Chef Fowke

I believe they use topiko (flying fish roe)

I really enjoy eating at Ouest/West and I really appreciate the paradigm change they went through.... Lumiere has been the best restaurant in Vancouver for a long time for good reason. The food is great. Getting the Relias au Chateau accolade sets a world standard at this restaurant. Well deserved! In every meal you can taste the effort, time and vast experience. Lumiere would stand up as a great restaurant in any city. Now, in Vancouver we have lots of beaches, mountains, oceans and beauty. The average restaurant client is surrounded by extremes in environments and gets bored easily. I have had a lot of clients (local Vancouverites) complain about Lumiere in the last few months. When I ask them about the food and its preparation they cannot be specific about any problems. When I listen to the descriptions I start to crave another dinner at Lumiere!!! Vancouverites crave new things. Even if you are the best you need to still be dynamic. I am excited to go to Fennie's and eat and be entertained. I am going to bring my wife this week. Lumiere is expensive but I still think it is one of the best values for your dollar in Vancouver.

Thank You!!!! I will apply this to one piece of brisket/flank/navel. I can see how a lot of flavour is added by making it kosher. We just need to decide on the scientific procedure we are going to adopt in the tasting of the meats. PS. my laptop is set up with a wireless card. Does anyone know how we can set up a web cam and broadcast the tasting live?

Is Roots Lodge still open? I read lots of great reviews on it. The photos looked great.

I think back 17 years and I do not remember using a fork in France when I was an apprentice. Pate, cheese, bread, meats, etc were eaten with only a knife. You would scoop up a piece of pate with the knife and place it directly in your mouth. With the same knife you would spread Dijon on baguette and fish gherkins out of a jar while balancing a tumbler of wine between your knees... I guess French cooks have no etiquette until they become the grand toque blanche.

Nice soup. Reminds me of a Pot au feu à la Parisienne with fish sauce. The recipe was very easy to make and turned out great. I am going to add it to my master collection. Thank you.

Do you have more information on Kosher? I will try. I'm not quite sure I understand what you're asking. For meat to truly be kosher, it has to be slaughtered in a certain way and then go through the salting and soaking process within 3 days of slaughter. Since the slaughter won't effect the taste, you can take any brisket and do the "kashering" yourself. I can get you the instructions if you desire. Otherwise, you might want to order the meat directly from a kosher butcher - but I'm not sure if you can find one in Vancouver. I once did a kosher wedding in 1989. All the kitchen knives, utensils, pots and pans had to be boiled and inspected by a rabbi. That is my knowledge on kosher food. Please forward me information/recipes on 'koshering' beef and I will include a kosher brisket in my experiment.

Now its time to work on the autumn backyard party 2003. I invite mostly restaurant industry people to this event. I am thinking a big clam/lobster/crab/oyster bake with lots of rich lagers, red wine and Sangria on a hot Vancouver autumn Sunday. Though.... clam bakes are passé and so 1997; does anyone have an original idea for a backyard get together?

Pastis has re-opened as Bistro Pastis (I think thats its name) Tuesday - Sunday.

We will have all the pastrami ready for the start of September. We will post the tasting date and location. I have a good friend on the North Shore with a restaurant overlooking the Burrard Inlet and downtown Vancouver. I will see if he can set us up for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon.

Do you have more information on Kosher? I will try.

Day Three. 4.4 BRISKET (BRISKET POINT): means that portion of the FRONT QUARTER which is separated from the PLATE by a straight cut passing between the 5th and 6th rib, from the CHUCK by a cut a right angles to the first cut passing at a point slightly above (dorsal to) the elbow joint (distal extremity of the humerus) and from the SHANK by a cut which follows the natural contour of the elbow bone (olecranon process of the ulna). 4.5 FULL BRISKET (FULL PLATE): refers to the portion containing both the BRISKET and PLATE. With the food network never being wrong I am going to use this article as my guidelines to get started: Pastrami 101 I will work with two brisket (points) and two plates each from Alberta 'AAA' Cattle. One brisket and one plate will be dry cured and the other two wet cured. After the curing and smoking one brisket and one plate will be simmered and the other two steamed. Will this cover all our bases and get us a good starting point to start doing our scientific research? I also have a connection on a slab of brisket from Schwartz’s. It should be out to me in Vancouver soon.

