Food is Fun!

We are pleased to announce the arrival of a new children's cookbook entitled "Food is Fun!" by Anorak Magazine. The good folks across the pond publish a happy children's magazine chock full of fantastic information and whimsical drawings and now they've extended their talents into a cook book. Naturally, we had to have it.

The book is 160 pages with lots of fun recipes (Eggy Toast, Dot to Dot Salad and Super Easy Cake A Monkey Can Make), activities (banana and carrot paper dolls, a wordsearch etc.) and even the real-life story of Alfie, a 12-year-old who one day dreams of being a chef and gets to visit a special restaurant for his birthday. It is a perfect book for budding chefs from ages 5 to 12 years old.

2 Chefs 4 Fish

We had fish on the table for discussion on a rainy night in February as we welcomed Connecticut based author Paul Greenberg to join us in celebrating the launch of his new book, Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food. Paul’s book is a compelling account of our historical relationship with wild fish, in particular bass, salmon, cod and tuna.

Chef Robert Clark of C Restaurant joined Paul for a thought-provoking discussion about the past, present and future of our food from the sea. As founding chef for the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise conservation program, as well as an outspoken supporter of wild fisheries, Chef Clark certainly knows a thing or two about some of the ways we can enjoy your seafood while at the same time protecting our fisheries for times to come. It’s a murky topic and both Paul and Robert helped shed some light on the ongoing debate about wild versus farm-raised fish. Of course, this being the land (or rather, sea) of salmon, much of the discussion turned to issues in our own backyard. There are no easy answers to this dilemma of how to continue feeding ourselves from the tentative bounty of the sea, but Paul’s book certainly gives us some much needed perspective and hope.

To better fuel our debate, Chef Clark kept us well fed with a sculptural array of seafood bites showcasing some of his favourite sustainable seafood choices: local spot prawns, wild sockeye salmon, seared albacore tuna, and fresh scallops. All well worth saving indeed.

Rising to the Occasion

This weekend Chris Brown hosted a morning bread making class featuring Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson. Since publication last fall, Tartine Bread has quickly become one of our best selling bread books. It is a delight to read and the photographs get top marks for both instructional quality and style. But one cannot judge a bread book on style alone – does it deliver the goods? Chris Brown gave us more reason to love this book. With his signature ease and skill Chris took us through the master recipe for Robertson’s Leavan –Basic Country Bread. This recipe’s approach and method form the foundational technique for all his other bread recipes in the book. In other words, master this one and you’re the ‘bread master’.

While all steps are thoroughly explained and photographed in the book, Chris managed to give us a few more tips on our rocky road to successful bread baking. Such as, using inexpensive Chinese baskets as an alternative to Robertson’s pricey linen-lined baskets for resting the dough. The baskets give the dough a lovely lattice pattern.

Chris did some of the legwork in advance, bringing some tasty prepared goods for our guest to savour; a Basic Country Loaf, a Kugelhopf, the Tartine Baguette and a delicious Panade with black kale and fontina cheese – the best possible use for left over bread we’ve ever tasted. Guests went home clutching a bag of starter in one hand and a baguette in the other, grinning with anticipation of the wonderful breads they too will bake.

Michelin Star for Author of A Year In My Kitchen

A hearty congratulations to Skye Gyngell, author of A Year In My Kitchen! This past month, Skye's restaurant Petersham Nursery Cafe was awarded a star by the Michelin Guide.

We are pleased to present her award-winning concepts and recipes every month in our A Year In My Kitchen series featuring her book.

Bestsellers January 2011

1. Tin Fish Gourmet by Barbara-jo McIntosh (Raincoast, November 1998)
2. Cooking for Me and Sometimes You by Barbara-jo McIntosh (french apple press, June 2010) 3. Vancouver Cooks 2 edited by Chef's Table Society (D&M, September 2009)
4. Radically Simple by Rozanne Gold (Rodale, October 2010)
5. Au Pied de Cochon by Martin Picard (D&M, September 2008)
6. Twain's Feast by Andrew Beahrs (Penguin, June 2010)
7. The Blue Chair Jam Cookbook by Rachel Saunders (September 2010)
8. What the Great Ate by Matthew Jacob (Crown, July 2010)
9. Vij's at Home by Meeru Dhalwala and Vikram Vij (D&M, September 2010)
10. Loose Birds and Game by Andrew Pern (FACE, October 2010)

Ode to Haggis

The pipes sang, the haggis steamed and the whisky flowed on January 25^th as we celebrated the life and poetry of poet Robert Burns. Ever the traditionalists, we followed the customary format for a Burns supper beginning with the piping in of the haggis. Local musician and storyteller extraordinaire Jim Byrnes was our host for the evening and treated us with some lively stories and heart-felt readings of some of our favourite Robbie Burns poems. Throughout the evening, there were many toasts to Burns and the lassies in the room.

Between readings Bruce Mackenzie, our spirits educator, offered up a generous tasting of 12 of the finest Scotch Whisky he could get his hands on. All were exceptional and Bruce gave us some wonderful insight into the history and signature styles of each maker. Among those that got the most ‘ayes’ for seconds, a 15 Year old Glenfiddich Single Malt, Benromach Peat Smoke Speyside, Edradour 12 Years Straight from the Cask, and the Balvenie Madeira (that’s right!) Cask. A big thanks to Tony Peneff for refreshing our tasting glasses throughout the evening, no easy task.

Of course, a Robbie Burns supper is not just about drinking whisky and reading poetry; we must be fed. And Lawren Moneta and Mark Holmes indeed fed us well. We wet our appetites with a kipper spread and assorted canapés, followed by smoked salmon chowder with savoury peppercorn shortbread and Mark’s Scotch eggs. Lawren dressed up the haggis in fine form, serving it in individual tartlets topped with perfectly caramelized onions. Not a single leftover in the house. For dessert, Lawren prepared a bread pudding of her own recipe that was such a fine finish no doubt it inspired its own poem or two that evening.