stovetop

I worked for this company back in the eighties, they are one of the first, they try to get the best morels you can find. steve mo-na foods

How did I miss this?? thank-you marlene for this wonderful bloq beautiful pictures I loved those pancakes that gumbo looks great, I have made a few rouxs and you can not take your eye off that pot for one second. steve

Thanks james for starting this very interesting post, Do you have more posts on site about your fathers culinary adventures?? I am amazed of the food theory and history knowledge here at EG, there is nothing that slides by the readers here at EG. thanks again steve

This almost needs a spot for itself; I was not going to comment on the first post but had to after reading more post about the first post. All of this could have been avoided in the first place if the waiter was to tell the customer the chef does not cook well done fish. It was a bad mistake for the customer to take a shot at the chef, did they not think the chef would come out if they made a comment back to the kitchen, there is a lot of heat back there, it is a war zone, emotions and sensibility do not always prevail. This will get a life of its own. My complaint is also of the customer’s lack of knowledge when it comes to their diet, they think they are so smart, just cutting out carbs will not help your health or help you loose weight, has anybody ever heard of fat and calories?? Caesar salad is full of fat. The best one is a club house with no bread, this is insane. When you are in the kitchen and are really busy and every bill the customer has changed the menu, it is insane they just doubled the size of the menu, the restaurant is very high volume, when you have to stop at every bill and read the customer’s novel of the changes they want and every bill is like this. Stay home and cook your own food, if you charged them a dollar for every change to the menu???; more work cost more money, every other industry charges you through he noose, when will we get our money. steve

Anna is there a Chinese grocery in Oakville, they might have chicken livers there??? steve Is there a butcher shop there or even Itilian shop???

"David Forestell, Executive Chef, shows you how the pros do it"

Kins produce department is probably buying more then Capers produce department, also Capers is an American company, I have been in capers many times in the middle of summer and have generally found that there is only about 50 % Can stuff, they could have almost 100 % when the season is happening. Carrots, potatoes, onions, squash ect, could almost be year round, if they where realy concerned about the environment then they would get theses products in. They do the best job they can but their main supply line is American just like Safeway. Also capers customer will pay and Kins will not, capers sells more convenience foods and bulk, but kins overall produce sales is more and their waste is probably way less these are all factors which enable them to sell less. If you sell for less you sell more and have less waste thus you make more. steve

a version of french canadian chicken liver pate sautee in butter and oilive oil Chicken livers (rinse well) fine diced shallots or onions ( lightly golden) chopped parsley fine diced carrot, cellery (small amount) ( optional) good french congac Garlic fine diced fresh thyme bay leaves pepper corns cool Discard bay leaf In a food processor, puree the liver mixture; season to taste. fill the pate into individual ramekins, cover with plastic, refrigerate until firm, at least 4-6 hours. more recipes http://www.recipesource.com

The restaurant business and tourism has not meant very much to van (gov), maybe more BC, before 2010; my personnel opinion, it really does not mean much now, except Campbell the premier and his cronies made a lot of money on realistate in Whistler. The West has taken a while to realize the history here, the Canadian gov still has not excepted non English Canadian history before 1900, so van is very young compared to the rest of the coast, there are farms in Cowichan that date back to 1860 or earlier for white man, I have read of hops being grown in Squamish around the same time period; whistler they torn down Myrtle Phillips lodge before they realized they fucked up; then they left a fax of what was there. Now Whistler has lost all its Character because of much of the same action, tourism pre dates logging, bite my lip. My research shows it does, tourism goes back in BC before logging was even an industry, it started with whaling, which predates logging by over 100 years. Just some insight and opinion based on some fax steve

If we are talking about the view; then I must say the best view is Jericho sailing club, the food is pub style, the beer flows when needed, after a long and sweaty walk along one of the most beautiful bays in the world, or even better, a day of sailing a laser 2, on the trapeze doing 14 all afternoon, you really can use a beer and a chicken burger, slide up to the patio, grab a beer from inside and grab a seat on the deck, there is nothing like it except for maybe Jericho tennis or maybe RVYC those places are like wow, insider on Jericho tennis, they where giving good deals for their racket ball member ship. steve

