Matt R.

So I managed to get the photos put on my flickr site. They are basically in reverse order, but I don't think that really matters. If anyone has any more info, or can fill in some blanks let me know. I am also looking for anyone else who was there and managed to snap a few pix. I will be getting some more from my co-workers, so check back in a few days if you want to see more! Obviously, it was a very rewarding day for me. I don't know how I would have felt as a paying customer, forking over $75. Maybe it's all relative. If I owned a house in Oak Bay, drove a BMW/Lexus/Mercedes SUV perhaps $75 would be pretty cheap, but I cook for a living. Keep in mind also that I did not get a chance to wander until we were out of food, about half way through the event. By this time, other vendors were also running out, and the polish started to wear off a number of displays. Anyways here is the link, 34 pictures in total: Matt's Flickr Account -- Matt.

First of all, big ups to Matt Phillips for getting my day going in a good way! Service end indeed! Total was about 920 portions served. I think everyone else had about the same amount. Both Keenliside and Vista 18 had brilliant options for edible packaging. Tuille? Yummy on its own. A hit with the under 5 crowd. Vista's delicious squash "latte" came in a hollowed out squash, to be fed after to the pigs a few feet away. Shelora, we have pictures. I took about 40, and two other teammates had digicams, too. Hopefully tomorrow I can get them on my Flickr site for all to see. I had a fantastic time, and could not imagine a better way to spend a Sunday, which is also my Friday! -- Matt.

You got that right, sweet cheeks! ← Thanks, I've been working out. I am so looking forward to going this year now. How do agricultural fairs (P.N.E. ??) portray this. Here on the island, we have the Saanich Fair. I think it is Canada's oldest continuing agricultural fair at 138 years. However well represented the 4H club and local farm producers are, there is nary a professional chef showing how to actually use the stuff! You can buy the usual Folkfest food, or home-made items, but that all misses the point of producing. Perhaps because it falls on Labour Day weekend, when local chefs are working their "sweet (halibut) cheeks" off? -- Matt.

Shelora. I like your style. Unfortunately, I think I will be too busy for too much of that! I will be there to represent my restaurant and my chef. I was hoping for some insight on the goings-on from that perspective. -- Matt.

This year I am going to the Vancouver Island FOF with my chef and two others from work. It is being held on a biodynamic farm in Duncan, with partial proceeds (I believe) going to buy that farmer a reducer so he can produce maple syrup. The focus is clearly on regionally produced goods, with a nod to organic producers. Is this not the case in Vancouver? Locally, are there any cooks who can give tell me what to expect? This is my first time going, and am greatly looking forward to it. -- Matt.

Oh Andrew, you should have worked more days with me at Bistingo! They were big on steamed eggs off the espresso machine ... ... perhaps because they lacked a real kitchen. I second Mole. Quality of ingredients is what really sets them apart. Given the profit margin, I think more places should spend a little more on brekky. You can get a real cult following in Victoria that will keep you floating all year 'round. -- Matt.

Biking home across town tonight after work, fall is definitely in the air. Two nominees. And yes, I am biased. 1. Fire & Water. Former chef Keenliside seems big on a la minute, including his "chowder". Double smoked bacon, leeks, potatoes, savoury clams, stock and cream, simply sauteed and reduced is the best clam chowder I have had. Creme fraiche and crisp shallots were garnish. I have to say on a shift where I could not decide what to eat, that was my safest bet. 2. Chandler's seafood Years ago, when I was a pup, I made thousands (millions?) of litres of this stuff. More the traditional flour thickened variety, and other seafood bits as well. The secret here, that makes it number two for me was the addition of a couple chef's spoons of dijon. -- Matt.

Lyle at Cowichan Bay Farms produces the *best* pasture raised chicken and duck around. Googling 'cowichan bay farms' produced good results. He has won awards from the SPCA for his animal stewardship, and seems like a nice guy to boot! -- Matt.

