Seen In Vancouver #366: Owen Lightly’s Chef In Residence Supper At Le Marche St. George

Owen Lightly, the chef behind Butter on the Endive (and Scout’s Pound of Butter food column), recently ran a series of Chef in Residence dinners in one of the apartments above Le Marche St George. There were two seatings per evening for three evenings in a row with a different ‘theme song/playlist” and chef/collaborator for each (Jane Cornborough, Alvaro Musso, Adam Chandler). We attended the first seating on Thursday May 3rd, and as you can see, it was pretty outstanding. The night had a Neil Young I Wanna Live With A Cinnamon Girl vibe and Chef Owen Lightly and his collaborator Adam Chandler (former-chef-now-chocolatier of Beta5 fame) served a fabulous spring meal of albacore tuna with charred ramp, rhubarb risotto with white chocolate (daring, but spot on), Yarrow Meadows duck breast, taleggio sponge cake with shiro plum, and buckwheat crumble smothered in birch caramel. Matching the cuisine was – wow – the setting. What a stunning place to dine! To keep abreast of future BOTE suppers, be sure to follow them on Twitter.

EVERYTHING SEEN IN VANCOUVER

GOODS: Butter On The Endive & Le Marche St. George Prep “Chef In Residence” Pop Up

Vancouver | Squamish | Whistler | 778-989-9349 | info@butterontheendive.ca | www.butterontheendive.ca

The GOODS from Butter On The Endive

Vancouver, BC | Butter on the Endive is gearing up for another great event. This time we will be taking over the beautiful space above Le Marché St. George from May 3-6 to hold 3 consecutive 5-course dinners, with a casual Sunday brunch to cap it all off. Each of the dinners will be created collaboratively with other local chefs/friends and will celebrate the transition from grey to green. Details after the jump… Read more

A POUND OF BUTTER: On The Joy Of Fried Beach Oysters With Waffles And Remoulade

by Owen Lightly (with photos from Michael Sider) | I have a thing for oysters. When I think about them, I get this tingly feeling deep in the pit of my stomach and can’t help but smile. Whether they’re served raw, fried, stewed, broiled or grilled, it doesn’t matter. I’m down for all of it.

Whenever possible, I like to order oysters directly from the farmers themselves. This ensures they are very fresh (sometimes less than a day out of the water) and keeps them out of those aquarium-like tanks that some seafood distributors store them in. Though useful for keeping oysters alive for long periods of time, these tanks eventually filter out the natural ocean brine, which in my eyes is one of the best parts.

This dish was first served at a dinner event Butter on the Endive hosted last year after a trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. With chicken and waffles as the inspiration, this dish is not subtle, nuanced or healthy by any means, but it does seem to make people smile, which is never a bad thing. Read more

A POUND OF BUTTER: On Making A Meatball Plate Better Than The One You Get At IKEA

by Owen Lightly | For reasons that I will explain, I recently set out to create a dish inspired by the meatball plate from the Ikea cafeteria. As a child visiting from the Island, I always looked forward to trips to the blue and yellow warehouse in Richmond. It usually meant the purchase of some budget piece of furniture, frozen yogurt, hot dogs, and if I was lucky, a plate of meatballs.

For whatever reason, the meatballs held mystique. Maybe it was because up until that point I had only ever had them with tomato sauce. What the hell were those crazy Swedes doing serving them with gravy? Looking back, and having tried them again recently, they just aren’t that good. The lustre has definitely worn off and all that remains is some sad pork meatballs swimming in cloying gravy and served with a pile of shitty mashed potatoes saddled with lingonberry sauce.

Here’s my updated version of the dish, which attempts to play with the flavours and textures of the original, while harnessing the feeling of a nine year old trying something for the first time. Read more

A POUND OF BUTTER: On How To Cut Up A Whole Chicken Like You’re Chef Escoffier

by Owen Lightly | This old-school method for breaking down a chicken into 8 bone-in parts is some straight up Escoffier shit. He had dozens of recipes that all started with sautéed chicken as the base – one might be garnished with truffles, another seasoned with curry, another deglazed with port….you get the idea. Read more

SEEN IN VANCOUVER #325: Butter On The Endive Cooking At The Found And The Freed

It’s cool when two of your favourite things come together (like peanut butter and jam), but it’s especially awesome when – seemingly – the two have nothing to do with each other but work tremendously (like bourbon and badminton). The latter was the case earlier this week when chef Owen Lightly of Butter On The Endive was cooking at The Found And The Freed. The pop-up shop of aged, often Vancouver-centric oddments and pretty Canadiana was celebrating the unveiling of its third incarnation at 110 Water Street in Gastown with a little shindig, and BOTE was doing the catering. The walls were all lined with the shop’s eclectic wares, save for a bartending station and an impromptu kitchen, where Owen, aided by Market’s Alvaro Musso, was slinging seared scallops with bacon-wrapped salsify, fried oyster Po’Boys stacked with pickled red onions, ham and sweetbread croquettes, and bowls of hot duck consomme with shroom tortellini. Also had were plenty of cool things we want, well made drinks, and not a few fun people. You can check out the shop from 11am to 7pm, seven days a week. Dig the old Vancouver bus rollers, Breasted maps, ancient lockers and assorted wonderments. Expect to see items from the store in future posts, but in the meantime, feast on shots from the night by Julian Kenchenten after the jump… Read more

