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JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2024 ISSUE 28-01
25 years at the forefront of local food and drink
cheers!
to another year filled with delicious food, great drinks, and amazing memories. Enjoy handcrafted pizza, custom cocktails, local wines, and wine flights in our modern tasting room or covered, heated outdoor patio. Make a reservation at oakbaybeachhotel.com/dine
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WE STEAK OUR REPUTATION ON IT
our annual staff January 8–16 holiday January 1–17 JoinClosed us forfor a memorable Afternoon Tea experience Reopening January 18 Reopening on Wednesday, January 17 at The Teahouse at Abkhazi Garden Join us for lunch or Recommended afternoon tea Reservations Strongly Wednesday 778-265-6466 through Sunday 11am – 4 pm
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1964 Fairfield Rd. Please call 778-265-6466 to Victoria make reservations Open everyday 11am–4pm Open dayRd. 11am – 5pm 1964 every Fairfield Victoria
Complete menu online: www.abkhaziteahouse.com
Fare Well
900 BiSTR0 0
IT WITH WITH PROFOUND sadness and regret that I write this final letter in the final issue of EAT magazine. The decision to cease publication is one I have struggled with fiercely over the past months. With ever-increasing costs and decreasing revenue, I can no longer afford to subsidize the production of EAT magazine. The magazine exists through the support of advertisers—the ad revenue. Diminished support places me in the unenviable position of having to close down EAT. To our advertisers: My heartfelt thanks. Some have been with EAT since the first issue, and others have been a mainstay for well over a decade. A special acknowledgement goes to the advertisers who have consistently and unwaveringly supported EAT over the many, many years: you know who you are, and I thank each and every one of you. To all those advertisers who have remained loyal to EAT over the past few difficult years in the industry—you have my undying respect and appreciation. To the people who make EAT what it is: from the writers to the sales team, the photographers to the distribution team, the design team to the copy editor and our printing team—you are the cream of the crop and I have been privileged to work with you. Again, many of you have been with EAT since the beginning or close to it. Your loyalty to Gary, and for the past five years to me, puts me at a loss for words (and anyone who knows me knows that doesn’t happen often). I have learned from you, been inspired by you, and respect you all more than I can say. Rebecca B., Susan W., Elizabeth M., Adrian, Jennifer, Julie, Denise, Deb, Adrien, Larry, Elizabeth N., Carolyn, Ron, Susan S., Rhonda, Rebecca W., Jill, Cinda, Daniel, Gillie, Isabelle, Jacqueline, Shelora, Johann, Mara, Lillie Louise, Michael, Mark, John, Yanicke, and the team at Transcontinental—I will miss you and our interactions, and wish you all the best in your future endeavors. I’ve been beyond lucky to know you.
- Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. 2360 Beacon Ave. Sidney. | www.900degrees.ca
To our readers: I wish I could continue to bring you the best of what our Island and Victoria has to offer. Your loyalty and your kind words of praise for EAT over the past 25 years have been a source of inspiration. I thank you for reading, enjoying, and supporting EAT and its advertisers over the years. My late husband, Gary Hynes, the founder of EAT, loved this magazine and everyone connected to it. When I took over after his sudden passing, I didn’t know the industry or how to publish a magazine. It has been a wild ride and an intensive learning experience. Through it all, I found that I, too, loved producing EAT: the stories, the recipes, and the design and layout. I hope I did Gary and all of you proud with the issues I put out these past five years and for guiding EAT through to its 25th anniversary. Bon appetit, my friends.
CYNTHIA ANNETT-HYNES EDITOR
“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” —Dr. Seuss
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CITY EATS Happy New Year, EAT Readers! If one of your resolutions is to improve your cooking skills or just master a few new dishes, Cook Culture has some classes to help. Chef Mara Jernigan is presenting classes throughout January and February on how to cook perfect winter vegetables, flatbreads and pizzas, dumplings and more. cookculture.com We were sad to hear that Niche Grocerant in Broadmead village closed its doors in the fall of 2023. We wish them all the very best in their future endeavours. Serena’s Pizzeria and Hoagies has opened at 766 Fort St (formerly occupied by La Taquiera), offering a variety of hot and cold hoagies, including the classic Philly Cheesesteak and round and square pizzas. Open Mon–Sat 10am–10pm and Sun 11am–9pm. serenas.ca Tombo Pop-Up has opened at 1219 Government, giving us all a delicious taste of things to come as we await the opening of Tombo at 732 Yates St (former home of Fol Epi and Agrius). Open Wed–Sun 8am–4pm, you have to get there early to secure their special cube croissant before they sell out. Chef Tom Moore is part owner of Crust and was ready for a return to the restaurant business. The pop up model really seems to be taking off in Victoria these days. Made popular in recent years by the likes of Ghost Ramen and Dumpling Drop, it can be a great way for new food businesses to test their menu, build some buzz and a following. Here are a couple newer pop-ups to keep an eye out for: Hero, an Italian deli sandwich pop-up, and Nothing Special, a wine bar pop-up. The best way to track them down is to follow them on Instagram: @nothingspecial.yyj and @hero.victoria The people behind popular Mexican food truck Kattia’s Kitchen have opened a new restaurant: La Pasadita, at 3582 Quarry Rd in Colwood. Open Mon–Fri 7am–4pm and weekends 10am–6pm. Find all your favourite menu items from Kattia’s Kitchen and more. facebook.com/kattias.kitchen
REBECCA BAUGNIET
Seal Point Pizza has taken over the space at 1275 Fairfield Rd. (I share my home with a quirky seal point called Cleo, so I don’t see how you can go wrong at a pizzeria with a Siamese cat for a mascot.) Creating small batch pizzas with a rotating menu, don’t miss their house specialty, the Stella, a beautiful star-shaped Margherita pizza with the points of the star stuffed with ricotta and ham. @sealpointpizza Nikkei Ramen Ya, based in Courtney, has launched authentic, all-natural ramen kits so you can make restaurantquality ramen at home. Choose Tokyo Shoyu, Hakata Tonkotsu, Yuku Shio or Vegan Shoyu. Or buy the building blocks for great ramen: noodles, broth, and seasoning made from scratch, using Vancouver Island ingredients. In independent grocery stores around town. realramen.ca The Hotel Grand Pacific will be hosting the 18th Victoria Whisky Festival again this year Jan 18–21. This popular festival will include master classes and grand tastings as well as the Annual Canadian Whisky Awards Presentation and Dinner. victoriawhiskyfestival.com Destination Greater Victoria and the BC Restaurant & Foodservices Association (BCRFA), Victoria Branch, are once again teaming up to organize the always popular Dine Around & Stay in Town Victoria. From Jan 26–Feb 11, over 50 of Victoria’s best restaurants are offering set three-course menus at deliciously low prices. A gala launch will be held at the Crystal Garden on Jan 25. Both locals and visitors alike delight in the wide range of culinary experiences and host of world-class accommodations to be had in the Greater Victoria area. tourismvictoria.com/eat-drink/dine-around Seedy Saturday events are also taking place across Vancouver Island. Seeds of Diversity has been supporting these events for over 30 years. Seedy Saturday is scheduled to take place in Qualicum Beach on Feb 3 and Port Alberni on Feb 10. seedysaturday.ca Victoria Seedy Sunday is back! Find it at the Quadra Village Community Centre and Neighbourhood Gym for a family-friendly, fun filled event on Feb 25, 10am–2pm. facebook.com/victoriaseedysaturday
FOUNDER
Gary Hynes
PUBLISHER
Pacific Island Gourmet EDITOR
Cynthia Annett-Hynes CONTRIBUTING EDITOR / COPY EDITOR
Carolyn Bateman
SENIOR WINE WRITER
Larry Arnold
ART DIRECTOR
Cynthia Annett-Hynes PRODUCTION AND DESIGN
Rhonda Ganz
REGIONAL REPORTER
Victoria, Rebecca Baugniet CONTRIBUTORS
Bill Blair Joseph Blake Isabelle Bulota Nate Caudle Marie-Eve Charron Cinda Chavich Jennifer Danter Jacqueline Downey Gillie Easdon Michael Farley Heidi Fink Deb Garlick Camille Germain Kyle Guilfoyle Mara Jernigan Lillie Louise Major Denise Marchessault Sherri Martin Andrea Mackenzie Ron Metella Elizabeth Monk Daniel Murphy Elizabeth Nyland Daisy Orser Adrian Paradis Julie Pegg André Rozon Adrien Sala Shelora Sheldan Jill Van Gyn Johann Vincent Rebecca Wellman Susan Worrall CONTRIBUTING AGENCIES
iStock.com 1, 4, 6–9, 18, 21, Shutterstock.com 22–23 FACEBOOK/EATMAGAZINE TWITTER/EATMAGAZINE INSTAGRAM/EATMAG Contact information: PHONE
778-350-6962 EMAIL
editor@eatmagazine.ca cynthia@eatmagazine.ca ONLINE
EatMagazine.ca issuu.com/eatmag MAILING ADDRESS
Box 5225, Victoria, BC, V8R 6N4
The Gary Hynes Foundation
STOCKISTS
EAT is delivered to over 150 pick-up locations in BC. PRINTED IN CANADA
EAT® is a registered trademark. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Pacific Island Gourmet / EAT Magazine.
The Gary Hynes Foundation was established to continue Gary’s lifelong goal of helping others become the best they can be in the culinary, journalism and music disciplines—to continue his work of mentoring, supporting the food and beverage industry, believing in the power of the printed word, and loving a good bass line in a song.
EST. 1999
All donations go to scholarships for those studying these disciplines. Please donate to keep his dream going by visiting vancouverfoundation.ca/hynes
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
GARY HYNES — EAT MAGAZINE FOUNDER, PUBLISHER AND EDITOR FOR 19 YEARS
ILLUSTRATIONS: ISTOCK.COM/COSMAA, T.A. MCKAY
Eating Well For Less
ELIZABETH MONK
MOVIE NIGHT DINNER
With two theatres within blocks, these two restaurants, one Chinese, one Brazilian, offer some pre-show culinary adventures.