Please read the web site, all the rules are there. Why is there this discusion, it is against the law to consume alchohol in a public place without a lisence. End of story!!!!!!!!!!!

rules Government site Only Grandfather licenses such as royal Vancouver Yacht club or any other private club will able you to have your own locker, you can drink it on site, other then this it is illegal to consume any alcohol that is not purchased through your licensee. Bad bad. You will loose your right to be a licensee. steve

I would like to know what difference it makes where you buy your cheese? Canada is a highly regulated and controlled when it come to Dairy products; cheese is a dairy product, even if you sell cheese to another Province it is considered a Export, or to put it another way if I am a cheese producer in Quebec I will need an export license to sell my cheese to the rest of Canada. This is the law for all Provinces and this procedure follows suit for all food commodities in Canada, this country you can not breathe without them knowing. So I see what little difference it makes if you buy your cheese from a cheese shop or from Costco except if your intentions are to support small business. One thing is that, small independent cheese producers, most of the time, do not make it out of the province they are in. In Canada it is easier to get cheese from world sources then it is to get small producer cheeses to other provinces, because if they can afford a fed inspector they generally have become a big producer and can not be bothered to produce small scale and high quality cheeses. Quebec is Canada’s biggest cheese producer; the biggest irony in Canada is Quebec had organic cheese in BC before the Provincial Government allowed BC’s sectors of the dairy industry to use the word organic on their cheese. There is something ethically and legally wrong with this. We do not even have free trade within our own Province. So for me it is very irrelevant that I get my cheese from Costco or anywhere, it is about where can I get the best deal or where can I get my cheese period. Meaning who is going to have it??? steve

Organic Produce and products from the Natural food industry or organic processed food is normally on the higher side, they choose to go for the high end market, plus there is a cost associated with the tracking and certification of all that food, plus the low Canadian dollar but hey we got a strong dollar theses days so we will knock that one out of the group, so back to the cost of being organic, lets just stick with the certification cost lawyers and legal documents, all this stuff cost money. Now that we got that out of the way lets get back to the intangibles, produce is like the stock market, someone is selling and someone is buying, if I want to buy lots I get a better deal, if you have lots and there is no one who is buying you will drop your prices, it is totally supply and demand. A few years back, I caught a little loop whole in the produce business. I will tell you straight out I buy non organic produce or if the price is right I will buy it but normally you can not make a living on produce that cost as much as organic stuff, common 4.00 lb is outrages, it is just broccoli. The California lettuce industry got hit very hard with a white fly, it devastated the market. One thing though is the organic industry is mostly in Northern California, it missed the whole problem completely, they had lots of product on the market, its price went down, I do not think they were aware of what was going down in the reg produce business, but lettuce went through the roof; all of a sudden organic lettuce was cheaper. Guess what I did, I had all this cheap lettuce and it was also so good. These days they seem to pay attention cause I do not see that much discrepancy between product any more, they are on price change very quickly, no deals any more. The more a store buys the cheaper it can be, so a sale is going on and I buy a skid of broccoli, I will get a good deal. Right now in reg produce broccoli is cheap, a few weeks back it was very expensive, the amount of broccoli on the market was low so price was high. Capers is a American chain, they have central purchasing so they probably have the same price year round, I know Safeway shows not much variations through the year, it is the middle of summer and so much of there produce is expensive. Hell Broadway produce and Normands produce is have the price of Safeway, they have very expensive produce. Look around Broadway has a organic place, some stuff is cheap, it is good to buy local, and our potatoes are good quality as good as any organic stuff from the states. Carrots, onions, garlic, yams, turnips, squash, cabbage and all that other root stuff. We can get Canadian and local stuff into the winter so there is no reason to buy American. I would buy Washington State over California. The Irony of buying organic from the USA is when you can have the product in season here, is the fuel takes more energy to come to Canada and has more damage to the environment then if you just bought local stuff. Canadian food is still very good quality, there are so many farms growing great food. Why do we need organic from California when we can get the same thing here? Shop around, after time you will see who has the best prices. Always check quality and freshness, fresh looking produce means they are busy which means less waste and maybe cheaper prices. steve

