Canada Goose, medium rare.

I was recently asked to cook a 40th birthday party dinner for the oldest son of a family that I have had the good fortune to cook for several times over the years it would be for 75 people at their country house in Prince Edward County Ontario. I had never been to this part of Ontario and once I was there I was immediately struck by the small farming community charm of Picton and the surrounding area. Its a beautiful area surrounded almost completely by the waters of Lake Ontario, connected only by a tiny sliver of land, it feels like an island.

I thought right away that I should bring an ingredient from the west coast, a taste of something from the west coast I decided on two loins of oceanwise Albacore tuna, that I packed frozen in my suitcase.

I’d been asked to cook a family style farm dinner with an emphasis on regional ingredients, local meats, and cheeses. Right up my alley!

I arrived in Toronto on Wednesday night, and set out on Thursday to shop for meats and ingredients that I would need for the dinner that coming Saturday I went to Rowe Farms meat shop http://www.rowefarms.ca/, a well known purveyor of free range, organic, and otherwise cruelty free meats.
I decided on beef short ribs and oxtail for a ragu, with a rich soft polenta. Chicken that I would confit the legs of and roast the breast and serve with a barley ‘risotto’
and 2 legs of Ontario lamb that I would roast and baste with anchovies garlic and vinegar, served with warm french lentils dressed with olive oil and parsley.

The tuna, I decided I would poach lightly in olive oil infused with herbs, chilis, and garlic and serve with a salad of shaved fennel, onion and chick peas.

I arrived at the farm late Thursday night,  it would not be until the morning that I would see the expanse and wealth of this place.  it would turn out to be absolutely astonishing!

My helpers are Alayna Munce a published novelist and Leio, the nanny of one of the family’s children.

Produce abounded from the local farms, there were golden beets that I cooked simply and dressed with vinegar and dotted with a creamy goat chevre from the fantastic local fromagerie, fifth town cheese www.fifthtown.ca Cabbage from Kate’s garden and apples in a salad dressed with a maple syrup, apple cider and sage emulsion. sweet turnips that ended up in the barley. Carrots, Parsnips, squash, and yams that will be simply roasted

Thursday morning after I’ve had my first glimps of the 700 acre property, the massive rebuilt barn, the 1 acre pond being blasted out of solid limestone. I’m in the house alone and there’s a knock at the door, a man standing there with a plastic bag package asks “is Kate home”? I tell him she’s not at the moment and he shoves the bag toward me and says  “well here’s a Canada goose for her, tell her Jamie brought it over”  What, a Canada goose! Turns out he’s a hunter that hunts on the property and repays the privilege with meat from his hunts and firewood for the house.
Needless to say I’m dying to cook it!
My best guess is that the goose will cook and taste like a really tough duck, so I butcher it and put the legs and wings to cure overnight in a basic salt cure. salted and slightly pressed to remove some of the moisture. the breast I’ll pan roast with a crisp skin to a perfect medium.

The day of the party, I’m feeling ready, my main goal is that nothing is prepared too early so that the food is fresh, and properly cooked, there’s nothing I hate more than the “catered” flavour of food that has been held hot for convenience sake, I’d rather accept the added challenge of doing the final steps a la minute. I mean these people flew me across the country, I’m not going to cut corners.
The guests are slowly arriving, and Kate and I are making the final call as to what time dinner should be served and agree on 6:30, but it’s only 4:40 and I’m getting anxious that I’m too close to being ready.
I try to relax and just wait for things to start to happen meanwhile giving my huge pot of Polenta plenty of time to develop flavour, I have a big chunk of Gorgonzola and a pile of parmigiano waiting to go in and add a ton of flavour. I’ve been cooking the barley in chicken stock that I made from the bones of the Rowe Farms Chicken a bottle of local white wine and butter.
The tuna that took a 20 minute bath in 3 litres of good olive oil is rare and delicately cooked on the outside.
The chicken and Goose tough cuts have both been cooked slowly in duck fat and are ready to be served with the barley, the lamb has been cooking slowly on the grill in the outdoor kitchen.

It’s go-time. all the platters and bowls are laid out on the kitchen table, the chicken and goose go into the oven to finish, the tuna, carefully sliced, gets laid out on its salad. the short rib Ragu which has been simmering all day gets put into a lovely antique serving bowl to be served with the rich Polenta and Gremolata (parsley, garlic, and lemon zest chopped together)
the Lamb will be carved on an bed of warm earthy lentils and a bowl of green sauce (herbs, garlic, anchovy, capers, and tons of good olive oil) to dress it with.
I finish the barley with a ton of grated parmigiano, more butter and some chopped parsley.

