Junior

Hi Chef Hawksworth ! What was it that brought you back to Vancouver to work with/for Jack Eversal ? Which chef(s) in Vancouver do find interesting or exciting ? Thanks

When Chef Michael Noble from Diva at the Met in Vancouver was a participant on the show. He was told 5 ingredients aboout 48 hours before the show and then 24 hours before, he was told that it might be the potato. So they have a pretty good idea about what is going to happen on the show. The only part that they do not have any idea or control over is when the chefs have a tie, then it's a free for all. Then again the only way I know this, is that I overheard Chef Noble talking to my chef at a dinner we did with the Met right after he came back from Japan.

My day starts with a bowl of ceral, sometimes two. It's one of those things I do in the morning as part of my routine. I always have Honey Nut Cheerieos or Honey Corn Flakes. That is my 15 minutes fo doing nothing in my underwear part of the day. In the winter I usually eat a bowl of Instant oats with some brown sugar and a little milk. This habit has not changed in years. I also DO NOT drink coffee in any shape way or form and I do think I will ever will. I do cook with the stuff but only when nessacary.

I went to school at the Pacific Ins. of Cuinary Arts in Vancouver. I went through when the school was starting up, so things have changed a great deal since I went. The school's chefs are all European with at least 15 years experience in Europe. You are taught a French sytem which translates well in the industry itself. Dubrelle is another private school in Vancouver; acutally a few blocks away from PICA. The other option for cooking schools are the ones run by provincail techincal college's. Here in Saskatoon, SIAST at Kelsey runs the Professional cooking program and the majority of cooks from this province are graduates of this program.

Hello there. I noticed the thread today as I trolled around the site looking for interesting things to read. I recently bought the book in question and found it to be well written and informative. I work in a kitchen and would an oppurtunity to work in a kitchen like Daniel's and it's always nice to read about great chefs and their restaurants and how they run. I am wondering if any of the other members who particapated(sp?) in this thread have finally read the book ? and what would their comments be on it ?

Jinmyo I guess then I should be sending you some of these chips for your dining pleasure. If I'm not mistaken you have a specfic brand of chip that we can not get in Western Canada. Seal ? No thank you ! A little adventurous but no thanks

As Steven Shaw points out in his trip through Canada, Saskatchewan has alot of Saskatoon berries. We also have several varities of mushrooms ( chantrelles, morels, boletus, and several others) We are also the largest producer of wild rice in the world, we also export 90 % of our mustard seed to you guessed it; Dijon France. Long considered the bread basket of the world, largest producer of various wheats, barley, canola, and canaryseeds. Blueberries, strawberries, and raspberries are very abundent in the north. We are also blessed with 100,000 lakes or so, so you can find artic grayling, pickeral, trout, walleye, northern pike, and perch. You can also find large herds of deer and we also have several buffalo, elk, boar, deer farms. Wild gamebirds and ducks are ever present here as well. Some of the animals listed can be found across Western Canada and the US. As for Old Dutch, I am pretty sure that you can only get these chips in the Western part of the country, I can remember long ago my uncle who lives in Ottawa, asking my mother to send him cases of these chips to him once a year.

My additions to the list: - The New making of a cook Madeleine Kamman - Anything Alice Waters - Anything James Beard and Julia Child - nothing goes wrong with these recipes Can you inculde the recent professional cookbooks ? ie Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, or Alfred Portale ? For inspriation and practically in the restaurant I look to Alfred Portale and recently Gray Kunz.

Glenn, I would start overbooking your tables. Has this happened to you on consecitive weekends (trend) or has it only happened once or twice. The world is full of uncaring people who don't think to call and cancel or just be plain rude and not show up. Overbooking a room has it's benefits and it's downfalls. A benefit people will see that you are a busy place on that coveted Saturday night or on the flipside; that you are so busy the wait is unbearable and they don't come back. Either way, what do you have to lose.

