Chef Fowke

Cool...google ads and this site co-exsist for one reason ~ e-inititives cost money and I do not want to charge back to my customers the cost of something I enjoy. I am posting live from the kitchen 3 - 10 times a day, uploading photos, keeping it exciting. This is not a Food Network polished site, this is real grit in the kitchen. I am pleased that google ads pays for the monthly fees of the site. Currently, no profit is made. And as you can see, your other criteria is met. But really ~ I am bored with the stock restuarant site; YAWN...menu, hours, bio ~ is nobody interested in up-to-the-minute info, photos and data? Is it a waste of time to operate Chef Fowke dot Com? What will make the average consumer keep coming back to look and be entertained? This is a Beta site and feedback is appreciated.

One word: Borax. More info at About.com: How Borax Works

In my training, in a large hotel, six months of my life was spent in the butchery department. If I remember correctly we received 300 whole chickens each on Monday & Thursday, veal was Wednesday and Friday, primal cuts of beef arrived every second day, etc. There was a lot of work to do, everything came in unprocessed. The strips and tenders were aged on site. Then the 90’s hit and ‘value added’ became the catch phrase of every vendor in Canada. No longer do you have to order your tenderloins as a 189a, 189b or your striploins as a Y4. The meat is trimmed, and at no extra cost you can get it portion controlled and frozen. The labour shortage has crushed the apprenticeship program for chefs. Construction wages start at $18, while a first year apprentice in the kitchen can expect to make $8/hr. With that background…. In Vancouver we are lucky, for such a small city, to have 8 great al a mode Restaurants that use a mix of modern cuisine, micro gastronomy…but more importantly all these restaurants have mastered Classic Cookery skills. I am seeing ‘nose to tail’ tasting menus, a real push for sustainable fisheries and restaurants ordering from small producers and breaking the product down on site at the these restaurant. What brought this reality home is when I walked into Rare Restaurant and my Chef de Cuisine was covered in blood and entrails and breaking down a whole pig. What was really cool is what she plans to do with the animal; following is a repost of our thread from our website: Chef de Cuisine Colleen McClean: On October 12th, Rare received a side of pork from Sloping Hill Farm. It was fed apples, and was as beautiful a piece of meat as I have ever seen. Here is what it looked like: One hour into the butchery I am sawing the backbone off this amazing rack of pork. Two hours in, we have pig parts! We took the belly and cured it in bourbon and birch syrup for bacon. The leg was cured in salt and is now hanging to become a prosciutto. I made Chorizo and Finocchiona out of the shoulder. Turned out fantastic! Finished chorizo. Finished finocchiona. Finished bacon. You have never had good bacon until you make it yourself! And in our spare time, we also have made some duck prosciutto. All of these items (except the prosciutto, which requires another 8 months of aging) have been featured on Rare's menus recently. The girls and I are very pleased with the effort. Who's hungry? I will post pictures of food produced from this animal as the menu items are produced. With over 95% of the restaurants in this city using pre-packaged meats and sauces it is good to be part of a small and growing movement towards classic cookery. Interesting that we are seen as ‘modern restaurants’.

Recently I sat with my management team and talked about the usefulness of our websites, one for each restaurant. Both websites average 145 unique visits a day with over half of our reservations coming from the sites or Opentable. It was decided that a ‘portal’ was needed to be developed to support both restaurant’s websites. A re-direction of both restaurants to the one site. In the process of this conversation a lot of banter went around about our marketing plan 2008 and driving our new customers to the website through every marketing initiative we developed for 2008. It was agreed that for this to be successful the site would have to be fun, informative and interactive. Daily I search out Restaurant Blogs, Restaurant Websites and anything else I can find of interest on the internet. But what does the regular customer really appreciate? And the investment in time…I do it because it is part of my life and I have known no other way. As an employee of a restaurant how much time should you be expected to invest in a project like this? Is it a term of employment, even if you are not comfortable with internet/blogs? We are in BETA TESTING right now, but check out where we are at: Rare and Metro Restaurant Portal

...my mother forgot to put the turkey in the oven last year. She stuffed it the night before; served us breakfast and lunch ~ then saw the turket sitting in the fridge at 3pm. She sent my dad and I out to find a ham.... Love my mom, but OUCH; football was on!