I could see a wasabi and grapefruit mix. I am going to use a simple syrup with a hint of vanilla pod as its base. Details will follow.

Do we make the reservation under eGullet? Do we bring wifes and Sous Chefs? Name tags? Black tie formal? Has anyone been to Cru yet? How is the food...

NO!!!! was it supposed to be good? I cannot imagine the flavor. The wasabi ice cream has kept me up at nights thinking about it. I want to make some. Was it sweet? Any other Flavors?

Got some grass fed Veal Racks into the restaurant tonight. Very, very good. The texture is courser then Montreal ProVimi but the flavour is superior.

Day Two I am reading what you are writing.... My best results for corned beef come from a wet brine method. It is a lot more time consuming and tricky (spoilage can occur in this process) but the end flavour is superior, you are pickling into the core rather then coating the exterior. I also have a large, industrial kitchen to perform this experiment so I think we should only use the best methods of curing. I will not use a brisket, I will get Jason to order beef plate (navel). As well, steaming? Why wouldn't the corned beef be poached in a 'court bouillon like' mixture for three hours to turn it into pastrami and enhance it flavours? Steam does not add any flavour, it just cooks the meat. I would like to get all these details wrapped up by the end of the weekend. Feedback please, ASAP! Final note. We need to decide on strict scientific criteria for judging this meat. What are we looking for? How can we set a standard that is useable in everyday food tasting from pastrami to foie gras? Food tasting is so subjective. We need to create a purely scientific means to judge which foods are good or bad on a universal level.

Day one at the restaurant: Explained to my Sous Chef, Jason my new project and that he was going to help lead it. After he stopped yelling and throwing things at my for consuming more of his already 14 hour long day he almost seemed excited. I know from experience Jason is not afraid to eat some smoked brisket... We are underway. We are going to contact our purveyor tomorrow and get the meat delivered next week. We will probably use three grades of brisket; choice, select and prime (‘AA’, 'AAA' and prime for all those Canadians out there, eh). Half of each grade we will salt petered and the other half we will brine au natural. My recipe calls for 3 weeks in the brine. We will do the finally smoking with hickory, applewood and beech. I will update daily with info and photos (including some really funny pictures I have of Jason!).

There have been dozens of pastrami- and smoked-meat-related discussions on eGullet, and there are several active right now. Here's a recent sampling: Pastrami News http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=20329 Defining Barbecue http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=24408 Smoked Corned Beef Would you like some? http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=3&t=17639 corned beef vs. pastrami stupid question but... http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST&f=1&t=17596 GastronautQuebec Report Day One http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=ST...ST&f=26&t=24229 I have been re-reading and researching the posts on this issue, and I am not convinced that one pastrami/corned beef/Montreal smoked meat is better or worse than any other -- more specifically I am not convinced we have a set of criteria by which to make intelligent statements on the subject. We are not dealing with scientific fact, not yet at least. I propose that I spend the next 60 days, in my kitchen at Joe Fortes (the restaurant in Vancouver where I am executive chef), and produce eight types of corned/smoked/pastrami-style beef according to the recipes you all provide, and a group can then taste and judge them under truly scientific conditions. I have eaten smoked meats at Schwartz’s, Ben’s and The Main -- ranging from lean to extra-fatty -- and they all taste completely different to me (not to mention the quality of breads and mustards served with them). I have eaten examples of smoked meat/pastrami in Cleveland, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, which have been great but greasier and smokier then any of the smoked meats in Montreal. Escoffier set up the standardization of recipes for the culinary world in the late-19th/early-20th Century. We need to set up our own criteria through a scientific set of standards. I will donate a few hours a day if you will all supply the set of standards and measures. When the standards have been set we can then go out to all the great delis of North America and have the conceptual tools to identify the best pastrami/smoked-meat/corned-beef -- the one that is truly the greatest and the king.