Jiang Yun Noodle House
is dressed in rice vinegar and rosewater, providing another interesting twist to this dish.
830 FORT ST., BETWEEN QUADRA AND BLANSHARD, 250-661-9599
SOMETIMES WHEN I ENVISION a noodle house, I think of somewhere with linoleum, rickety tables, and fluorescent lighting. Jiang Yun Noodle House is the exact opposite! The setting is serene and hushed, with muted colours and classical music playing. The beauty of the small space is no surprise given that owner Dan Dan Bai used to be a jewellery designer before teaching cooking classes in Shanghai and then becoming a restaurateur.
Unlike some noodle houses, Jiang Yun has a small dessert menu. Sweet Snowflake Bites for $9.99 are the owner’s inventive twist on nougat, and the chocolate mousse for $6.99 is creamy and rich. This is a unique noodle house that merits a visit.
The Taiwan Beef Noodle in Broth for $17.99 has melt-in-your-mouth pieces of beef shank in a delicate broth seasoned with soy, ginger, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, and dried mandarin orange skin. It is graced with little wilted leaves of baby bok choy on top. For all dishes on the menu, you can choose between rice and wheat noodles. Dan Dan’s opinion is that rice noodles are best in soup, and wheat noodles are best in sauce.
Brazuca Restaurant 788 YATES ST. BETWEEN BLANSHARD AND DOUGLAS, 250-590-2748
The Noodles with Grilled Pork in Signature Sauce, also for $17.99, is absolutely delicious. The pork is in a dark, unctuous sauce made with peanut butter, maple syrup, soy sauce, hot sauce, and the surprise of coffee. The noodles are covered in sesame paste and garnished with pickled vegetables, sun-dried radish, and house-made chili oil. The cabbage on the side
BR AZUCA IS INFUSED WITH Brazilian culture, from its music, to the pictures on the walls, the staff, and, of course, its food. Owner Leni Dejesus is new to the food industry, having just opened the restaurant in April, and hopes to provide a taste of home to Brazilian residents and international students. It is counter service in this cheap and cheerful café, and you can choose from authentic snacks, sandwiches, full meals, and desserts.
ELIZABETH NYLAND
Grilled Pork in Signature Sauce
It is rare that I use the word “adorable” to describe food, but that is the perfect word for the small croquettes on the menu. The Coxinha for $1.90 is a golden brown ball of dough encasing a moist chicken filling. The experience is like eating a small Chinese meat bun that has been fried. That classic of Portuguese cuisine, cod, appears on the menu in the Codfish Croquette. The fish is the forward taste, with the mouth then filling up with the creaminess of the mashed potatoes. Another finger food is the Pastel for $6. This playful, bubbly square of dough surrounds a variety of fillings (beef, chicken, or cheese) and looks like a savoury homemade Pop-Tart. My chicken filling was perked up with onion, garlic, and
ELIZABETH NYLAND
A dish for sharing is the Rosemary Grilled Beef Rib Finger for $19.99. The six ounces of beef are crusted with rosemary and mustard. Dan Dan learned this from an Australian chef, so it adds an international twist to this menu, but one that coordinates well with the Asian dishes. A smaller, appetizer-size dish is the Pancake Beef Roll with Ox Tongue for $7.99. It’s like a fluffy crêpe with a savoury tongue stuffing seasoned with onion, fermented black beans, chili sauce, and cilantro.
Leni de Jesus (L) and Erica Schorles (R) in front of Brazuca paprika. And for more fun food, try the Cheese Bread Waffle for $4.25. You get two airy waffles assertively flavoured with Parmesan, like a fluffy version of a Parmesan cracker. I couldn’t help noticing that all of the above finger foods would be as enticing to preschool age EAT reader progeny as to their parents. The Prato Freito for $22 comes with a lot of cultural context. It is a classic meat, rice, and fried beans dish common among Brazilian workers, especially construction workers. Its purpose is to provide lots of food for cheap and is a very popular lunch. The version I had with sautéed beef strips was certainly plentiful and simple, with restrained seasoning except for onions in the beans. It’s a good choice for a big and basic meal. The drinks at Brazuca are far from basic. One of several interesting fruit juices is acerola, a flavour I had never tried before. While the fruit is a type of cherry, my drink tasted like a cross between lemon, mango, and passionfruit. Another type of very healthy berry, acai, features in their dessert menu. A 12-ounce cup of puréed frozen acai concoction goes for $14.99. The acai is layered into the cup and in between the layers is a filling of your choosing; I chose pacoca, which is powdered peanuts. A fruit of your choosing goes on top; mine was kiwi. This vibrant cold dessert tasted like a gelato slushie with interesting accents—definitely worth a try. With its handy location near the Cineplex Odeon theatre, this is a fun place to go for a meal before a show. 5
Good For You
CAROLYN BATEMAN
A PROTEIN PRIMER
Yes, meat is a good source of protein but so are hemp seeds, soybeans, quinoa— and even dark chocolate if you eat enough of it. WE HUMANS LOVE a good hit of protein on our plates. In fact, it’s what made us who we are. When our distant ancestors figured out how to make hunting tools about 2 million years ago, it was the extra protein and fat from meat and marrow that was responsible for growing our larger brains. Some may argue this is where all the trouble began, but it’s what put the sapien in Homo sapiens. Anthropologists, however, say not even prehistoric peoples got all their protein from meat. Killing an antelope, whose top speeds can reach 100 km an hour, isn’t exactly a walk in the park when you’re toting a wooden spear, so hunter-gatherers relied on the roots, shoots, leaves, seeds, nuts, and berries that rounded out their diets. And so can we. But how much is enough? And what sources are best? Although protein needs can vary by age, activity level, and overall health, the recommended daily allowance for most healthy adults is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. If you weigh 143 lbs (65 kg), for example, you need about 52 g of protein each day. If you had an 8-oz steak for dinner, that’s all you’d need—57 grams right there. But you’d miss out on a boatload of other nutritious proteins, like ½ cup of Greek yogurt (12 grams); ½ cup of cooked chickpeas (a whopping 20 grams); ½ cup of brown rice pilaf with almonds (6 grams); and 4 oz of canned salmon (15 grams). Total: 53 grams Getting your protein from many sources means you space your intake throughout the day. And little bits here and there add up because most foods contain some protein. Excuse me while I nerd out here but half a cup of blackberries will give you a gram, a cup of raw chopped kale 2 grams. Add a generous
sprinkle of nutritional yeast and you’ve added another 4 grams. Half a cup of whole-wheat spaghetti: 4 grams. Half an avocado adds an additional 2 grams to the scale. Even an ounce and a half of delicious, anti-oxidant-rich dark chocolate contains a couple of grams of the stuff. Green peas, spinach, artichokes, mushrooms—they all have it. Protein is made of 20+ building blocks called amino acids and nine of those, known as the essential amino acids, must come directly from our food. Animal proteins like meat, dairy, and eggs contain all nine and are considered complete proteins. But a few plant sources, like quinoa, soybeans, and hemp seeds, are complete proteins too. Dieticians will tell you it’s not necessary to get a complete protein with every meal. Eating two incomplete proteins will add up to one complete— like nut butter on sprouted whole-grain toast or refried black beans on brown rice. Yes, it’s that easy. If you do a lot of exercise every day, then, according to the Mayo Clinic, you may need more like 1.1–1.5 grams per kilogram. But if you’re getting 2 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, especially if it’s coming from animal sources, you may be getting too much. Our bodies don’t use extra protein all that efficiently and it can be hard on your bones, kidneys, and liver. High-meat diets especially are
associated with increased risk for coronary heart disease and some cancers. It’s worth noting that as we age we don’t process protein as effectively. If your hair and nails are brittle, you’ve been feeling weak or hungry, or you’re catching every virus in the neighbourhood, you might not be eating enough protein. Here in the West, though, protein deficiency is rare. If you want to eat less meat, for health and/ or environmental reasons, know there are loads of healthy proteins to choose from. Need some inspiration? Many high-performance athletes, like tennis star Venus Williams and English footballer Chris Smalling, have been vegans for years and continue to excel. Here are some excellent local or local-ish sources of protein: Soya Nova Smoked Tofu, Salt Spring Island I know, I know—tofu. But give this very firm smoked version a try. I’ll often toss cubes in avocado oil, balsamic vinegar, and a sprinkle of ground cumin, and roast for 10 minutes or so, until it browns. Then I’ll use them as croutons on a salad instead of bread. Instant complete protein hit! Fieldstone Organic French Green Lentils, Armstrong, BC Larger than red lentils, these hold their shape nicely in everything from soups, stews, and grain bowls—even sprinkled on a salad. PHOTOS: ISTOCK.COM/ FCAFOTODIGITAL, GESHAS
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Feta Buffeta Water Buffalo Cheese, Natural Pastures, Comox Valley Feta is lower in fat than many cheeses but still has lots of protein, 4 grams per ounce. This award-winning Comox Valley cheesemaker’s water buffalo version is a yummy dose of healthy protein crumbled on a salad or steamed veggies.
Manitoba Harvest Hemp Seeds Sadly, BC no longer seems to have an edible hemp seed grower so the closest is Manitoba. (If you know of one, please let us know.) Hemp is a complete protein so I liberally sprinkle these little seeds on steamed vegetables, salads, porridge, and curries.