Finally we’re on, I feel like a musician waiting to go on stage, the Patriarch of the family a politician in the Ontario Liberal party, and real elder statesman type announces that I have been flown out from the west coast to cook for them and that we will be dining on Canada Goose among other things. The spotlight is on me!
I have servers on each corner of the table, serving the different dishes, I’m trying to control portions as I’ve tried to plan amounts accurately using such high quality and therefor expensive ingredients as well as make sure people get the right accompaniments with each protein.
I take the goose, which I serve a thin slice of the medium rare breast with a pinch of the confit and a little jus made from the carcass. its a hit with those that try it, even some of the kids come back for another slice! these are sophisticated palates we have here.

To my utter surprise the chicken and turnip risotto is the star dish of the night, not so long ago these ingredients might be thought of as strictly animal fodder, but with a determination to elevate simple ingredients, some good technique and great stock I’ve turned it into something sublime. Come to think of it that is my ultimate goal as cook “to elevate the humble to the sublime”

Canadian Chef's Congress, Oceans for tomorrow Duncan BC Sept 2010

The build up to the Congress was slow, we spent months meeting, fleshing out details, assigning tasks all very mundane stuff. It wasn’t until the Friday of the weekend of the event that I realized just how amazing a thing we were about to pull off. I had no idea!

The week leading up tho the event was nuts. I only had a vague idea of what I would cook, I had never used the oven not to mention that it hadn’t had a fire in it for no one knows how long. One thing I learned about wood burning ovens over the last 2 years is that they have personalities of their own and I had barley met this beast. But I knew that I had many resources nearby, and that I would not hesitate to use them.

One thing that didn’t work out for me that week was making or procuring any meats, I spoke to my friend Luc at Choux Choux on tuesday and found out he was prepearing to close for two weeks, I usually order, process, smoke, store and otherwise prepare for events involving pork at his shop but not this time it turned out.

Upon meeting Chef Rob Belcham (finally) I mentioned my situation, I won’t call it a dillema as I had lots of other ingredients at my disposal. And he said he’d try to get his cook to bring some cure over from Vancouver, he was successful and Ted showed up with three pieces of Rob’s salame, a fennel pollen, soppresatta, horse meat, yes horse meat!

Peter Zambri had been in the throws of opening his new restaurant, and I had been meeting with his baker and Pizzaiola in the preceeding weeks, we decided that using his new facilities and staff to practice with dough would be a perfect way to get things rolling at Zambri’s 2.O

unfortunately on Thursday night Peter informed me that the power wasn’t on yet and it wasn’t going to work, but he and B(rad) had worked things out for me to use the kitchen at the Italian Bakery, perfect except I would have no help. Getting the dough made and stored properly was my biggest worry as I was planning a 24 hour cold ferment and in a new environment with unfamiliar equipment and flour I was worried that something could go wrong.

The huge mixer at the bakery made my life really easy, I made 2 batches in a massive 2 arm mixer totalling around 100 lbs of flour.

For the first, and main night I decided to try for a tradition Neapolitan style pie, 225 gram portions, proofed till really relaxed, stretched by hand and baked at the highest temperature possible, between 600 and 900 degrees F I eventually figured that the oven and dough were better suited for a larger NY style pie baked a little slower, but that didn’t stop that first night going off like a firecracker!

By the time we got things under way Saturday night, there was a pretty good drizzle coming down, the floor of our “line” was quickly becoming a sloppy mess of flour, dirt and rain. Sloppy good times.

Once everyone was done with all the other food and decided it was time to get out of the rain we had been cooking pies in the oven for an hour or so and starting to get the hang of it. I am used to using very dry, very hard wood, but had spent a few minutes figuring out which of the woods supplied were burning the hottest, so we were picking out the pieces of fir and avoiding the yellow and red cedar.

A crowd of very interested and slightly drunk chefs started to gather, and before I knew it there was a crowd leaning in to catch the action, Greg Aspa (photographer) was right up in there with his lens right in the oven door. I have seen lots of his photos before and been photographed by him myself so I let him get in the way, I knew having a record would be worth it.