...very busy weekend in Vancouver! Looks like we are going to have to close the reservations at Rare (may be a few tables left online through our website) for Sunday. Metro still has room on Sunday but is quickly filling up for Monday. I apologize to everyone in advance who does not get to try the elk pate!!! It sat under 10lbs of kosher salt all night; and Colleen has again produced a brilliant terrine! At Metro, I am amazed by the complexity of the apple consomme ~ all the apples from the Okanagan. Very well balanced. Mains ~ the Sable fish is the star, not to take away from the turkey, but all I smelled all day was turkey confit cooking...(and I nibbled, nibbled AND nibbled ~ I have had my fill of turkey and it is only Saturday!!!)

Just completed the Thanksgiving Menu for Metro! Side note: Rare is going to open on the Sunday and will offer a 6 course Thanksgiving tasting menu at $65, but will be closed on Monday ~ sorry, if someone had reserved by now we would have been open! The menu at Metro is completely compiled from a trip to Granville Market, very cool trip talking to the local producers... METRO THANKSGIVING 1ST COURSE PAN-SEARED DUCK LIVER Okanagan harvest-grain crepe, apple birch molasses OR APPLE CONSOMMÉ yams & milled pecans, mousseline 2ND COURSE B.C. TURKEY TENDERLOIN MEDALION potato pumpkin moussaka, brussel sprout petals OR PAN-SEARED SABLEFISH scalloped turnip & celeriac, fennel stuffing brown butter cider sauce 3RD COURSE COUNTRY BUTTER TART brown sugar crumble, walnut ice cream OR APPLE BREAD PUDDING caramelized sugar, vanilla ice cream $42 THIRSTY HARVEST fresh muddled red currents, dark rum, amaretto $10

We are going to have some fun at Rare and serve a Thanksgiving Tasting menu on Sunday night and close on Monday. Metro is going to run a three course Thanksgiving menu on both Sunday and Monday, priced at $42'ish per person. Menu are being worked on tonight, will post in the next few days ~ looking to use only local and seasonal, and do something a little different from the norm.

Bistro Chez Michel does the same thing in Lonsdale...and it is brilliant, traditional and reasonably priced! My question is; does anyone downtown care about thanksgiving diner and want a restaurant to celebrate in? Are the hotels full? I would happily buy 5 - 6 turkeys and 'go to town' on them and present them in the 6 course Rare fashion; just think of all the great possibilities! Brian.

Rare did not open for Thanksgiving dinner last year ~ would people be interested in a 'rare' take on the traditional dinner? I would love to put togeather a menu, but how much of the dining public actually goes out for dinner on this day ~ and is the traditional dinner eaten on the Sunday or Monday?

LOL! That would explain it. ...guess what the pre-shift topic is going to be tomorrow, the next day and the next!!!

90% of the diners at Rare were City Dine, 40% at Metro. I am surprised. Great nights at both restaurants, but why did 60% go al a carte at Metro. I think the City Dine menu is great at Metro ~ I suspect that a lot of City Dine customers went al a carte. I did sell a lot of local game meat tonight.

I think so too! We're going tomorrow night. Yum, I can't wait! (edited to fix tags) ← Our local suppliers have really step up; as have our local wine reps. We have spent all week getting ready for this promotion. It proved to be our busiest 10 days of the year in 2006 (at Rare, hopefully at Metro in 2007). What really works with this promotion is its timing with the natural harvest in Vancouver. The diners who attend this event really get to taste the full spectrum of great BC products at all the participating restaurants. What a naturally great time to be doing this; and a great charity. Ping me if you are coming in, would love to meet you at your table! Otherwise ~ I will be the guy on the grill at Metro; sit at the bar stools looking onto the kitchen.

...my wife went to Burgoo with a friend and our just under 2'ish year old....100% by all on the macaroni and cheese. Great concept, ultra cheap in a great room with a super vibe and a 10/10 decor that supports the quality of food.

Not to be unfair to Chef McClean... Colleen has really stepped up and researched a very cool and sustainable menu for Rare. I believe Rare is close to sold out for City Dine....we may offer the menu (and the comp water and donation) for and additional 7 - 14 days (depending on demand). Right now we are 75% over last year in reservations!!! Here is the menu. Dinner Menu $35 Three-Course Prix Fixe Meal* Complimentary Bottled Water Your choice of one bottle of S.Pellegrino® Sparkling Natural Mineral Water or Acqua Panna® Natural Spring Water. (One small bottle per person; one large bottle for every two people.) *Tax, other beverages and gratuity excluded. This offer is not valid with coupons and other discounts during the two-week program. Nestlé Waters Canada will donate $1 to the CAFB for each S.Pellegrino™ City Dine meal served at participating restaurants during the period Sept. 16-20 and 23-27, 2007, up to a maximum donation of $20,000. ©2007 Nestlé Waters Canada Inc. First Course Aldergrove Duck and Apricot Terrine With peashoots, red onion and flax crostini or Cauliflower Soup With truffle, butter-poached prawn and smoked Steelhead caviar or Wild Arctic Musk Ox Bresaola With shaved parmesan, fennel pollen and chick pea salad Main Course Confit Breast of Veal With rosemary, Swiss chard and caper-raisin sauce or Unilaterally Seared Halibut With French beans, red curry sauce and cherry tomatoes or Sous Vide Alberta Elk Medallion With chanterelles, fennel purée and red wine jus Dessert Lemon and Bay Laurel Parfait With roasted plum sauce, shortbread and almond brittle or Chocolate Many Ways Sparkle cookie, brownie and concepcion tart or Rare Cheeses and Figs Ask server for selection