Cucina Italiana
Taste of Italy! Join us for cozy, romantic evenings. PHOTO: ISTOCK.COM/EGAL
Dinner ~ Wednesday to Sunday from 5pm 106 Superior St. | Reservations: 250.380.0088 | IlCovoTrattoria.ca
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Side Dish
CRANK UP THE HEAT
Roasting and toasting everything from hazelnuts to cabbage amps up the flavour every time. WHETHER YOU’RE ON a new year’s cleansing regime or bored with your cooking routine, a simple strategy for changing things up at the table comes with heat. High heat. Slow and low is wonderful, but the other end of the spectrum offers exciting nuances to pique your palate. Dried herbs and spices can be a first step in eliminating blandness. You can amp up their herbaceous and heady flavours by dry roasting/toasting them to release their oils and aromas before crushing in a mortar and pestle. Use whole spices such as cumin seeds, coriander, fennel, allspice, etc., as ready-ground spices lose their potency much faster than whole seeds. The toasting brings more depth when added to soups or sauces, or any dish that needs perking up. Gomashio, that quintessential Japanese condiment, requires nothing more than toasted sesame seeds roughly ground with sea salt. It’s wonderful added to a bowl of steamed rice, cheese-less omelettes, or steamed vegetables. Toast the seeds on a dry skillet until they release their nutty aroma and the seeds turn a lovely golden brown hue. Occasionally I leave them whole—with no salt—and shake them onto whatever blandness needs to be abated. Gently toasting or roasting nuts brings more flavour as the process coaxes out their natural oils and aromas. It’s essential when using hazelnuts, if you need to remove their skins. Rub the roasted nuts while still warm in a dry tea towel and the skins just fall away. Toasted slivered almonds add so much—taste, aroma, and crunch— sprinkled over a salad, as do pine nuts and walnuts. Recently I stumbled across a recipe for burnt walnut pesto in the book The Geometry of Pasta by Cas Hildebrand and Jacob Kenedy. Shelled walnuts and thinly sliced garlic are fried in oil until dark—not actually burnt, but dark—then ground with fresh thyme leaves, olive oil, and salt. This fragrant and earthy pesto is served with ricotta-stuffed tortelloni topped with shavings of Parmesan. I’ve made it several times to great effect, tossed into pappardelle and added to roasted potato soup. Infused chili oil is a snap with your favourite dried chili and some nice fruity olive oil. Heat the oil gently, then add slivers of chili. The chilies will sizzle a bit but don’t let them burn or they’ll become bitter. Remove from the heat and let cool. Or forgo the chilies and use herbs: olive oil, garlic cloves, a bay leaf, and sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary. They all impart wonderfully savoury notes to oil, which can be used for salad dressings or drizzled over roasted potatoes or vegetables. Bay leaves along with big chunks of lemon peel are exquisite roasted alongside chicken wings. Both impart lovely flavours and become crispy, chiplike delicacies. 8
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
SHELORA SHELDAN
Garlic transforms when roasted, changing its pungency to a sticky nuttiness. Add it to hummus or spread over hot-from-the-oven bread with double-cream Cambozola cheese. Look to the cuisines of India, Thailand, and Mexico for more reasons to toast and roast ingredients before using. They’re the essential pathway to curries, spice mixes, and moles, and are the first steps before other ingredients, such as tomatoes, coconut milk, or stock, are added. Roasting fresh chilies to a blistered state, then removing the skins, concentrates the sweetness and brings a touch of smokiness. A roasted red pepper dip, for example, is brilliant with crackers or roasted potatoes. And roasting is an essential technique in stuffed peppers like chilies rellenos (as mentioned in my Side Dish column from this past November/December). Dried chilies come back to life quickly kissed by a hot dry skillet, then crushed or ground. Use them in a salsa macha with toasted peanuts, rehydrate them and prepare whole and stuffed, or grind them with other toasted spices to be seasoned and reduced for curries or moles. Even lackluster winter tomatoes get a boost roasted with some olive oil and herbs. Here’s an easy way to make a big flavoured soup or sauce: use a sheet pan to roast chunked-up tomatoes, along with onions and garlic until nicely browned, and then proceed with your soup or sauce. I’m not averse to firing up the grill during the winter months. Grilled zucchini, peppers, onions, root vegetables, brassicas—even imported stone fruits—offer an easy flavour boost when added to pasta, as a side dish, and for dessert. This primal process is called the Maillard reaction. It is named for the early 20th century chemist Louis Camille Maillard who first described the chemical reaction as the sugars and amino acids on the surface of food combine in the presence of high heat. This reaction creates all sorts of new and delicious flavour profiles that were not previously present. We all know the pleasures of barbecued meats and grilled steaks with that essential char, the beauty of grilled peaches or grilled pineapples, bursting with sugar and a zip of acidity. Next time you fire up that grill, think of science! Roasting over charcoal and fire is ancient stuff seen the world over. Barbecue pit masters have refined their art, taming the flame in delicious competitions. And the Argentinian celebrity chef Francis Mallmann, known for his open-fire cooking, has taken the concept next level by using braziers, grills, and wire domes—often at the same time—to prepare whole cuts of meat and vegetables, creating a sensational culinary environment. I, on the other hand, am happy with cedarplanked salmon and marinated spatchcocked chicken on my Weber. Other heated successes include Persian tahdig, the crust of brittle, crackly rice left at the bottom of a pot of steamed rice. And in the revered world of tea, roasting— especially oolongs—is essential, not just as a means of safeguarding against spoilage but to imbue the leaves with deeper, darker flavours. PHOTO: ISTOCK.COM/ANCHIY
Taking food from hot grill to char to flames can spell disaster, especially for meat. But in Italy—whose cuisine has, in many instances, been born out of survival—burnt wheat is used to make pasta and bread. On the plains of Tavoliere Puglia, it was customary to burn the wheat stubble after reaping. The remaining burnt grains of wheat (grano arso) were gleaned by poor farm workers and ground into a black flour, later to be mixed with white flour and made into pasta and bread. It is noted for its nutty, smoky flavour and dark appearance. I’ve heard that it is now commercially produced and have yet to track it down. Chef Paul Prudhomme created an intentional burnt dish in the 1980s with Cajun blackened fish. Dense fish such as snapper or cod is first coated in a herb and spice mixture and seared to black on a white-hot skillet. The true classic is cooked fast and served with a rich butter sauce. Another dramatic dish is the not-often-seen Oaxacan mole, chichilo negro. The base ingredients of this rustic, fragrant, and complex sauce—including 19 chilies, tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, onion, spices, and the anise-like avocado leaves—are toasted or roasted until they’re lightly charred. The chili seeds, along with dried corn tortillas, are also charred black until they ignite, then doused in water and soaked before being added to other ingredients.
Roasting fresh chilies to a blistered state, then removing the skins, concentrates the sweetness and brings a touch of smokiness. And who can complain about the virtues of marshmallows, primitively impaled on a long stick and roasted until charred over a campfire? Could the sticky-sweet molten interior and the magical nostalgia it evokes be the inspiration for s’mores? Similarly, if you have a blowtorch—and why wouldn’t you?—custard or lemon tarts wouldn’t be the same without the sweet, caramelized brûlée top. And finally, cabbage, that rotund cultivar belonging to the Brassica oleracea family, is being given new life with the char factor playing a crucial role. I’ve seen recipes both online, on menus, and in magazines. And it sure beats coleslaw. At Hanks *a restaurant, chef Clark Deutscher chars all brassicas, finding it’s “the best way to deal with them.” Wedges of cabbage are slow-cooked until they are fairly soft. Once chilled and re-seasoned, “they’re blasted to order at around 550 degrees until heated through and charred at the edges.” So, when in doubt, burn baby burn.
PHOTO: ISTOCK.COM/MARCOS ELIHU CASTILLO
LET VICTORIA’S HIDDEN GEM MAKE ANY NIGHT A DATE NIGHT WITH THAT SPECIAL PERSON, OR AN EVENING TO CELEBRATE WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.
www.littlejumbo.ca
778.433.5535
Down the hall, 506 Fort St, Victoria, BC 9
Reporter
W ORDS
Cinda Chavich Gillie Easdon
Rudi Fathom Kahuna Gyrosa
Adrian Paradis Adrien Sala PHO T OGR A PH Y
Jacqueline Downey Elizabeth Nyland
Fathom’s Stewed Fruit French Toast—brick toast, stewed BC stone fruit, burnt honey yogurt, berries JACQUELINE DOWNEY
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Rudi
250.590.3255 RUDIVIC.CA
This sister restaurant to Wind Cries Mary was designed to capture the experience of travelling in Europe—welcoming, unpretentious, enjoying real food with friends and family. FOR ANYONE WHO HAS had the pleasure of travelling through Europe, you’ll know that food is a major part of the adventure. Whether it’s a tiny hole-in-thewall family restaurant in Italy or a boujee dinner in Provence, the experience is often the same: local ingredients served with a regional flair—unpretentious, welcoming, and all about sharing with people you enjoy, a way of dining that strikes at the heart of why so many of us love to eat.
JACQUELINE DOWNEY JACQUELINE DOWNEY
Fresh Burrata, peach, white anchovy, popcorn Located on the corner of Pandora and Douglas in what was formerly Sherwood, Rudi is a homage to that European approach. Launched by the team from Wind Cries Mary, the restaurant’s persona is one that adopts facets of owner Jesse Dame’s grandfather’s story (his name wasn’t Rudi, by the way), who came from Europe. “He built a beautiful life here,” Dame explained while seated with Chef David Healey in the atrium just outside the restaurant. “But he always loved to share stories about his travel adventures around a dinner table.” While Rudi isn’t solely a European-influenced restaurant, the way most people explain it is that it’s fresh pasta and wine—which is more than enough to lure most of us in. With the success of Wind Cries Mary, though, Chef Healey says that they’ve been able to get a feel for what Victorian’s want in their locally owned food businesses, so it’s more Europe meets the Pacific Northwest. “We are using what is available around us to build the menu,” he says. “For example, we have our take on a classic vongole pasta. Instead of using clams, we’re doing it with local swimming scallops.” Rudi is built for family-style dining. As Dame explained, he wants people to feel comfortable settling in for a long meal, leaning across tables to literally break bread with friends and family. The room itself has been redesigned by Bidgood Interior Design Studio to encourage a warm experience and with many of the team from Wind Cries coming over to support the new venture, they’ve got a solid leg up on building a dedicated following.