It was getting late in the evening, Derek Damman Chef from DNA in Montreal, friend, and former to chef to me was hanging around. I mentioned that I had found 3 lobes of fois gras in the reefer truck. He pulls me aside and says “OK, here’s what we need to do, sear a whole lobe of fois, chill it and make a calzone with some of those roasted grapes you got there” the wheels were in motion for a very decadent late night snack. I started right away as I knew it would take some time to cool it down, and in the mean time started making sure a few key people knew what was in the works, Michael Staadlander, Robert Clark, Vikram Vij, Rob Belcham, Cory Pelan and a few other key organizer types. But by the time we were getting close to making the calzone word had gt around and everyone was waiting around hoping for a taste. Did I mention that I had alreay been offered a whole large sheet pan of pre sliced fois? Anyway Cory was getting a bit tipsy and announces “screw it, lets break out the rest of it” So away we went.

Seared slabs of fois gras, pizza with fois and grapes, smoked sturgeon, fois and caviar pizza!

we all ate, and licked, and smeared that fat duck liver around till it was all gone, and the James Barber memorial oven has a grand splash of fat stained across its front as a testament to that crazy night.

5am, Sunday morning, I’m sitting around Tara and Kyle’s campsite with John “thunder” Brookes myself and Rob Belcham talking about the night we just had and the stain on the oven. Rob says to me “ I think James would love it that there’s a fois gras stain on his memorial oven”

I think I agree.

Top Chef Canada

I am putting together my application for Top Chef Canada!

Since season one of Top Chef, I have always thought I would be great on the show. Unfortunately as a Canadian I was not eligible to be on it, until now!

I saw the casting call on Facebook a few weeks ago, and right away I was on it. I started putting out the word that I needed a filmmaker to help me make a 5 minute video and quickly I was put in touch with Scott Amos, who has been graciously helping me for free. We spent 4 days filming me, talking, cooking, driving, talking, BBQing, and just being me.
We are now in the process of editing down the 7 hours of footage into a 5 minute film that will hopefully convey who I am, I'm not your regular everyday chef!

I can't thank my friends enough for all the support and positive energy that I feel behind me. Everyone has been so excited and encouraging we can all see me on the show already. Now I need to start seeing myself winning!

I will be sending off my application on Monday, may the force be with me, and here I come Toronto and Top Chef Canada!

Chorizo I made at Choux Choux Charcuterie for the wedding.

Some of the chicken cooking.

The wedding was a success. John McMillan manned the grills while I served as best man.
Here he is getting things ready.

Wood fired wedding

Since I started cooking when I was 12 years old, I have always been drawn to cooking with fire. We did all our BBQing with hardwood scraps my dad saved, and I quickly took up cooking outside, building fire pits with bricks and experimenting with food and recipes.
This past Easter my younger brother and I improvised a rotisirie and roasted two lamb shoulders, that we secured at the last minute from the local Muslim butcher (the Greeks were all out) we found an old broken rotisirie missing the stablizers, and arranged it over an ancient tractor wheel with a chimnae to block the wind. The lamb was seasoned and rubbed the previous day in a traditional Greek style with lemon, garlic, rosemary, and olive oil. After securing the meat with wire we tended it diligently all day while alternating between the indoor kitchen where we prepared the rest of the meal. After about 6 hours of cooking and a half hour rest, dinner was served to a hungry crowd of our close family. With a sauce of herbs, garlic, and olive oil dinner was devoured by all to much (hungry) acclaim.
That's my brother Joka in the picture doing his best to look busy.

This coming weekend I have the honor of not only being best man to my dear old friend Mihkel, but also the challenge of cooking for him, his new wife and 90 guests. Of course we will be firing up some fires and doing it outside.
I have built a second split barrel oil drum BBQ for the event, I use the simplest of tools, free barrels, and and retired steel bed frame for the legs and structure. We will be cooking chicken in the Portuguese style Churassco. The challenge of this catering is the lack of a home base kitchen. The wedding will be held in their back yard and all the food prep will be done in the days before at various locations. I will also be making some Portuguese Chorico sausage with my friend Chef Luc, at his place, Choux Choux Charcuterie. My trusy assistant John McMillan will be manning the grill while I serve my duties as best man. A challenge? Yes. But I enjoy the challenges of cooking outside, in strange settings....to be continued