A POUND OF BUTTER: “Cooking The Shit” Out Of Butternut Squash & Ricotta Gnocchi

by Owen Lightly | Winter is coming, but winter squash are here now and ready for their time in the spotlight. These craggily, thick-skinned, gnarly bastards have been patiently waiting under a thick mess of leaves and vines for months, and now are one of the ever-shrinking local vegetables available at the weekly winter Farmers Market at Riley Park. The time is now! Buy a few different varieties, try some new dishes (like the recipe below) and watch your love grow. Read more

GOODS: Butter On The Endive Gets Cooking In Gastown At “The Found & The Freed”

Vancouver | Squamish | Whistler | 778-989-9349 | info@butterontheendive.ca | www.butterontheendive.ca

The GOODS from Butter On The Endive

Vancouver, BC | Join us as Butter on the Endive and The Found and the Freed present a night of food, drink and antiques. Chef Owen Lightly will be cooking seasonal delights to warm the heart and welcome the coming months of cozy times. We’re very excited to be partnering with The Found and the Freed, Vancouver’s hottest pop-up shop that features re-purposed authentic antique collections found across Canada and the States. Drop in before the Sweater Season Event to say hello to the lovely ladies on their official re-opening, on November 18th. Details after the jump… Read more

A POUND OF BUTTER: On The Mystical Appeal Of Quince (And What To Do With It)

by Owen Lightly | For the uninitiated, quince is a magical tree fruit resembling an oddly shaped apple or pear. Golden in colour and covered with a thin veil of fuzz, it has a pleasant scent that will easily fill a room when given the chance. The flesh of the fruit is, for all intents and purposes, inedible in its raw state – only with time, heat, and a little sugar, does it reveal its true powers.

Until I started working in kitchens I had never seen a quince. A relic of the fruit world, there are very few orchards that grow them nowadays. Steeped in mythical lore (argued to be the golden apple that Paris gave Aphrodite), my best luck in finding them has been by asking around at the farmers markets, or by keeping my ear to the ground and listening for people with trees in their yards that might otherwise go unpicked. My supply this year came after a chance encounter with man named T.K. in a Penticton restaurant. My friend casually mentioned to him of our need for some quince, and the next morning we were perched on stepladders plundering his tree. We drove home with over a hundred pounds. Read more

VANCOUVERITES: Eleven Minutes With Chef Owen Lightly Of “Butter On The Endive”

(photo: Michael Sider) Owen Lightly is as good a guy as they come. A quintessential British Columbian (not many people have a spring salmon tattooed on their forearm), he was raised on Gabriola Island and formally trained in Nanaimo before working his way through many of our kitchens – among them West, Au Petit Chavignol, Araxi, Market – before going into business for himself. Today, he runs his own catering business, which is named after his popular food blog, Butter On The Endive (kitchen code for “a good looking woman just entered the restaurant”). As regular readers are aware, he has contributed to Scout as a food writer in the past, but you’ll be happy to learn that he is about to launch a regular column on these pages called A Pound of Butter. In advance of its debut, we thought it prudent to ask a few questions of him, for you…

Your first memory? Campbell’s Tomato Soup.

Your ancestry? Welsh and Scottish.

The three books that you read that made an impact on you in your formative years? The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman; Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres (the movie was terrible!); Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.

Your favourite word? Caramelize.

Your favourite curse word? Fuck.

Your major character flaw? Neuroticism.

The character flaw in others that you can’t abide? Not delivering what was promised.

The first three things that you do every morning? The three s’s.

What are you listening to as you answer these questions? Feist’s new album, Metals.

Your role model? Growing up I had a neighbour named Laurie. He was about the same age as my parents and always gave me the straight goods. He wasn’t afraid to drop some heavy philosophical shit on me from time to time as well, which never hurts.

Three things about your Mt. Pleasant that make you want to live there: Good restaurants and bars within spitting distance; I can see the mountains when I wake up and there’s lots of cool, creative people doing their thing.

What is the thing you’d like to change about Vancouver? More open spaces for people to congregate.

The Vancouverite that you admire most and why? Brad Miller (owner of the The Red Wagon) for showing me you can be successful in this business on your own terms. Read more

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