Have a read of the article, Matt, and then see what you think. And you would actually cook at considerably less than 200 degrees F with zero loss of life! Thus far that is. ←

This seems like a bit of a problem for large, commercial plants. There is an increased risk of botulism here that is very real, and very serious. The idea of letting raw garlic and olive oil rest in an anaerobic environment, then cooking for 8 hours @ 200 f gives me the shivers. There are two chains that I know of that forbid Cryovac'd food, as well as a large hotel chain. -- Matt.

It's not too late! Take your lemons, slices into 1/4's or less, and pack them into a container with a tight fitting lid. In between your layers of lemons, sprinkle with coarse salt. Cover this mess with olive oil - you want it to solidify in the fridge. Every other day, turn the container over. In a few days you will have suitably preserved lemons. Don't just use the peel. The flesh is good in compound butter for fish, prawns, etc, and the lemon oil is surpisingly non-salty. -- Matt.

Perhaps this is a touch off topic, but may be of some interest to Victoria residents. It was very interesting to me, for sure! Chef Jeff Keenliside (Cafe Brio, Shelter, Apres) has moved from Fire & Water at the Marriott to the Oak Bay Marina restaurant as exec. chef. He has been replaced by Chef Andrew Dickinson (former exec chef at Hugo's), who was the restaurant sous-chef for the last year or so. Not exactly an opening or a closing, but close. ;) -- Matt.

Tonight we are having rack of lamb marinated in mint, rosemary, shallots, white wine and lemon. My mother in law had this in Edmonton a few days ago, and insisted we try it tonight. Should be killer! I think some yam and veg might accompany. She made saskatoon berry and rhubarb crisp for dessert. Sounds great! -- Matt

Word on the street in Victoria is that Elephant & Castle are pulling out of the Bay (Former Eaton's) Centre after many years and Earl's will be taking their place. Last summer the only chain place right downtown was Milestone's and the Keg. Now there is Ric's Grill and Cactus Club. Earl's? Victoria isn't that big. Something has to give ... ... oh yeah, the smaller restaurants. -- Matt.

Does this concept concern anyone else? The train of National delivery trucks says a lot about the food being prepared. What I want to know is where was Cara foods when all this went down. This seems like prime real estate for them. -- Matt.

OK, OK, pass me some high-end butter, so I can slather it on my words before I eat them. Jamie, you raise an excellent point, and one that did not even occur to me. Of course I am willing to pay top dollar for top quality, but having never tasted butter this expensive, the concept seemed absurd to me. My $4 Foothills does the trick on good bread! What am I missing? I have to go. My $30/750 mL bottle of Olio Carli is calling me. Boy that green glass is heavy! -- Matt.

C'mon, whose lifestyle can support $10/lb butter? That's the craziest thing I have heard all week, and I work in a restaurant! My suggestion for 'commercial' butter is Foothill's unsalted, from Alberta. I did a three way comparison, and it actually does taste and feel better than other supermarket brands. -- Matt.

Taco Del Mar. There is one opening up just down the road from my house, in a strip mall with a Save-On Foods, McDonalds, etc ... Tiny location. I think they might fit 15-20 seats once the "kitchen" is put in. Does anyone have any experience with this chain? "Seafood Taco" sounds like the punchline to a bad joke to me, but I'll try anything once. According to their website, they have about three different things on the menu. Tacos with beef, chicken or fish. -- Matt.

What I don't understand is why we can't grow hothouse strawberries. You know, we will seemingly pay upwards of $4.00/lb for nice tomatoes in December, and $3 for a cucumber, and don't even get me started on orange bell peppers .... So WTF? Can't someone plant some everbearing tri-star strawberries in a greenhouse and keep them going all year? I must be missing something. Seriously - BC Bud would pail in comparison to BC Strawberries ... "pssst.. hey. Uptown? Downtown? Red Berries?" -- Matt.

