EAT Magazine January | February 2017_Victoria_52_Layout 1 1/13/17 11:44 AM Page 23
CHEFS TALK With Chef Terry Pichor The concept behind the food we’re producing at Villa Eyrie Resort’s Summit Restaurant is coastal-inspired Italian cuisine. Our menu design reflects this, but our offerings improvise with seasonal, local ingredients and my take on Italian dishes. For example, the Braised Wild Boar Tortellini is a typical northern Italian recipe with a meat-based brodo that we make with a charred onion broth. I love the sweet-bitter balance of the onions. We plate the tortellini with Brussels sprouts, foraged chanterelles and other wild mushrooms. The boar is from a farm on the northern B.C./Alberta border. We use Anita’s Flour from Chilliwack and Italian semolina for our homemade pasta. Lockwood Farm in Cowichan Valley is our source for free-range eggs. They also supply us with a weekly lettuce delivery, as is Dragonfly Farm in Duncan. A guy near the resort brings us micro-greens, but most of our vegetables are from Saanich Organics. My biggest challenge has been figuring out what is around locally in winter. I spent the last seven years at Sonora Resort, a May-to-October operation. Here I have to get creative with simple ingredients around all winter. Saanich Organics closes down for a few weeks in January, so I’ll contact suppliers at smaller farms to figure out what will be available, what we should preserve by pickling, and what to cellar like squash, parsnips and potatoes.
WILD BOAR TORTELLINI turnips, winter chanterelles, charred onion broth
I’m trying to use Vancouver Island sources wherever possible, but deliveries up here above the Malahat are tricky. Someone from Saanich Organics makes a delivery while driving home to the Cowichan Valley. I’ve got a little greenhouse behind the kitchen with chard and herbs, and I’ll expand into a larger one soon. There are plans for an orchard on a neighbouring property the resort recently bought, but that’s a 10-year plan. I’m establishing relationships with local foragers too. A guy brought in huckleberries, which I’ve pickled and frozen. You’ve got to stretch out winter supplies that way. I’m dehydrating wild mushrooms for soups and sauces and using wild game, sheep sorrel and chickweed as well as shellfish like local clams, mussels, oysters and scallops.
AUTUMN VEGETABLE SALAD cumin spiced fresh cheese, amaretti, notta farms honey, olive oil
description, although I’m sorry I didn’t get to try the ricotta pumpkin pancakes or panettone French toast.
to Villa Eyrie Resort, I’ll take my wife. That’s the best present I could hope to find.
Before checking out I searched Villa Eyrie’s gift shop for something to bring home to my sweetie, but neither the array of driver’s gear or the Italian-themed books on offer seemed appropriate for the prodigal traveller’s return. Next time I go
Villa Eyrie Resort and Summit Restaurant 600 Ebadora Lane, Malahat, 1-250-856-0188 villaeyrie.com + info@villaeyrie.ca
At a recent charity herring sale for B.C. Children’s Hospital, we got 20 pounds of herring. A traditional southern Italy dish is pickled herring with fennel and onion. I’m combining that with the local idea of smoking fish. The fish is a really important cornerstone species, and I hope more is available in the future. It tastes so good fresh! I’m getting more octopus and Humboldt squid on the menu soon too. They’re bycatch from commercial fishing, and it’s the responsible thing to do. The winter menu is a work in progress, but I’m really enjoying it. 23