Cabrales, I worked at Bacchus for a short period of time and through two chefs. The chef I started with Robert Sulataky is in Toronto now at the Four Seasons and the second chef was Camroun Caskie who is now gone and the chef there is Frank Dodd. The cuisine is very French or was. Chef Robert had just finished Bocuse and a stage at the Ritz Carlaton in Paris and was hired on Bacchus. So his food was the rave of the city at the time and was giving Rob Feenie a very serious run for his money. After Chef Robert left, Chef Caskie took over and pretty much kept to the same food. High end French food. Chef Caskie once remarked that what we were doing the equivilent of Michalen 1 Star food there. I wouldn't really know, it was so busy. Anyways, the sous chef there, Prakesh who had just come from Paul Bocuse, was the real driving force behind everything there for both chefs. As for working conditions, very poor, then again I had worked at Fairmont and was used to being the top percentage for cooks in the city. You generally started your shift about 2 hours early and stayed about 2 hours later, and were only paid for 8 hours and even then at minimum wage. Keep in mind that the average apartment rent in Vancouver was around $750 CDN, so it was tight. The open kitchen is quite nice but the garde manger area and production kitchen downstairs were pretty cramped and not dirty but also not clean. I don't know if you understand that. When things got hectic, you just had no space to do more than 2 or 3 things at a time and sometimes you would have about 10 things on the go. I left right New Years to come home. X-mas dinner 250 people 8 courses and New Years 250 people 8 courses, alot of 12 to 16 hour days there. I just plain burner out. I did learn some good lessons there and it will always provide for good memories, like when the sous chef and the grill guy got into a fist fight over underdone salmon. I have one of our dinner menus from when I was there, so here goes: Apppetizers Caramelized Sea Scallops - cauilfolower saute a crus, wild baby watercress Seared Fois Gras Pains d'Epice Crust - lentilles de puy, peach chutney, sauce perigourd Cured Atlantic Salmon - potato crisp, horseradish cappuccino The Second Course Winter Veg Soup Salt Spring Island Gaot Cheese - beetroot tartare, arugula salad, avocado oil The Main Course Grilled Fillet of Salmon in Lemon Grass - grilled Mediterranean veg and goat cheese pitivier - saffron and vanilla sauce Roasted Chilean Sea Bass - sauce vierge, melting leeks, sweet garlic roasted potatos Pacfic Halibut - panfired cheek, baked fillet, sauce americaine spaetzle Oven Roasted Fraser Valley Duck Breast - duck leg confit, rosemary polenta, fig jus Organic Range Chicken Breast - sauce supreme, savoy cabbage farce Roasted Whole Poussin - fumet of chantrelles, gnocchi, jus court Rack of Lamb with a Black Olive Crust - gratin dauphinoise, tain of nicosie vegetables, minted garlic jus Grilled Dry Aged Angus Beef Filler - pinor noir reduction, pomme pont neuf, pannier of turned vegetable Daube of Venison - flageolet beans, roasted root vegetables, manjari sauce Grilled Vegetable and Goat Cheese Pithivier - early winter mushrooms, watercress nage Desserts We didn't have a printed dessert menu, the waiters told the customers what we had, now if I can remember some of them. Souffle, a quatret of lemon desserts, apple pie, chocolate tart and various sorbet. I did not write out all of the appies and the second course but that is the main course menu in it's entirity. Whew.

I have not visited this shop but I do know that comment is not totally true as there are 2 or 3 other shops and importers that brought cheese in from around the world. I worked at Bacchus for a while and the restaurant was one of the first to bring in a cheese trolley. I do not belive we got our cheese from these people. Our cheese guy came around every Friday with the week's shipment, to show to the staff and we decided what we wanted on the cheese trolley. There is also Menu Setters on West 10th and I'll Fromage on Commerical Drive that were bringing in cheese before these people. I'm not sure if I'll Fromage is the correct name but if your on Commerical Drive you can't miss the store itself. This was about 4 years ago.

It is interesting to note that cabrales did not enjoy C, I recently relocated from Vancouver and have eaten at each of these restaurants except Ouest. Ouest had just opened just prior to me leaving. The Chef at C, Robert Clark is well known in Canada for his use of local and unusual ingredients but the best in the country. I am pretty there are a number of other chefs out there who are better canidates for this title. I would be interested in knowing who is the best "chef " in the country ? Secondly, cabrales have/did you eat at any of the hotel restaurants in Vancouver ? Diva at the Met, 900 West, Bacchus, or Showcase ?