L to R. Back: David Healey, Executive Chef/Partner; Clayton Thornber, General Manager; Jesse Dame, Proprietor Front: West Bourget, Bar Manager; Jasmin Dosanj, Head Sommelier “Jasmin Dosanj [head sommelier at Wind Cries Mary] has created a great wine list that is perfect for Rudi,” says Dame. “And Clayton Thornber, who has been our general manager at Wind Cries, will be leading the team here too.” For anyone who has been worried about losing a great place for coffee in the daytime, Rudi has a grab-and-go counter with coffee and snacks, including freshly sliced, house-cured meats, available between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. (there is some discussion about expanding the daytime offering in future to sit-down service, but for now it’s just takeaway). Full dinner service starts at 4 p.m. and goes to 11 p.m., seven days a week. “Rudi is meant for locals to come together and feel like they’ve just stepped into Italy or Germany,” says Dame. “But we’re not reinventing the wheel here. We’re doing our take on the classics, from wine and cocktails to meals and desserts. We’re telling the story of Rudi, the traveller who loved to share tales around a table with friends and family over a drink and some amazing food.” ADRIEN SALA 11
463 BELLEVILLE ST
Fathom
250.380.4458 FAT H O M V I C T O R I A . C O M
Executive chef Peter Kim takes a deep and creative dive into Island ingredients at Fathom. IT’S ALWAYS TRICKY DESIGNING a hotel restaurant that will both serve visitors and lure locals, but the new F&B team at Fathom in the Hotel Grand Pacific is hitting the sweet spot.
JACQUELINE DOWNEY
There’s a comfortable vibe in the new modern space, whether you take a seat at the long bar for a creative cocktail or sink into a comfortable sofa at a low table overlooking the harbour. The glass-enclosed terrace, with its cozy blankets and firepits dancing with flames, may well be the best place in town to enjoy a wintery hot toddy or a bubbly pot of fondue with friends. And, thanks to the vision of executive chef Peter Kim, diving into Fathom’s eclectic menu is equally alluring. When I sat down with Chef Kim to talk about his culinary inspirations, it was soon apparent that he loves to riff on all the local Island ingredients at his fingertips, while exploring the broader world of food.
Peter Kim, Executive Chef and Kirk MacMillan, Director of Operations “I try to dive into local products and do something unique,” he says. “It’s important for every chef to diversify their knowledge and experience. There’s always a UN meeting happening in my head.”
Kim—who has cooked in Singapore, Brisbane, San Francisco, Vancouver, and the Alberta Rockies—brings a wide breadth of experience to Fathom. He trained at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Arts Institute in Ottawa so French cooking is his foundation, but classic recipes are only the starting point for his imaginative treatment of local and seasonal ingredients.
While running Vancouver kitchens, Kim says much of the seafood he used came from Vancouver Island, and now he’s inspired to create unique dishes with the fresh albacore tuna, sablefish, Giant Pacific octopus, and Humboldt squid available from local suppliers. Other Island ingredients are top of mind for Kim, with foragers and growers arriving with lion’s mane and shimeji mushrooms or briny fresh seaweed. Kim is also seeking sources for gooseneck barnacles, razor clams, and spruce tips. For now, Fathom’s menu includes many lovely local and shareable plates, elevated with Kim’s inspired touch—from the tender squid in his crispy calamari appetizer with fried Brussels sprouts and chorizo vinaigrette, to the octopus plate with fingerling potatoes, edamame, and house-made XO sauce.
JACQUELINE DOWNEY
Beet Hummus Bowl—seasonal vegetables, citrus labneh, pistachio dukkah 12
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
Kim describes his menu as multicultural, but his Korean heritage is reflected in almost every dish. The beef tartare is theatrically delivered in a smoking bowl with hoisin and sesame goma sauce. The crisp karaage chicken starter has a sweet and spicy gochujang glaze, and his bulgogi-marinated Wagyu Burger is served with Asian slaw. There’s even a Japanese twist of kaiso (mixed seaweed) in the seafood chowder, and there’s a soft green Matcha Cheesecake with yuzu yogurt cream on the dessert menu.
By day, the large restaurant space, with its arched windows overlooking the harbour, is perfect for a late breakfast or brunch. But as night falls, the darker, moodier lounge is enticing for both singles and groups to share plates or engage with the inventive mixologists. On weekends, there’s live jazz to enjoy while you dive into the drinks menu, one that plunges from familiar to “unfathomable” depths. Artfully illustrated with line drawings by a local tattoo artist, the cocktail list features an impressive whisky selection, including their own Spirit of the Deep whisky created exclusively for Fathom by DeVine Distillery in Saanich. Whether it’s a piece of art pottery or a seasonal ingredient, Kim says his generous share plates reflect this creative space, where diners are invited to relax and connect. In future, he hopes to have sharable platters featuring whole fish or big, bone-in, Tomahawk steaks, taking the family-style concept to a new level. “I tell my chefs, you should never be satisfied with the menu you have,” says Kim, “because if you don’t experiment, if you stop exploring other ideas, you don’t grow.” His goal is to create innovative and approachable food in a room that takes its name and inspiration from the sea—a menu that, like the ocean depths, is something wild and wonderful to explore. CINDA CHAVICH
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Kahuna
1 0 2 – 5 1 5 C H AT H A M S T. 250 -590 -366 MYKAHUNA.CA
Ajay Oppelaar and Robert Stutzman’s creative yet comforting food brings the vibrancy of Hawaii to downtown Victoria.
Oppelaar and Stutzman say they sought to open a restaurant that serves the best burger possible. “A burger is such a simple and comforting thing,” says
IMAGE COURTESY OF KAHUNA
The Maui Burger—maple smoked bacon, roasted red peppers, avocado, Monterey Jack cheese
Oppelaar. “I’ve always wanted to have a place that serves the best burger you’ve ever had. Ever since I was young, I’ve had that thought in my mind.” Their menu offers a selection of generous and unique sandwiches and burgers such as the Big Kahuna: a classic cheeseburger with katsu chicken, kalua pork, and topped with Hawaiian-style barbecue sauce. Only slightly less indulgent is the Oahu burger, which features a teriyaki chuck patty, pickled ginger, and grilled pineapple Ajay Oppelaar with a Dole Whip Lava Cone served on a ramen noodle bun Not being Hawaiian for an interesting texture and flavour contrast. themselves, Oppelaar and Stutzman say they can’t If the Hawaiian-inspired burgers are not your forte, claim any authenticity in their food. But having lived they also have a selection of poke bowls, rice bowls, there for several years, they are careful to celebrate house-made pies, and the classic Dole whip (the the culture they love in a way that makes sense to exception to their house-made rule). The katsu them. “Our food can’t be called authentic because chicken bowl includes crispy fried chicken thighs with we’re not true Hawaiians, but it’s made with love,” says a citrus katsu sauce over rice. In place of fries, many of Stutzman. “It’s an honest expression of us and what we their dishes come with a duo of green papaya slaw and find gratifying.” This winter, whether you’re seeking Ajay’s macaroni salad. an incredible burger or a taste of a different island, Kahuna offers the perfect way to transport yourself to The two partners stress that, as much as possible, they a warmer climate. serve only what they are making in-house. As a result, ADRIAN PARADIS their food is comforting and approachable, yet IMAGE COURTESY OF KAHUNA
ONE OF VICTORIA’S NEWEST restaurants brings with it a more tropical kind of island vibe. Since November, Kahuna has been offering its Hawaiian-inspired burgers and bowls at the former location of the Very Good Butcher in the Ironworks Building, 515 Chatham Street. Run by business and life partners Ajay Oppelaar and Robert Stutzman, Kahuna is the culmination of their three concepts operating in Duncan—Kahuna Burger, Aloha Bowls, and Paradise Pies. While their Duncan locations aren’t going anywhere, they are all now represented under one roof in the new Victoria location.
uniquely their own. Most of their burgers are topped with a trio of house-made sauces: mango ketchup, pineapple jam, and Thai basil and macadamia nut mayonnaise. “We make sauces that don’t taste like anyone else’s,” says Stutzman. “I’d say our food is comforting without being pretentious.” The space itself is adorned with tropical plants and vivid orange highlights. The warm lighting makes the room feel bright and welcoming, while the tables are all uniquely branded with the Kahuna logo and a cooling seafoam green top.
ELEVATE YOUR EVERYDAY SALTSPRINGKITCHEN.COM This project is supported by the BC Government's Buy BC Partnership Program; delivered by MNP LLP with funding from the Government of British Columbia.
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Gyrosa Fresh Greek
102–1517 ADMIR AL S RD. 250 -380 -2555 GYROSAFRESHGREEK.CA
Classic Greek street food but lighter and healthier, and made fast and fresh. “FIVE IN THE DOOR!” The man at the till beams at our group, giving his packed kitchen a heads-up. It reminds me of being greeted at a sushi bar with “Irasshaimase!” but we’re not pining for Japan today; we’ve set our sights on Greece. Gyrosa opened in fall 2023. Partners Adrian Bears, Troy Nye, and Nico Tiginagas met through the hospitality industry and cemented their business relationship and ethos with the Opa at the Mayfair Shopping Centre food court. Gyrosa makes space for this exceptional team and their “modern take on traditional Greek street food” to shine and soar.
The overarching flavours are light, healthy, and fresh. Nothing has preservatives. Nothing is frozen ever. I love classic Greek food, but it tends to be heavy on the olive oil and heartier. Gyrosa’s menu works for people seeking beautiful Greek flavours and fare with greener health in mind. We dig into slices of walnut cake and lemon olive oil cake for dessert. They are sumptuous and moist, the former rich, earthy, and sweet, the latter brighter with a bit of tang. “Martha’s Delectables makes our desserts. They’ve been here for us, and she took a chance on us,” says Adrian.