Ah; Paul the cats out of the bag. When franko, lisa, Mary and Mary worked at the Deli in about 90 something it rocked, Dana Reinhardt had the Opppsom Cafe there in 96. The deli closed at three every day. There were a few restaurants in that space in the 90"s. I loved working at the deli in the 00's and especialy being a customer in the 90'S, it was a fun place, sat mornings was a circus; Customers coming in not knowing that you have to order from the till, sitting down, time going bye and there still is no server, finaly someone in the restaurant screams out: " Give your order at the till". Seeing customers fight for food; See at the deli the kitchen is totaly open no seperation to the customer except for a counter but you can look right at the cook, you see everything! Your order, would come up on this open pass, the cook would belly out someones name: "JACK"!! Then you would go pick it up at the counter, eager beaver waiting for a late pick up; "your food is gone pal!! Do not go to the can, till you get your food. steve

Making of the greatest bouillabaisse from time life picture book 1958 This book was a great cook book in our house hold and through out the seventies it was totally a retro thing, the men where kings of the BBQ in the 50’s, now it is way old but back in the seventies it become totally retro. Way back in time sometime around 1978 , during this decade the Edmonton Eskimos ruled the CFL, the family put on a big Grey Cup party, this was a common occurrence but on this day it was extra special. Mom was going to make that classic version of bouillabaisse, from the old time life cook book, the amazing thing on this night was this dish was only one of many main dishes that circulated that night on that fine Grey Cup evening The main thing is the trip to Woodward’s and the $300.00 dollar bill; we had three carriages full of food, which become a record and it lasted indefinitely, one carriage was filled with just seafood, the other two with so many cheeses, crackers, fruit, hams, sardines, other canned fish, and so many vegetables. We were shopping which seemed like an eternity Even in the seventies Woodward’s food floors had an amazing selection of food, the seafood section was complete, prawns, mussels, crab, shrimp and so much more. What a party! from a woodwards source woodwards history video History Timeline Wodwards picture edmonton

Woodward’s Food Floor What a stupid decision Management made when they sold the food floors to Safeway. It was a immediate down fall for the long time Western Chain, they where scrambling trying to compete in the tight retail sector, through these years the retail sector in Canada was a war zone, when the dust settled we lost a few Canadian retail giants. Woodward’s food floor was so many years ahead of the rest of the food retail sector in Western Canada, they had their complete brand name products, such as jams, can fruit and many other can and prepared food products. When Safeway bought the food floor they closed down all the Canadian food processing plants, this alone killed a very viable food production industry in the Okanogan. This affected the whole BC food industry and even today I feel that the scars run deep in an industry that tries to compete in the world market. How did the government ever let this sale go through and who was leading those dumb decisions in the board room in corporate Woodward’s?? I miss the food floors, even today they would fit in very well, they had the best bakeries, delis, and specialty food sections that rival the best food stores can offer today in the West’s big cities; Vancouver Calgary, and Edmonton. Please tell us you Woodward’s stories??? They had the best Christmas Scenes. steve

ling I hope that you can find your Nordic Ware Cathedral pans, this place has everything a food nut could want in food presentaion, they have some of the best plateware in the city, one can find cheaper places but I do not think??; one could find the same selection and beautiful plates and housewares. steve

Puddifoot steve

Oh! don't get me wrong; I can get into high end breakfast, it is just that for half the price I will get a breakfast cook who loves doing eggs, not some hotshot wana be who is in prison on the morning shift, doing his or her time in purgatory while a shift opens up at night. Yes; high end places can do an amazing job and will have all the resources that a breakfast joint will not have, like great fresh seafood, awesome bread cause so many high ends do make their own bread and usually they will not deep-fry there potatoes, this alone will aid me in spending extra money to not get French fried for breakfast, wishing they understand after eating all that bacon and two eggs and all that butter I love. You would think that they would have my hearts best interest in mind and roast those potatoes instead of going that straight line and deep-frying the hell out of my best friend the simple and lonely potato, stay in cook’s hell. If they get sysco type of macains hash brown potato then you know for sure their heart is not into creating anything that resembles breakfast that people want and you definitely are not thinking of anybody’s heart. Just make you quick 2000 bucks and get ready for dinner. steve

