Northern Divine Caviar really stepped up and helped us out with caviar contributions at the Rare Finds Foundation Gala at Van Dusen Gardens a couple weeks back- just finally getting a chance to catch up on some blogs, and this was top of mind to say a huge thanks!!!
the Foundation was able to raise over $110,000 that evening, and that will all go towards finding solutions for children suffering from rare diseases, so it’s an absolutely fantastic cause…
a big thanks to all our fellow Chefs, and the incredibly generous attendees who came out and showed their support!!
our relatively humble contribution was to come out and try to do something “rare and exciting” in the theme of the evening, so we gave it a good effort, with Northern Divine Caviar, Bella-Bella Humpback Shrimp, and a textural twist with Sawmill Bay Oysters’ Read Island Gems, that we dropped into liquid nitrogen on the spot and smashed into shards of frozen briny pebbles…
that got people’s attention, lol.
Northern Divine has impressed me with more than just their diligence and care for the environment and the seafood community, although that’s readily apparent as they’re recognized as North America’s first Organic and Oceanwise sustainable caviar operation…
it’s also about the care, time attention they’ve put in to accomplish all those efforts and couple them with producing a great caviar; it’s already an impressive feat to be sustainable and recognized as such by Oceanwise, Seachoice, and Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch, and as Chefs and consumers we’re offered an opportunity to do the right thing with a local sustainable product, but on top of all that, the caviar’s great, so it makes for an easy choice to commit to…
having used a lot of Northern Divine Caviar over the past few years, I’m consistently finding it to be very clean and firm, with a pronounced brine that’s got none of those muddy tones that can really take away from a great caviar experience, and most importantly, I get that every time, so kudos to the folks behind the scenes…
Had the folks in from Village Farms for dinner, so naturally…
we put together a couple of tomatoes with burrata from Apulia to get them started…
and they brought me some very cool samples of a bitter green tomato…
which Chef Stewart jumped on immediately, grilled them and topped them with Prosciutto Crudo and Qualicum Scallops over a broken tomato vinaigrette- I think the sweet tones of the prosciutto and scallop worked beautifully with the crisp, bitter green tomato –
(I ate one too, but I didn’t charge you guys for that one, hehe )
from there we went on to sushi and savoury dishes, but there weren’t any tomatoes in those courses so we’re not going to talk about them…
just a quick run-through of our wine dinner with Signorello last night- really a great event…
you’ll have to excuse me if the pictures are a bit rushed and blurry, ostensibly i was working, and sometimes the plates were actually in motion, lol…
To begin, a Haida Gwaii Halibut Ceviche, with mango, passionfruit and Campari tomato, courtesy of Steve Johansen at Organic Ocean- this fish is coming off of the Donna Lou, I believe the only boat out there who holds their halibut live in a holding tank till they get back to shore. that’s some serious dedication to fresh fish…
we chose to match this to the Signorello Seta 2010, I really thought it played nicely with the mango and cilantro ;)
Chef Stewart, Deuce and James working on the next course…
Oakleigh Ranch Wagyu Beef Tartare, Sawmill Bay Oyster and Horseradish Foam, accompanied by the 1997 Estate Hope’s Cuvée
Next up, Lostock Farm’s Squab with Red Wine poached Salsify from North Arm Farm, Sauce Foie Gras
this ate beautifully with the 2010 Fuse Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon…
Then into an Olive Crusted saddle of Sungold Lamb with a Tomato, Thyme and Fava Bean Jus, paired with the 1990 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Founders Reserve
after a cheese course from Golden Ears Cheesecrafters, Natural Pastures Cheese Company and Moonstruck Organics, with a glass of Signorello Estate Padron 2010, Chef JJ brought us home with a beautiful selection of mignardises…
Salted Chocolate Caramelias, Brown Butter Bon-Bons, Whipped White Chocolate Truffles, Gingered Chocolate Lollipops, Lemon Macarons and Peach Pâte de Fruits…
I even got to sneak in an impromptu olive oil tasting seminar at the end with one of my favorite olive oils, Domenica Fiore’s Olio Riserva 2012, which just won best in class and top score overall in the New York Int’l Olive Oil Competition out of 700 competitors…
(I don’t feel bad saying “one of my favorite”, because my other favorite is one of their other olive oils that Cesare Bianchini, the grower/producer of these fine oils, let me taste last week, it’s just not available in North America atm, but that’s a story for another day 
)
huge thanks to Ray Signorello for choosing to partner with us, it was a blast, hope we can do it again some time…
ciao
we’re pretty big fans of the work Jordan Sturdy does out at North Arm Farm;
our tasting menu in Oru this month is going to highlight a lot of the early spring selections from his farm, starting with this vegan & gluten free Textures of Spring Salad…
all organic raw, roasted, poached & pickled vegetables on a heirloom carrot purée…
pickled baby carrots, beets and cauliflower, shaved purple carrots and turnips…
raw parsley root and shaved black radish, pickled sunchoke and burdock root…
fresh parsley, shaved fennel, and even a couple pickled local shiitakes…
if i could sum it up in a few words- i’d say it tastes like spring…
thanks, Jordan
lightly roasted tomatoes, paired them with an Italian Burrata that Reno at Cioffi’s brings in for us every week from Apulia, and finished off with a bit of forno bread and Prosciutto di Parma.