ELIZABETH NYLAND
The Gyrosa Wrap Box is delicious and priced well. You choose a protein (beef/ chicken gyro, prawn/chicken souvlaki, falafel/veggie) and two sides (Gyrosa fries, Greek salad, rice pilaf, baby kale Caesar salad, or feta fries for an extra dollar). The chicken gyro wrap is chockful of house-made tzatziki, fries, veg, feta, and delicate, beautifully marinated chicken. After an extensive search, they source their pita from Crete. The fries are hot and dusted with dill, the feta fries topped with feta and served with tzatziki, both gorgeous. The baby kale Caesar was carefully dressed and fresh. The tzatziki is Greek-yogurt based and a whippedtexture family recipe. The calamari is light and crispy. My oregano-sprinkled prawn skewer arrives with a lemon wedge. The AAA marinated beef gyro is delicious, and the house-made hummus with falafel balls nourishing and tasty.
The Gyrosa Wrap Box with Chicken Gyro Wrap “We never knew how busy the dinner rush would be,” Adrian shares, “with in-person and online. We had to hire a second cashier right away.” When asked about “Five in the door!” he explains. “It’s our standard. Everyone gets greeted immediately. People who walk through that door chose us. There are so many great places, but they chose us. We take that very seriously,” Adrian’s sincerity is clear. So, in short. Go there. Order online, it is wonderful. But I do recommend Gyrosa’s hit of welcoming positivity in person, especially when you’re hangry or hungry, because they’re fast. It’s very casual, clean, and adorned with their own brighterthan-traditional Greek blue. The mood is animated, noisy, and generous. FYI, it’s pronounced “yee-ros” and means “to turn or rotate.” GILLIE EASDON
Inn at Laurel Point | @duocafebakery
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Coq au Vin Me at ba ll s This playful twist on a classic has all the mushroomy richness of the French favourite with a generous helping of healthy greens.
RECIPE + S T Y LING + PHO T OGR A PH Y
Rebecca Wellman 16
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
C
oq au vin is a classic Burgundian dish made with chicken, bacon, red wine, mushrooms, and onions. This more casual version takes advantage of ground meat mixed with all of those flavour components, replacing red wine with white and adding a few extra layers of both depth and brightness. It is my belief that whenever we make meatballs, we should make lots of extras for the freezer. This recipe
provides a warm and comforting dinner, while also tucking some away for two or three more meals at another time. The meatballs are excellent with anything—rice, roasted vegetables, or even tucked into a plate of leafy greens, but if you’d like to present this as a more classic coq au vin, make the sauce too and serve over garlic mashed potatoes with a little extra fresh thyme sprinkled over top.
WILD • SUSTAINABLE • WEST COAST
Coq au Vin Meatballs Serves 4, with extra meatballs
For the meatballs: 3 thick slices bacon, finely diced ½ lb mushrooms, very finely diced ½ small onion, minced 3 cloves garlic, minced 3 lbs ground turkey or chicken—a mixture of breast and thigh meat works well 2 Tbsp grainy mustard 2 tsp paprika 2 tsp fresh thyme 1 raw egg Salt and pepper
In a large bowl, combine the mushroom mixture, ground turkey, mustard, paprika, thyme, the egg, about 1 tsp salt, and a good grinding of black pepper. Make sure the ingredients are well combined. Form mixture into about 18 balls (about 100 g each), and place on a parchment-lined, rimmed sheet pan. (You may need a second sheet pan. You want to leave a bit of room between each meatball, so they brown a bit instead of steaming.) Bake for 35 minutes, or until cooked through. To freeze: Place as many meatballs as you like on a small parchment-lined sheet pan and freeze for about 3 hours. Place them in a large re-sealable bag and seal well. They will last for about 2 months in the freezer.
For the sauce: 1 Tbsp butter 6 medium-sized mushrooms, sliced 1 clove garlic, minced ¾ cups chicken stock ¾ cups dry white wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc 2 Tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp lemon zest 1 Tbsp grainy mustard 1 cup heavy (33%) cream 2 tsp fresh thyme 4 cups fresh spinach leaves Salt and pepper
To make the sauce: In a medium pot or high-sided sauté pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook until the vegetables are softened and slightly browned, 5–7 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Add the chicken stock, wine, lemon juice, lemon zest, and mustard to the pot and bring to a simmer. Reduce the combination by about a third, lightly simmering and stirring occasionally for 15–20 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly.
To make the meatballs: Heat the oven to 375°F. In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, cook the bacon for about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms, onions, and garlic and continue to cook until the bacon is cooked through and the vegetables are softened. Season with about ½ tsp salt (depending on how salty the bacon is) and a good grinding of black pepper. Set aside to cool.
Stir in the cream and thyme. Add the spinach and stir until wilted. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed. Return the mushrooms to the sauce and stir gently until everything is heated through. Serve the sauce over the meatballs with creamy mashed potatoes.
Thai Curry Halibut with Rice Vermicelli INGREDIENTS: ( serves 2) 2x 200g pieces 1 cup water Wild BC Halibut 125g rice vermicelli 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil, ½ cup bamboo shoots divided ½ a lemongrass stalk 1 shallot, sliced ½ red bell pepper, 2 cloves garlic, sliced minced 2 sprigs Thai basil, 1 Tbsp chopped sliced, plus more ginger for garnish 1 Tbsp fish sauce 4 x baby bok choy 1 Tbsp red Thai curry 2x 1 tsp kosher salt, paste 1 green onion, sliced 1 can coconut milk for garnish METHOD: In medium sauce pan, in 1 Tbsp of oil, sautee shallots until soft. Add garlic and ginger. Cook 1 minute. Add curry paste, fish sauce, water, coconut milk, bamboo shoots, red peppers, lemongrass, Thai basil and 1 tsp salt. Bring to gentle boil. Simmer 10–15 minutes. While sauce simmers, cut bok choy in half and drizzle with remaining oil and salt. Heat a barbecue or grill pan to high. Cook bok choy until charred on both sides. Soak vermicelli in hot tap water for a few minutes to soften. Place vermicelli and halibut in the broth and cover. Simmer for 6–8 minutes. (Flip once halfway through if not fully submerged in broth.) Serve hot with charred bok choy. Garnish with green onion and Thai basil. ALSO AVAILABLE at Finest at Sea in our frozen meal section.
FINESTATSEA.COM 250.383.7760 27 ERIE STREET VICTORIA, BC SEAFOOD MARKET – FOOD TRUCK
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All the Dirt
W ORDS
Gillie Easdon
The health and flavour of our food, and the health and viability of our food systems, rely heavily on the life in our soils. Gillie Easdon explores why this connection is vital to a resilient local food culture.
A
s we pick and pop raspberries into our mouths, my lifelong friend Lindsey Boyle tours me around Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture in North Saanich (traditional lands of the W̱SĺḴEM [Tseycum] peoples). The Centre stewards 83 acres of working farm, wetland, and forest and works with emerging growers, researchers, community members, and regional farmers “to build a thriving, climate change-resilient, sustainable local food system.” She talks about how degraded the soil was when they arrived and their work on regenerative agriculture, a rehabilitation and conservation approach to farming and food systems. For days after, I wondered about the relationship between soil quality and flavour. I have a cursory understanding of terroir and wine; it makes sense that good soil begets good food and flavour. But I didn’t understand the nuts and bolts of the why, and I was determined to find out. The first stop in my investigation is David Mincey’s The Chocolate Project. “Anything you have in your head about chocolate is chocolate grown in dead soil,” asserts the local chef, lecturer, and international chocolate judge. Thoughts of a Caramilk bar flash through my mind—I shush them fast. You don’t entertain thoughts of Caramilk when standing in the middle of a stunning, brick-walled
room dedicated to educating about and purveying Canada’s largest selection of craft chocolate. In his previous life, David Mincey was owner of the exquisite and delicious Camille’s restaurant (1988–2016), where Wind Cries Mary now thrives. Everything was farm-to-table and carefully curated, but he couldn’t find any chocolate to fit that bill. And you must offer chocolate in a fine restaurant. David wrote letters and mailed them worldwide. He discovered an “underground world of chocolate makers who were trying to save chocolate from the big industrial corporations.” In 1999, he embarked on a quest to expose the dark side of the industrial chocolate industry and showcase what real chocolate is and tastes like. Today, the Chocolate Project, elegantly housed in The Atrium on Yates Street since early 2023, carries a curated selection of more than 350 bars. But let’s get back to the subject of soil with a little Chocolate 101. Chocolate comes from a tropical fruit tree. The beans are fermented, dried, then roasted and ground into a paste. The taste of chocolate is really the taste of a dry roasted fruit. The fermentation is critical. Cacao trees that grow in the rain forest PHOTO: ISTOCK.COM/KALAWIN
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are surrounded by rich, nutrient-packed soil. Wild yeast, bugs, and microorganisms team on the beans, literally dripping off farmers’ hands as they gather them to ferment. Fresh cacao beans taste like a mix of lychee, mango, and passionfruit, but they’re too delicate for export. Chocolate made from these beans tastes like “fresh, vibrant fruit.” Industrial chocolate, however, is mainly “grown in horrifically bad soil,” David explains. Every industrial producer adds vanilla flavouring to the chocolate.