I have been experimenting with brewing my own beer at home this year. The kit I am using is Australian (Cooper’s Lager and Cooper’s Pilsner). It produces a truly great summer beer. The kit contains a molasses (the hops) like substance produced from double row Tasmanian barley. Ten minutes worth of work and you have the beer in the primary fermentation vessel. The most time is consumed by the sterilization of the bottles. I am using quart bottles (all beer should be bottled by the quart!) and it takes roughly an hour to get enough bottles clean for one kit of beer. The beer is easy to make, the waiting time killer! It says two weeks but it is more like two months unless you have a room in your house that maintains a perfect 78f. For an initial investment of under a $100 this creates super summer beers.

Celler Notes talks about the merlot grape in French wine making and why it is used. The Merlot grape is a close cousin to Cabernet Sauvignon in many respects. It is lower in tannins and makes wines that mature faster and are softer in texture. Merlot is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon in order to soften the blend. Merlot is able to mature in regions that are cooler than those required for Cabernet Sauvignon. Merlot is more susceptible to fungus and mold diseases and therefore a bit harder to grow. Merlot varies widely in quality around the world depending on location and producer. This variety was first known for its success in the Saint Emilion and Pomerol areas of Bordeaux. Chateau Petrus is the stellar example of fine Merlot. Merlot usually has ripe berry components in the bouquet. It's wines tend to be soft, fruity and smooth in texture. Select Merlots can have long aging potential but most are ready to consume in 4 to 8 years. Merlot is enjoying a surge in popularity and additional acreage is being planted in many major producing regions. It came to California in the mid-1860s and has become one of the most popular wines since its surge in popularity in the 1990s.

It is threads like this that make me proud to be Canadian.... Lets face it. You might as well drink water if you are going to drink American or Mexican beer. There is no taste or substance. It is amazing that Bud actually sells 100 million barrels a year! No accounting for taste in the world’s most powerful nation, it’s still young and flexing its muscles as it grows up in the culinary and libation world. Historically in Canada the beer regions have been broken up into four regions; Maritimes, Ontario, Prairies and British Colombia. Leaving out Molson’s and Labatts’ that own a huge majority of the brew power in Canada that brew great international brews: Molson’s: Molson's Product Page and Labatts’: http://www.labatt.com/enhanced/index_2.html In the Maritimes you have Alexander Keith (Keith's) that is a full-bodied beer in the IPA tradition. It is smooth yet possesses a lot of rich oak body and creamy aftertaste. In Quebec my beer of choice is St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout (St-Ambroise). If you like espresso and chocolate this will be a first choice in beer. The small batch approach produces a clean, fragrant beer that drinks more like a wine then a malt beverage. Ontario has a great little brewery named Creemore Lager (Creemore). I used to detour an hour on the way to my cottage to pick up a few cases of this beer before it was readily available in the Ontario beer stores. It has a smooth and long hops finish. On the Prairies (specifically Alberta) the first micro-brewed beer was McNally's out of Big Rock Brewers. It was the first time for most flat-landers that we experienced a true Ale flavour (Big Rock). That’s not to say beers such as IPA, 50 and 'Generic Beer' were not full flavored beers, just more fashioned after our American cousins rather than our European roots. In BC the Micro-brew industry really opens up. I have not found one beer/ale/lager that is the best. The industry is truly regional and each beer takes on specific characteristics of the water and land it is formed on. One of the great things about drinking a quality British Colombian beer is that you do not get a hang over if you drink two or twenty beers in a sitting. The locals tell me it is because the beer has no preservatives and is brewed from the cleanest waters on earth. The next time anyone posting on this site is in Vancouver I would be pleased to introduce them to craft oriented Canadian beers. I guarantee no one will be disappointed.