we’ll be a series of different caprese salads this season with different mozzarelas, so we’ll keep you posted…
we’ve been playing with the pizzas in giovane a bit- here’s where we’re at…
pizza Margherita with Natural Pastures Bufala and Village Farms Tomatoes
Bianco with North Arm Farm fingerlings, garlic confit and Tallegio
Diavola – house-made Soppressata, chilies and ricotta cheese
Campania – house-made Pancetta, Rabbit River Farms organic egg, mascarpone
Funghi – truffled mushrooms, garlic, Tallegio
Capricciosa – Rabbit River egg, artichokes, prosciutto di Parma, house-made Lonzino, arugula
Giovane ham and pineapple- prosciutto di Parma, pineapple, peperoncino
Quattro Formaggio – pesto, fontina, goat’s cheese, Gorgonzola and mozzarella
Qauttro Stagioni – asparagus, olives, prosciutto di Parma, Village Farms baby San Marzanos
Lamb Sausage Tapenade – house-made lamb sausage, fried capers, olives
still my favourite, though, i think it’s those San Marzanos that do it for me…
Taka and Will and the rest of the team down in the lobby lounge have been working on some great vegan and gluten free offerings over the past few weeks… check it out
spicy avocado temari, inari pockets, crispy yam “unagi” style, compressed watermelon nigiri, sansho spiced pepper, spinach goma-ae and wakame gunkan-maki, to name a few…
stay tuned…
http://www.fairmont.com/pacific-rim-vancouver/dining/lobbyloungeandterrace/
pretty excited, we’ve just placed an order for 60 cases of this DOP Pastificio di Martino spaghetti, along with a few other beautiful cuts; we’ll be getting the majority of our varieties when the shipment arrives in a couple months, but we’ll be featuring a pasta special in giovane every day until then with one of the di Martino pastas we’ve already gotten our hands on…
first one’s likely to be an elicoidali (sort of like a skinny rigatoni), with a house-made sun-dried tomato studded Italian sausage that Atticu and the boys in garde-manger came up with, and roasted Village Farms baby San Marzano tomatoes
we’re also featuring a Spaghetti Aglio al Olio with Cotechino meatballs…
cotechino is another regional favorite in Campania- our interpretation has developed into little pork sausage meatballs studded with crispy pork cracklings
see you in giovane
So the other dessert that’s been showing up as a favorite amongst the new offerings in Oru is the Manjari Ginger Cheesecake…
JJ’s found a great balance between the cheesecake itself being infused with a mild heat from fresh ginger, and then having worked gochujang chili into the single origin Valrhona Manjari chocolate ganache to bring out a slow earthy heat with a long complex finish…
it all comes together with some honeycomb nougat and a chantilly infused with both fresh and candied ginger…
So Atticus and his team in our Garde-Manger kitchen have been furiously taking on new charcuterie projects every week; this is one of them…
They’ve come up with a beautiful pistachio Mortadella for giovane- made with local Fraser Valley Pork…
you’ll find it available in the wine bar, if you get a chance to give it a try, please feel free let us know what you think of it, we welcome the feedback…
behind the scenes…
‘ciao till next time…