“…underground world of chocolate makers who were trying to save chocolate from the big industrial corporations.” David Mincey Why? Because cacao grown in nutritionally deprived soil with artificial fertilizers cannot support the critical wild yeast that ferments the bean. You can put the bean into the fermenter, but proper fermentation can’t happen. The flavour you have long associated with chocolate isn’t what real chocolate tastes like. And that is all soil. In industrial setups, “the trees are stunted and struggling. That chocolate tastes like death to me,” David states emphatically, “and the whole world is eating that… Industrial chocolate is grown in West Africa, in ‘ex-rain forests,’ where five million people of all ages are enslaved to bring it to us.” During the six months the cacao takes to grow, the farmers don’t need to do much. The soil in the rain forest is naturally lush and healthy, so the tree is healthy. There is nothing to amend. From tasting the cacao, David can tell how the tree and the soil are doing. “If it’s not doing well, nutritionally unhappy, it’s mealy, bland, no zip.” It is time for me to taste the difference. First, we place a square of 70 per cent cacao from what I would have previously deemed a decent quality bar of chocolate on our tongues. I taste the vanilla. The square starts to melt, but not evenly. In a moment of really focusing on what flavours are occurring, there isn’t much I can discern apart from “tastes like dark chocolate.” Nothing else happens. Next, we try a square of Qantu’s Morrópon from Piura, Peru, winner of the Academy of Chocolate
Arts “Golden Bean” award in 2018. I taste raisins and prunes. The melt is even. David also notes, “Fig, plum, fresh, alive, acidity.” He cites the simple chemistry of healthy chocolate: acid + fat + sugar. Then we sample the 70 per cent Standout Chocolate from the Semuliki Forest in Uganda. Again, the melt is even and smooth, but the flavours are apricot, peach, and orange, even though there’s nothing in the bar but cacao beans and cane sugar. I could taste that this was connected to a living, vibrant tree. Like chocolate, wine is also achieved through a process of concentration. Good wine must grow on healthy vines in healthy soil. And while wine has 500 flavour components, did you know chocolate has 5,000? Parting words from David: “Healthy soil is what makes chocolate.” I leave David and The Chocolate Project with seven bars to share and pick up a grocery store bar as well, looking forward to recreating the tasting for others. My inner nerd (or toddler) still wants to know why, why, why, and whether soil health can significantly impact the flavour of crops, particularly those used in food and beverage production. I seek out John Volpe, former cook, sommelier, and self-described “recovering ecologist,” now Professor and Principal Investigator with the Ecogastronomy Research Group (ERG) at the University of Victoria. “The ERG applies modern research tools in pursuit of farm, food, and wine viability, food/wine quality, and terroir expression in a changing climate,” John explains. As a young cook and sommelier “travelling the world working in different [international cuisine] kitchens on Queen Street in Toronto,” John was curious about why foods differed in different places. He wanted to understand “the underlying systemic drivers of diversity and the maintenance of diversity, of cultural evolution and biological evolution.” What does that mean in terms of the subject matter of this article? John wanted to understand what causes plant diversity over time. And so he started with soil, to learn from “the ground up how the differences are maintained.” In the high Arctic, there is no variety in the vegetation, but in a rain forest, a high biodiverse region, there is much variation. The plants that grow in every part of the world rely on a “suite of microbial communities” to thrive. For a plant to be healthy, the microbes (bugs, bacteria, living stuff ) in the soil have to process the nutrients the plant needs before it can suck them up. Our stomachs and other bits process the foods we take in and process them to access, say, magnesium, so we can nourish our bodies. Plants don’t have stomachs so they rely on microbes to do
that job for them. If the soil does not have those bugs, germs, a.k.a. microbes, then the plant will suffer. John cites the Marzano tomato grown in the volcanic soils around Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius as an example. The tomato is further enhanced by the climate and heat units to produce place-based excellence. “All the best products are place-based; think of Parmigiano Reggiano. There are fundamental ecological processes that have evolved to create it that cannot be duplicated,” John says. The cow eats the plant that has accessed robust nutrients from the microbial communities in the soil, which in turn creates gut flora that produces the milk that makes the cheese. This is where the scope of terroir “makes imperative the ecology of those environments,” says John. Industrial-scale farming has removed itself from that process to maximize growth. We have lost the uniqueness of the plant or product by “homogenizing the food in pursuit of efficiency.” The beauty of a terroir-driven approach is that it protects the ecological systems. Recognizing the interconnection of soil and food and flavour is also a market incentive. It explains why hydroponic or vertical farming is not going to match the taste of food grown in healthy soil. I learned a lot about plants, soil, and flavour from John. Did you know that when a plant needs, say, more calcium, it will release a fluid from a pore or “exudate”? John explains it this way: “It puts out a plate of cookies and cake in the root zone area that this suite of microbes is attracted to, and quite quickly the density of calcium will start to increase.”
For a plant to be healthy, the microbes (bugs, bacteria, living stuff) in the soil have to process the nutrients the plant needs before it can suck them up. Now, I better understand why cooking the same dish with local ingredients in different parts of the world tastes different. I’m also beginning to understand how a plant grows, and the critical role soil plays not only in flavour but in authenticity and nature. What I learned from John reinforces the need to eat local, and support local, which unfortunately is 19
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not always financially viable for people. John tells me there’s “no simple answer” to the affordability issue. “There are many, many points of change necessary to allow short circuit distribution systems to thrive—especially at the provincial and federal regulatory levels. The issue is only partially on the production side. The real bottleneck is processing and distribution. The entire system is built to service very large, centralized processors and national- and international-scale distribution networks.” He goes on to explain that, unfortunately, small- to medium-sized enterprises have no competitive capacity. “The market is by far the most powerful engine of innovation and positive change, and it has been neutered by decades of policies favouring large, centralized conglomerates that are, for all intent and purposes, oligopolies.”
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I wrap up my research with much to consider, even more to research and discuss in community. And I realize, without regret, that I may have broken up with Caramilk for good.
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He cites as an example “non-fluid milk” (yogurt, sour cream, etc.), almost all of which is processed in Ontario. I did not know this. He stresses again that there is no simple fix, but he believes “the Canadian consumer is very slowly being boiled like the proverbial frog” as we shoulder the rising costs. There is so much more to this topic of soil and flavour that reinforces the urgency to buy local when you can. John’s parting words to me land hard: “The pursuit of the best-tasting food first necessitates pursuit of the most robust ecology, one that not only provides the most flavourful and nutrient-dense foods but also ensures maximum futureproofing of the production system in this ever-increasingly chaotic world.”
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LARRY ARNOLD
RED, WHITE, AND NEW
EAT’s wine expert Larry Arnold recommends a variety of wines—from bubbles to rosés—for a brand-new year. Robert et Marcel De Chanceny Crémant de Loire Brut Rosé NV France $28.00 Crémant is basically French sparkling wine produced in the champagne method but not in the Champagne district. In the hands of a good vintner, this is a good thing as you will likely get a very good bottle of fizz for a very good price. This tasty Crémant de Loire Rosé is 100-per cent Cabernet Franc, salmon pink with tiny, long-lasting bubbles and fresh raspberry-strawberry aromas. Nicely balanced, with delicate berry flavours, lively acidity, and a clean dry finish. Pol Roger Champagne Reserve Brut NV France $88.00 Established in 1849, Pol Roger is one of the few Champagne Grande Marques that is still family owned. Long a personal favourite of British prime minister Winston Churchill, it is a widely held belief among those in the Labour party that he insisted on consuming several bottles of the Brut while reviewing briefs on British domestic policy. This explains a lot! The Brut Reserve is the standard blend of the three varieties sourced from 30 different villages and aged on the lees for four years. Tiny bubbles indeed—this iconic bottle of fizz is rife with them! The nose is pretty good too, but those tiny bubbles act as a hinderance when attempting to really getting a good sniff. C’est la vie! Sinfully marvellous with body that just won’t quit. Poplar Grove Viognier Okanagan Valley VQA 2022 British Columbia $25.00 Although the wine clocks in at 13.5 per cent, it is, funnily enough, not a big, blousy, over-the-top Viognier. This is the not-so-new norm, and the days when winemakers struggled to attain the magic 12 per cent are long gone. The current style amongst fashionistas is to stuff a lot into a suit a size too small and hope for the best. Pale straw in colour with enticing citrus, white floral, and apricot aromas, good weight on the palate with a slightly viscous texture and more than enough ripe fruit to handle the alcohol. Ken Forrester Vineyards Old Vines Reserve Chenin Blanc 2021 South Africa $23.00 Chenin Blanc is the chameleon of grape varieties, a versatile workhorse capable of producing high yields with big fruit flavours and high natural acidity. In the right hands, the results can be sublime (let’s not talk about the other possibility). South African winemaking legend Ken Forrester, the “Master of Chenin Blanc,” specializes in the grape, crafting eight different styles at varying price points. The Old Vines Reserve is very pale with a subtle bouquet of ripe pears, quince, and baking spices. Medium-bodied and well-balanced, it has delicate fruit flavours, a soft creamy texture, and a core of fresh, zingy acidity lurking within. It is very young and will, I think, reward those with patience. Tania & Vincent Carême Terre Brûlée Chenin Blanc 2020 South Africa $24.00 Boy, this wine was a real eye-opener. Tania and Vincent Carême farm just over four hectares of 40-year-old vines in South Africa’s Swartland, which, as I recall, used to be considered bulk wine country. Terre Brûlée is their flagship wine, and it does not disappoint. Very heady and aromatic with pear, quince, and honey on the nose. Medium-bodied with good weight, a slightly oily texture nicely balanced with ripe fruit, soft acidity, and a long dry finish.
Guigal Tavel Rosé 2020 France $36.00 Tavel is purported to produce the best pink wine in all of France. A bold statement often touted by wine aficionados not quite up on the current state of affairs. Amongst these learned few, French wines are considered to be either white, red, rosé, or Tavel because unlike other rosés, Tavel is not some flowery bit of fluff meant to be quaffed and forgotten. Au contraire! It is a wine of great consequence meant to be contemplated and revered. That said, E. Guigal is truly one of the great names in the Rhône Valley. This blend of Cinsault, Clairette, Grenache, and Syrah is aged in stainless steel for six months before bottling and is held for a further six to 12 months before release. Deep salmon pink with ripe raspberry and strawberry aromas, it is medium-to-full bodied, with fresh fruit flavours and juicy acidity. There is a lot to contemplate here besides the price. Bodegas Escorihuela Gascon Organic Malbec 2021 Argentina $41.00 Malbec has found a home in the high-altitude vineyards of the Valle de Uco in the foothills of the Argentine Andes. The warm sunny days and cool clear evenings of the Argentine summer have conspired to make this French transplant a star with wine lovers across the planet. A real zinger oozing with blueberry, raspberry, herbs, and dusty earth aromas. Medium-to-full bodied with brooding black fruit flavours nicely balanced with a patina of fine-grained tannins. Fruity and spicy with a long savoury finish. Château Coupe Roses La Bastide Minervois 2021 France $32.00 Minervois, in the foothills of the Massif Central in France, is an Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine region and a source of much good value wine. La Bastide, the first of four Minervois cuvées, is a blend of organically grown Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah fermented and briefly held in stainless steel. Very fruit-forward and fresh with cherries, plums, and herbs on the nose. Dry with juicy fruit flavours nicely balanced with bright acidity, a blush of fine grained tannin, and a long soft finish. PHOTO: ISTOCK.COM/MYILLO
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The following 18 months saw John sell his interest in the Troller Pub and move to Victoria as he, Paul, and a third partner, Ray Ginnever, found a waterfront Vic West property and set about building Canada’s first in-house brewpub of the modern era. With its large windows looking out over Victoria’s Inner Harbour and beyond to Washington State’s Olympic Mountains, Spinnakers was not your traditional Canadian pub. It was bright, welcoming, and had an incredible view; City Hall and provincial and federal regulators didn’t know what to do with it. They weren’t yet ready to accept this new type of venue in their jurisdiction. When the liquor inspector came by for his first visit, he was surprised to find there was no stage, no place for “the dancing girls,” as it were.