" As I clean the monitor of coffee that I spit out in uncontrollable laughter from this discretion of Uoava Napolitana" steve

say hi to chef Letendre have a good breakfast

Ditto - love that store, but the guy can be a whack job. Some of the stuff there is great, some is just OK. But the Grana Padano is great, nicely aged and crumbly. Instead, go to Scardillo's on Hastings, they carry that same Grana Padano (they get it from Tosi) and are very nice people, too. And while you're there you can get some of their fresh bocconcini. And they usually stock some of Columbus Meat's great Italian sausage, so it saves making a trip over to Renfrew. Just down the block from Scardillo is a Polish sausage place that's also very good. That was my last stop in Vancouver on my way to the airport last time I was in town. ← This is some of the best stuff in Van, Scardillos has my fav fresh moza, this area is rich in good food, thanks for reminding me about Scardillos. steve

Daddy-A; I am like Deborah, I likes the classic breakfast places, breakfast is a time for eating in a casual manor, looking up at your coffee cup at a white table cloth is not my idea of casual, brunch in some fancy restaurant; a night cook doing "time", like he is in sing sing, the brunch shift, probably so hung over, the only thing going down is water, struggling to put out some eggs, bitching the whole time: "I did not go to cooking school to do breakfast" There are a lot of fine dinning places in Vancouver to spend money but breakfast should not be one of them, if I want a so very fancy breakfast I would go home and do some eggs Benny, or frittata with homemade jams and Creole, but I am lazy so I look for a consistent place to eat my fav meal of the day. The granddaddy of them all is the The Elbow Room, it has been around since 1982, it predates so many breakfast places in Vancouver and set a certain style that has been attempted to copy many times. The South Side Deli in Whistler was one of the closest places to capture that essence in a long time (RIP). The Elbow room is more then just breakfast it is a experience, it used to be by the Westin in that corner building where the two streets angle like a triangle, on the corner of that triangle there was a old building, in that building was the Elbow room, the old place was one of the first breakfast places I went to back in 1990, I just moved to Vancouver and it was still at its old location, 1996 it moved to its present location, not as quant as the old place but they uphold that great style and service that they been doing for years. If you want breakfast go to places that do breakfast, like when you want your rad fixed, you do not go to a tire specialist, the same goes for food. Hi end places do dinner not brunch, remember who is working that shift??? Breakfast places do breakfast that is what they do, if they do not, do it well they get run out of town, very fast! Something I have learned is it is hard to fake breakfast and get away with it. Dinner it is a little more forgiving, but breakfast has no room to maneuver, if you do not get it right you will hear from your customer right here and now: “Buddy my coffee sucks and I ordered over easy and white toast". Like life Breakfast is the here and now, it is about just five things, Great coffee, fresh eggs, good and fresh bread, good potatoes ( hopefully not deep-fried), and at tasty meat ( sausage, bacon, or for the people who do not eat meat, roast tomato and fried mushroom) When you do theses things right you will be a successful breakfast joint and Vancouver does breakfast well; when I lived in Toronto, it was hard to find a breakfast place, Vancouver eats breakfast all day. I like this best about the West Coast; it shows how we have little different priorities, we move a little different then Central Canada. steve

Jonathan Day that is a beautiful thing, it somehow parallels life; we get older and show our prowess much less, once we show ourselves that we can do it, we begin to look for quality not quantity, drink better not more. Things tend to lean to what we love and what we are good at, after years of practicing, we begin to know ourselves and tend to grab the straight lines, bravado requires so much energyI for one after 25 years in the restaurant business am able to sit back, watch; I do not have to prove anything, not to others and especially to myself. I am comfortable with with food, sometimes I even learn from a young gun, the energy is addictive. Right now I work in a higher volume restaurant and miss cooking in fine dinning, the level of some of the tasting menus on the page is amazing, to this day it blows my mind how Amateur cooks (who do not do it for a living), can excel at a incredible level, as good and even better then the pros, the passion and pursuit of excellence is extraordinary. Hats off to you all steve