You are right....I am not a lawyer. I just ran into a simular matter of law and was surprised at how nicely the law treated me in this regard... More importantly, opening next door would be bad Karma.

Okay, menu is ready for Metro....sticking to our 'by the ounce' theme I have decided to set the menu up as three seafood or three meat choices!!!!! I am interested to see what happens this year; last year City Dine (which we extended two weeks because of demand) were our busiest days of the year! Here is the menu we are working on.... First Course Tomato Mozzarella Salad Heirloom tomato, mozzarella and avocado salad, pistou oil, balsamic molasses (or) Grilled Citrus Humboldt Calamari Lime-Habanero, coconut and garlic sautéed gai lan Main Course Three Samplings From the Land Niocla Valley deer; Berkshire pork tenderloin; certified Angus striploin (or) Three Samplings From the Sea Albacore tuna; sablefish; Dungeness crab Dessert Baked Cheesecake Mousse Caramelized apple purée, walnut cookie, green apple espuma (or) Chocolate Canadian Maple “Moose” Torte Paté of B.C. orchard fruits and berries

The laws of Canada have shot down most non-compete clause....stating it it illegal to put into a contract a clause that retards your ability to make an income (be it your primary source) should you need to maintain your lifestyle, etc etc etc... Or maybe Vince is doing something different enough (we all know he is smart enough and a visionary) that it does not conflict with his sale of Artigiano!!! This is probably the case. I have had so much fun pairing food with coffee through Colter (employee/Artigiano) that I hope one day I can host a coffee/food night at Metro.

I disagree...street people are the responsibility of the restaurant. Customer safety is as much a part of ‘the experience’ as service, presentation, taste, showmanship and ambiance. At both Metro and Rare we pay big $$$ to minimize the homeless intrusion on our patrons ~ and all restaurant should; it’s like supplying toilet paper - no one likes to talk about it, but it has to be done. On a tangent ~ has anyone else noticed the sandpaper toilet paper offered at Earl's in Vancouver? How did they find such a low grade...I did not know it even existed!!

And we have a printer hooked up to the public network if you need to print off files while eatting lunch!!!

Went to Bistro Chez Michel for brunch. Very cool. Had the Merguez sausage eggs benedict ~ fantastic. Eggs were a perfect softness and the yolk easily broke and flowed over the sausage into the French Baguette. I will stand by this; no other Chef in Vancouver can make hollandaise as well as Chef Joseph at Chez Michel. Nicely salty with a slight hint of wine and a rich buttery finish without being over-powering. Lemon finish.

I trained under Thuet for 4 long years....a must eat! He is the craziest man to EVER walk the earth ~ but the things he does with food!!! BUT, with that said ~ CANOE. The view and service are amazing. But more importantly, this is the food of Ontario, presented perfectly 100% of the time. I have never eatten at The Fifth, but my parents swear by it. Sounds cool.

...how did you know about the chickens? I brought my young daughter and we spent the morning counting and patting chickens! I unfortunately had to leave just as the crowds arrived to go to Metro and run the day. Great event and I respect all the time the big name chefs donated to the event. I was proud/honoured to be a part of it.

On the 18th and 19th of August I will be in Saskatoon to celebrate my father's 70th birthday. It has been a while since I have been back home....what are the options for a casual brunch for 20 people?

One person’s taste. Started to talk about the review at pre-shift today ~ the service staff shut me down; stated that the review did not reflect what they were hearing from the guests. I am not very media savvy. I would rather spend my time cooking and visiting with the guests of Metro and Rare then kissing up to the food media. With that said, some of the food media are my friends ~ the ones passionate about food, service and wine. The review is what it is. It will not hurt my business, but will probably drive more people to the doors of both Metro and Rare. Unfortunately it only hurt one person ~ my mother, hard to hear her cry, she is proud of me.