W ORDS + PHO T OGR A PH Y
Michael Farley
Paul Hadfield
Spinna k er s
at
40
The pioneering Vic West brewpub isn’t showing its age but continues to advocate, innovate, and captivate a whole new generation of discerning diners and imbibers.
O
n May 15, 1984, Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub opened its doors for the first time at 4 p.m. By night’s end, they had done $1,200 in sales on a Tuesday night ($3,100 in 2023 dollars). Since then, it has been 40 years of “sheer lunacy,” says owner Paul Hadfield. A practicing architect working from a studio at Vancouver’s Granville Island Public Market building during the financial crisis of the early 1980s, Paul was looking for opportunities to keep his team employed as work was drying up. Architects are often some of the first on the chopping block in financial downturns. Meanwhile, Canada’s craft brewing pioneer, John Mitchell, had opened a small brewery in June 1982 in an outbuilding at West Vancouver’s Sewell’s Marina, down the street from the Troller Pub, where John was a partner. He quickly came to understand the shortfalls of his pioneering brewery, which had been cobbled together from used dairy equipment. Seeking a resolution, John and his wife Jenny travelled to the U.K. in search of better equipment, returning in September with a suitcase filled with a couple bottles each of 14 different beers. 22
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
Paul was invited to join a tasting of these beers at a speakeasy basement pub in the Dunbar neighbourhood of Vancouver with a group of beer aficionados. Together, they tasted those beers and a few North American bottles not seen in the marketplace, followed by a few homebrewer’s offerings brought by those in the room. Paul refers to the meeting as his “lightbulb moment.” Here was a broad array of flavours that did not exist in the market at that time, with the homebrewer’s offering being equal to any of the imports. With John having sourced brewing equipment, and with the talent to brew great beer in the room, the idea of building a purpose-built, in-house brewpub was born. Paul saw an opportunity for a new project on the Songhees Waterfront that would be engaging and provide something yet to be seen in Victoria. Floating the idea by some colleagues and friends, the concept was born to bring a “community living room” to Vic West, a location where people would want to come and socialize, hang out for the day, imbibe, and eat good locally sourced food.
This was the early 1980s, remember. Having been born only months before Spinnakers opened its doors, I cannot attest to this, but I’m told that, for the most part, pubs only existed in the back parking lots or basements of hotels. The food offered was often mini bags of potato chips or a jar of pickled eggs sitting atop a sticky, beer-soaked bar. Paul had a vision to change all that. Spinnakers’ open kitchen was designed with purpose. The thought of shutting the chefs in a back room with nothing but a small rectangular window to look through into the dining room seemed to Paul a nasty thing to do. An open kitchen was built to open the space and resembled a bar, allowing patrons and chefs the same interaction typically reserved for bartenders. We may now take these little touches of welcoming, human connection, and community-building for granted, but they draw us back to our favourite places. Paul had also created something else the province hadn’t seen before—a pub that brewed its own beer. He ended up helping rewrite the zoning bylaws in Victoria to allow for his new endeavour, relying on his experience collaborating with city planning officials as an architect to help pave the way. Once zoning was approved, he was on to liquor licensing issues. At the time, you were only allowed to serve beer at a pub in Canada that was transported to your establishment by “highway.” That meant loading the beer brewed on-site into kegs, lugging it out the back door of the brewhouse onto a truck, driving around the block, and finally delivering it through the pub’s front door. Paul was thankfully able to get the Federal Excise Act changed, ushering in a new era for brewpubs, tasting rooms, and microbreweries. Forty years after brewing and selling his first pint, Paul says the most significant challenge
Spinnakers still faces is dealing with the BC Liquor Distribution Branch and archaic regulations—regulations pushed for and supported by large multinational companies afraid of local craft producers cutting into their profits. Driven by innovation, Paul and his team at Spinnakers strive to bring the richest and most complex products to consumers that they can. This involves being “intensely local” and using seasonal products from Vancouver Island. Access to the abundance of producers here allows Spinnakers to create food and beer unique to our area. Spinnakers produces its own line of vinegars and ciders, vodka, liqueurs, five types of gin, and an array of world-renowned beers with ingredients grown in their proverbial backyard. It also produces a lineup of sodas and flavoured sparkling mineral waters that use mineral water sourced from a well directly below the restaurant on the waterfront. Talk about hyper-local! In the early 1990s, the term “farm-to-table” started gaining traction, becoming a buzzword in the North American culinary landscape. Already adhering to these practices, Paul and his team felt validated and continued to find support and inspiration from
Over the decades, Spinnakers has had many a hand at the helm of the brewery. Past brewers have gone on to start breweries of their own. Phillips Brewery, Howl Brewing, Whistle Buoy Brewing Company, and Longwood Brew Pub all have roots that stem from the Songhees. “We don’t shake hands,” says Paul, “We share glasses of beer!” This sense of camaraderie and collaboration among craft brewers defines an industry spearheaded by Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub.
chefs across the globe. Although the community of farm-to-table restaurants on Vancouver Island was small back then, Spinnakers and Sooke Harbour House being two of just a few, they brought the attention of Slow Food International to our corner of the world. Southern Vancouver Island has since been recognized as a convivial group of Slow Food International. This means an active body represents the Island at Slow Food conferences and to local and federal authorities when rights are challenged, and regulations put in place that impede ecogastronomical methods of farming and production.
Forty years. It takes a long time to do anything, let alone run a business in an industry that sees new ventures come and go every year. Of all the fads and trends in the restaurant industry, Paul considers the lack of authenticity the worst, such as restaurants that claim to use local ingredients when they don’t. That aside, Paul says he feels privileged to have been here at this particular time and place, “to have watched this evolution over 40 years and to have had the opportunity to interact with so many of the passionate individuals involved.” He and those in the Spinnakers family agree that friendships, inspiration, and community support are the most significant gifts of the past four decades.
Through the Years MAY 15, 1984 Canada’s first in-house brewpub of the modern era opens to the public. AUGUST 1, 1986 John Mitchell brews his last beer before returning to Vancouver. Paul Hadfield takes on the role of publican. NOVEMBER 1986 Brad McQuhae produces the first craft produced IPA of the modern era in North America. This beer quickly forms part of the regular lineup of Spinnakers beers. JANUARY 1991 Spinnakers acquires a restaurant license for the main floor. The neighbourhood pub license relocates to the upper floor and the Spinnakers experience opens to people of all ages.
MAY 1999 Matt Phillips joins Lon Ladell in the brewhouse. Matt’s 1st brew is brew # 2103, Spinnakers Ale. OCTOBER 1999 A BC Supreme Court ruling allows Spinnakers products to be sold through government and privately owned liquor stores, as well as at licensed bars and restaurants across the province.
MARCH 2003 A newly granted liquor store license allows for product sales onsite. APRIL 2004 In celebration of 20 years, Lon crafts brew # 2945, Twenty. SEPTEMBER 2008 The Bungalow is added to Spinnakers guest houses.
OCTOBER 2000 A retail section and bakery are added.
2011 NOVEMBER After spending several seasons as a Dive Master, Kala Hatfield brews alongside Tommie Grant. Kala makes her first solo brew for Spinnakers.
AUGUST 2001 Matt Phillips leaves Spinnakers and goes on to establish Phillips Brewery, which grows into the largest craft brewery in BC.
SEPTEMBER 2013 Sooke Bitter, brew # 4769. A new brew style debuts, using fresh local hops to celebrate the flavours and aromas of this true seasonal brew.
The first of Spinnakers guest houses opens.
DECEMBER 2014 A winery license is granted by the province for the brewhouse, thus enabling the production of ciders. Kala Hadfield takes on the role of cider maker. NOVEMBER 2016 Fire destroys part of the restaurant and pub. Restoration of the main floor is completed just before Christmas. The pub remains closed for a further six weeks. MARCH 2019 A distillery license is granted by the province for the brewhouse and a revolutionary iStill from the Netherlands is commissioned, enabling the production of a wide array of spirits. The role of distiller is taken on by Kala Hadfield.
NEW YORK 2020 AWARDS The Fifty Best, based in New York, asks Spinnakers to submit Chocoholic Liqueur for judging as part of their annual recognitions. Chocoholic Liqueur wins both the Gold Medal and Best of Class. MARCH 2020 The pandemic forces closure of the pub and restaurant, but production in the brewhouse continues. Taking advantage of the closure, renovations in the pub start, which unfortunately results in an accidental fire, causing structural and severe smoke and water damage to both floors. Work to restore the facility takes several months, leading to a soft opening in late May.
JUNE 2020 As the pandemic continues, Chris Verhoeven, proprietor of Victoria Soda Works, joins Spinnakers to produce and market craft soda. This opportunity leads to product lines of craft sodas and sparkling mineral waters in a range of flavours, now in broad distribution across BC.
MAY 2024
Spinnakers celebrates 40 years.