There are precious few skilled butchers around these days. Stepping into a new job about a year ago, where minor-league butchery skills were important, I took it upon myself to get a bit of education. Having only a little of the most common butchery skills in my background, I phoned a local, and recommended butcher shop, to see if I could "drop in" for a couple days with the butcher. A couple of rounds of phone tag later, they were happy to take me in to break down a front, then hind quarter of beef. It's one thing to clean a striploin, tenderloin, or a prime rib, and to read about it in a text book and have an understanding of what goes where. It's another to put that side of beef on a table and cut it up. Big ups to Slater's in Victoria. Butchery, as a trade, seems to be becoming a niche market. What do you think the grocery chains are doing about this? Do they still employ ticketed butchers? -- Matt.

My wife, our two kids, and her friend are planning on a lunch/dinner date in Vancouver this weekend. Her friend now lives in Japan, but spent years living in Vancouver. Can anyone out there give a recommendation on lunch and dinner spots for such a crowd? My wife and her friend are ~30, and our kids are 3.5 and 1.5 and tempered accordingly. ie: my little guy is right now stuffing cd-rom's into the paper shredder (don't worry, it's not plugged in) because he can. Hoping to avoid White Spot. :) My wife is taking our car, but I think someplace in town is preferable. She will be staying at my Uncle's house in Shaughnessy. Thanks; -- Matt.

Given the late hour of my post (3 am) and my chosen trade, your assumption is forgiveable. Not true, but forgiveable. I have two small children at home, and a wife going to school so I take advantage of the quiet hours after work to get some time to myself. Well, to share with you all, actually. Egullet seems to be taking up much of my time lately. Anyone out there remember DDial, STS, or BBSing as a wasted pastime? As for my statements, boldness is an admirable quality in a cook if you ask me! You know, step up, take charge, that kind of thing. Who wants a wishy washy cook who can't think for him/herself on the fly? -- Matt. edited to say: By "this city" I mean Victoria. I'm sure the amount of great line cooks in Vancouver scales with the population. For every "very talented chef" how many "very talented line cooks" do you need? Somewhere between two and six? Someone actually needs to be able to execute, as you well know. This is worth much more than $10/hr.

I have to disagree with the above statement. It is very often only half correct. I have no formal culinary education, or very little, but seem to be doing "okay", as far as cooking in this city goes. Cooks I know from Vancouver seemed puzzled how we make it out here in our little hamlet, but I am doing better than they are? Is this just luck or coincidence? -- Matt.

OK, so I have a background in pretty high-volume, factory style cooking. Chandler's, Milestone's .... big numbers, paint-by-number food. Don't go in looking for magic, but come back and it was the same as last time. BTW, churning out these numbers of covers is closer to magic than you think. Maybe 10 people in this city can work a saute shift at Milestone's on a Friday night in July. The best cooks I know are line-cooks, first and foremost. If you can't to that, you can't do shit. Is this the result of cooking becoming trendy? Do we have Jamie Oliver to blame for this? A glut four or five years after the fact. Being a cook in a hotel restaurant, with a Chef whose background is largely independent, is an interesting environment. We don't take the shotgun approach like some bigger chain restaurants can do. That's their strategy. That middle is hard to fill, but they get lucky sometimes. -- Matt. edited for joke after I read the whole thread: What do you call a restaurant with no servers? Take out. What do you call a restaurant with no cooks? Closed.

Milestone's Inner Harbour (Victoria) does (did, when I did my time at least ....) anywhere from 600 to 800 covers a night during the summer. People always said it was the "busiest restaurant in BC", but could never get anyone to qualify that. On exceptional days, like Canada Day, it could be a little more. Mother's Day was even better (worse), getting near 1000 covers for daytime. We would have people just cracking and poaching eggs for 6 hours. Believe it or not, I sometimes miss that place. These days I don't think it's as much, given a lovely new Cactus Club in the downtown core, with their lovely "architecture", and a Ric's Grill just opened up the street. -- Matt.