Not to get off on a tangent... Main Entry: pas·tra·mi Variant(s): also pas·tromi /p&-'strä-mE/ Function: noun Etymology: Yiddish pastrame, from Romanian pastrama pressed and cured meat I have eaten goose, lamb, turkey and salmon pastrami. They were all cured with the same type of spices and pressed. For my dollar the best pastrami is pickled flank or plate that has been spiced, smoked and pressed.

Sorry it took so long to post this recipe. The cruise ships have shown up in Vancouver and we are back to the 500 - 600 dinners a night.... I was taught be many great chefs how to make a proper veal stock. Over the last 17 years I have never, ever swayed one ounce or one degree from my original recipe. Roast bones, Mirepoix, tomato paste...bring to the boil, skim, simmer for eight hours (skimming) and strain through triple cheesecloth. Cool the stock and repeat the process with new roasted bones. To reduce: reduce by half, strain through cheesecloth, repeat until you reach the desire consistence. Well, this recipe is wrong. Everything I know about cooking is now in question. I tried this new recipe for veal stock over the last two days and I cannot find anything wrong with it. It is so simple and pure and it makes one of the best base veal stocks I have ever tasted! It is as if my taste buds have just been awoken. Recipe and Technique: ½ veal bones (knuckles) and ½ chicken bones: do not roast! Put the bones in a kettle and just cover with water. Bring to the boil, drain and rinse with ice and water. Refill the kettle to just cover the bones. Add a traditional Mirepoix, un-roasted and with ripe, raw tomatoes instead of tomato paste. Simmer for eight hours while skimming. Strain through cheesecloth and cool. Reduce the stock (no need to strain) until 1/4 the volume. It is like magic, the stock is a beautiful rich golden brown with lots of texture and body. Absolutely no bitterness and lots of gelatin. On a daily basis the stock can be refreshed with a small Mirepoix and your choice of carcass (roasted duck, lamb, venison, veal, rabbit, etc). The alcohol and bones used really shine through. The flavour is rich while not being over-powering or of a tacky texture. I guess I need to go back to Europe for a refresher course. This has truly revolutionized my thoughts on cooking. I hope everyone enjoys the recipe!

I stock Canadian and American prime beef as well as Australian Angus beef. We need to do a full on tasting next time you are in town. Maybe a 48oz Delmonico of each to see which flavour we prefer... I would FedEx you a sample of Canadian grain-fed beef but we would both end up in jail!!! Chef Fowke, since you carry both Canadian & American prime beef, you can answer this. What is the difference in price between Canada Prime & USDA Prime? I'm guessing USDA is much more expensive. How readily available is Canada Prime grade beef in Canada? ------------ Steve I will start by saying that I am Canadian and was raised on the prairies in Alberta... I was bottle-fed on Alberta prime beef. It is the best in the world hands down for well-rounded flavour, excellent marbling and texture. To compare the meats is like comparing a boutique hotel to the Four Seasons Hotel. Both are the best. More people stay at the Four Seasons and that is what the general public expects a great hotel to be... But if you are 'lucky' enough to stay at a great boutique hotel you realize there is something better! Canadian Prime is the best but there is so little of it that it is hard to get on a consistent basis. When I first moved to BC I insisted on only using BC Prime beef. Five years ago I had a personal connection with the only abattoir in the Vancouver area and they were only grading six animals a week at Prime. I used all the meat up in one day that was available. Alberta Prime is just as rare with a huge demand for every ounce of it. All I can say to describe the difference is one is mass produced using corn as a fattening agent and the fat cap and marbling tend to be courser and gamier. The Canadian beef is fattened on Barley that produces a smooth texture with pure white fat and huge marbling. The depth of flavour of the corn-fattened beef can be over powered by the fat cap and marbling. Again, if anyone is coming to BC please email me and I will locate some Canadian Prime. I do not get a lot of it right now. It is very scarce. The biggest demand in my restaurant is still for Australian Angus. Canadian customers are scared to eat the USA beef because they are reading in the newspapers that the contaminated cow came from the USA and the American customers are scared of the Canadian beef because they heard is was born in Canada. Australian is safe. It is too bad. I cannot wait for the local growers to get back into full swing