what James Chatto of Toronto Life said in an article in The Globe last Saturday: ‘“I’m not surprised at the vibrancy of the Vancouver restaurant scene,” he says, “ There’s an eager, concentrated population and a thriving sense of civic pride that stops just short of the smugness of Montreal and the nail-biting angst of Toronto.”’ Should be interesting to see these two old-school cities duke it out for second place. Or does that honour now rightly belong to Quebec City?