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RECIPE + S T Y LING + PHO T OGR A PH Y
Isabelle Bulota 24
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
Easy French Bouillabaisse
B
You can recreate this classic Mediterranean fish stew for an elegant yet nurturing winter meal.
ouillabaisse is a traditional fish soup originating in Marseille, in the south of France. It’s typically made with rockfish as well as crustaceans such as mussels, and langoustines, a small lobster sometimes known as scampi. This aromatic stew, infused with the essence of fennel, saffron, and white wine, promises a taste of a true culinary tradition. Follow the simple steps below to recreate an easy version of this timeless classic using cod, shrimp, mussels, and small scallops, and savour the warmth and depth of flavours in every spoonful. Makes 4 servings.
Bouillabaisse 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp butter 1 fennel bulb, medium, cored and finely chopped 2 shallots, large, diced 8 cloves garlic, minced 2 tsp thyme leaves, fresh ¼ tsp smoked paprika ¼ tsp saffron threads ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper 1 cup dry white wine 4 cups seafood stock 3 cups diced tomatoes, canned, undrained 2 bay leaves 1 lb cod fillets, cut into 3-inch pieces Salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste 12 oz mussels, scrubbed and debearded 4 shrimps, large, peeled, and deveined 1 lb mini scallops ¼ cup fresh herbs (basil, parsley, dill, and/ or chives), chopped 1 baguette, sliced and toasted (optional) Bring a large wide Dutch oven to mediumhigh heat and add the olive oil and butter. Once melted, add the fennel and shallots, and sauté until softened and fragrant, for about 3 or 4 minutes. Add in the garlic, thyme, paprika, saffron, and cayenne pepper. Cook for half a minute while stirring. Blend in the wine and cook for one more minute. Add the stock, along with the tomatoes and their juices, and the bay leaves.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and let it simmer for 10 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by half.
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Season the cod pieces with salt and pepper. Add them to the pot, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and let it cook for two minutes. Gently place the mussels, shrimps, and scallops into the pot, cover, and cook for an additional 5 to 7 minutes, or until the shrimp turns opaque, the cod is thoroughly cooked, the mussels have opened, and the scallops are firm. Take the pot off the heat and discard the bay leaves and any unopened mussels. Stir in the fresh herbs and adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Serve the bouillabaisse in wide bowls and accompany it with toasted baguette slices and Roasted Pepper Sauce, if desired.
Roasted Pepper Sauce (optional)
…has great ambiance
…serves divine desserts like Shaft crème brûlée
At The Palms you can count on a great meal, great drinks, friendly staff and our promise to provide the best value for our guests.
Makes ⅔ cups.
1 clove garlic, minced Atroasted The Palms you (drained, can count on a ½ cup red peppers great meal, great drinks and the chopped) 1 Tbsp lemon juice we strive to provide the knowledge ⅛ tspbest smoked paprika value for our guests. ¼ cup mayonnaise In a food processor or mini chopper, blend the garlic, roasted peppers, lemon juice, and smoked paprika. Pulse until well blended. Stir in the mayonnaise. Chill for an hour before serving.
4pm to 11pm Sun – Thurs 4pm to 1:00am Fri and Sat thepalmsrestaurant.ca 1450 Douglas Street • 250.383.7310 25
2009 Food for Thought! According to a 2009 UBC study on the Economy of Social Food in Vancouver, only 48 per cent of the food we consume is produced in BC. The remaining 52 per cent is imported and produced by domestic and international industrial farms and processors. Concerned Islanders raise $120,000 to help save Madrona Farm. Slow Food USA holds its first Slow Food Nation in San Francisco.
2012 Island Wineries Come of Age Editor Gary Hynes and team EAT win Best Wine Book in Canada for Island Wineries of British Columbia from Gourmand International.
1999 EAT is established EAT Magazine is started by founder and editor Gary Hynes. The first issue is 24 pages, has nine writers, one photographer and 10,000 copies are distributed. Vancouver Island loses its only poultry abattoir in 1999 and it isn’t until 2004, through unwavering determination that farmer Lyle Young of the former Cowichan Bay Farm, opens Island Farmhouse Poultry.
2001 Slow Food Comes to Vancouver Island After attending Slow Food’s Salone del Gusto in Italy, Sinclair Philip and chef Mara Jernigan formed Vancouver Island’s Slow Food convivium in 2001. Buoyed by the organization’s commitment to cooking and farming to raise awareness about food security and the importance of local food, Philip and Jernigan inspired many Islanders to take up the cause.
2013 Victoria Public Market opens Victoria finally opens its first year-round, indoor public market. The space is home to many chef-owned enterprises, a fishmonger, artisanal cheese producer, baker, specialty tea producer, a teaching kitchen, and kiosks for local farmers to sell organic produce. It’s been a long time coming.
2014 EAT celebrates its 15th year with its 90th issue EAT grows to employ 30 freelance writers, 5 photographers and 4 delivery people. That’s a lot of food eaten, drinks drunk, people interviewed, and deadlines met.
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FATHOM ALL THE DIRT 25 YEARS OF EAT SPINNAKERS AT 40 CRANK UP THE HEAT
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2021 The Restaurant Industry’s NEW Normal Although some Covid restrictions are still in place, restaurants are picking up steam with more eateries opening than closing.
2023 Back to Basics Covid’s effects close the doors of beloved Agrius, Fol Epi’s downtown location. After many delays, Marilena finally opens its door. The first TopTable Group restaurant to open in Victoria sees executive chef Kristian Eligh return to his hometown to take the restaurant to new heights, winning accolades, including 3rd ranking in enRoute magazine’s Best New Restaurant in Canada, and Restaurant Design of the Year 2023.
25 years at the forefront of local food and drink INDEPENDENT & ISLAND OWNED
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2024 ISSUE 28-01
2020 Shutdown The Exceptional EATs Readers Awards returns for EAT’s 21st anniversary. In March, Covid shuts everything down. Restaurants begin to pivot to stay in business. Take-out meals, heat-and-serve, delivery service, bottled cocktails, and other clever marketing campaigns show the steadfast resolve of the industry. Alcohol consumption goes up exponentially in BC and Canada.
2024 25 Years, 148 issues EAT Magazine, always at the forefront of local food and drink, releases its final issue in January, marking 25 years of publishing and the end of an era.
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Comfort Foods Oregon Pinot Chinatown:150 Years Chef David Hawkesworth Innovative Chocolate Producers Steaming Barbecued Pork and Vegetable Noodle Bowl recipe pg. 33
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2003 The 1st EAT Awards In May of 2003 EAT holds its first Awards of Excellence (later christened the Exceptional Eats!). Peter Zambri, Edward Tuson and Sean Brennan are named the top three chefs by their peers in the industry.
2004 All Hail Bourdain! The BC wine industry takes off and the number of wineries in the province passes the 100 mark. On tour in the fall of 2004, Anthony Bourdain’s presence in Victoria is the most impassioned pep rally ever seen. The sold-out talk is packed to the rafters with chefs, many of them still in their whites, dishwashers, waitstaff, cooks and fans of his brash, no-nonsense style. We roar our approval.
2007 The Birth of the Locavore Chef and author Jessica Prentice coins the term locavore, defining the concept of eating locally grown foods. BC writers Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon write the 100-mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, catapulting eating locally into the spotlight. While Sinclair Philip of Sooke Harbour House and Vancouver’s John Bishop of Bishops are long-time torchbearers of the concept, this is the first time that it is given a name and catalyzes a movement.
2008 Cheers Obtaining a decent cocktail in Victoria is a very recent phenomenon. The botanical-forward Victoria Gin, distilled in Saanich, is launched in 2008—the first distilled spirit on Vancouver Island. Solomon Siegel opens the brief but unforgettable Solomon’s, the city’s first craft cocktail bar, followed by Veneto at the Rialto, [and a few years later, Little Jumbo]. Craft cocktails are now available at most every restaurant worth their weight in swizzle sticks.
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2016 The EAT Journal Part book, part magazine, the EAT Journal hits the shelves. The sumptuous keepsake journal, accented with lush photography, dishes out seasonal recipes, culinary explorations, travel stories, menus, and interviews.
2017 EAT Talks The first of a series of evening discussion forums with local experts, The EAT Talks debut with “Let’s NOT Open a Restaurant” followed by “Well... That Didn’t Work Out: Failures, Flops, and Frustrations.”
2018 A Year of Change Founder Gary Hynes passes away suddenly after putting out his last issue in July|August. The Gary Hynes Foundation is established to continue Gary’s goal of helping others become the best they can be in the culinary, journalism and music disciplines. In November, Vessel Liquor generously sponsors the BC premiere of SOMM 3, in honour of Gary Hynes, with proceeds of the event going to the Gary Hynes Foundation.
2019 New Beginnings Still mourning the passing of Gary Hynes, some of the EAT community gather in Vancouver in October as he is posthumously inducted into the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame as a Friend of the Industry. The tribute to Gary is poignant, with son Colin delivering the acceptance speech. Eat the Future is held at Boom & Batten with profits benefiting the Gary Hynes Foundation and the BC Hospitality Foundation.
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Ramen The BEST
...outside an authentic Ramen-ya! RAMEN KITS
Lore m
Restaurant-grade, Single portion, Ready in minutes
SCRATCH-MADE ON VANCOUVER ISLAND
RAMEN BUILDING BLOCKS
Noodles, Soup & Seasonings sold separately to customize your taste
Available at select stores:
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Fathom is an exceptional dining and cocktail experience. Our culinary expertise meets a curated whisky experience in our extensive bar and lounge with over 220+ whiskies. As proud hosts of the annual Victoria Whisky Festival, we are thrilled to unveil our latest venture—a unique collaboration with DEVINE Distillery, Spirit of the Deep Whiskey. This is a wonderfully flexible spirit that can be used in a myriad of cocktails or simply enjoyed neat. Don't miss the chance to secure a bottle of this limited-edition release. Bottle sales commence during the Victoria Whisky Festival at The Strath Liquor Merchants this January.
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