POLL: What Circumstance(s) Led To The Closing Of Lumiere And DB Bistro Moderne?

Within and without the circles I swim in, there seems to be a wide range of opinion as to why Lumiere and DB Bistro are closing. What’s yours?

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Thanks! Now consider paying them a final visit. Both restaurants are open for another 13 days…

Rob Clark of C Restaurant Wins Vancouver’s Gold Medal Plates

by Andrew Morrison | The Vancouver Gold Medal Plates went down at the Sheraton Wall Center last night. The chefs vying for gold and the opportunity to compete at February’s Canadian Culinary Championships were as follows: Neil Taylor (Cibo Trattoria), Quang Dang (Diva at the Met), Darren Brown (Coast), Nico Schuermans (Chambar), Cam Smith and Dana Ewart (Joy Road), Nicholas Nutting (The Pointe at the Wickaninnish Inn), Roger Sleiman (Quails’ Gate Winery), Stuart Klassen (Delta Grand) and Robert Clark (C Restaurant). The wineries in pairing action were all local: LaStella, Black Hills, Sandhill, Aces, Tantalus, Painted Rock, 8th Generation, Quails’ Gate, Laughing Stock, and Foxtrot.

It was the fastest GMP I’d ever judged. At our table (joined by last year’s winner, Rob Feenie, and sequestered away from the 700+ crowd), we plowed through the 10 dishes in just under two hours. We saw very little in the way of drama, but there was some negligence. One dish arrived stone cold, another was fumbled in delivery, and one of the wine pairings arrived corked (swiftly replaced). Temperature aside, there certainly weren’t any duds in the lot; the level of cooking being absolutely top drawer.

We structured the order with the gentlest flavours and lighter whites starting us off and the bolder reds (both meats and wines) shutting us down. Scoring was done for presentation (20 points), texture (20 points), taste (30 points), wine compatibility (10 points), originality (10 points), and wow factor (10 points), adding up to a possible 100 points. The lowest score that I gave was 62, while my highest was 83. The judges scores for each chef/dish are added up at the end in a private room, and the math determines who wins.

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BC Chef Competitors Vying For Canada’s Top Toque Title Named

On Friday, October 29th at Vancouver’s Wall Center, 10 of BC’s best chefs will compete at the Gold Medal Plates competition for the opportunity to represent our province at the Canadian Culinary Championships, held in Kelowna on February 18th and 19th. Each year, Sid Cross and I are asked for our input on who should be invited to compete, and I’m thrilled by the final list, which sees great representation from Vancouver, the Okanagan, and Vancouver Island. They are…

Darren Brown | Coast
Robert Clarke | C Restaurant
Quang Dang | Diva at the Met
Stuart Klassen | Delta Grand, Kelowna
Dale MacKay | Lumière
Nicholas Nutting | The Wickaninnish Inn, Tofino
Nico Schuermans | Chambar
Roger Sleiman | Quails’ Gate Winery, Kelowna
Cam Smith & Sana Ewart | Joy Road, Penticton
Neil Taylor | Cibo Trattoria

If you want to see how it all went down last year, click here. For all the ticket, time and date details of the coming comp, click here. Also, take a look at the video we shot last year to show what it’s like behind the scenes of the national championships…

It’s Official: English Bay Cactus Club Opening Early Summer 2011

A couple of days ago we broke the news that the Cactus Club was the winning bid being recommended to the Parks Board to operate their new restaurant space and concession at English Bay. It was pending approval, but now it’s official. Construction begins in September, with the opening day slated for June 2011. Check after the jump for the details… Read more

Team Feenie’s Bid Wins Race For New English Bay Restaurant…

From the little known Department of You Knew It Was Going To Happen comes news that the Cactus Club has been recommended to the Parks Board as the best overall bidder aiming to operate the upcoming, brand-new super-spanking English Bay beachfront restaurant and concession in Vancouver’s West End. The project still needs final approval, mind, but it reads like a good fit.

A little background from the Parks Board after the jump… Read more

Dispatches From The Greatest Cooking Competition In Canada

I’m very sorry that it has taken me so long to throw this video together. I had several gigs of footage and photos and no time to splice and dice this week, plus I didn’t want to have it up before my story about the Canadian Culinary Championships was published in the paper (yesterday). Alas, it is done now (albeit in a hurry), a referee/judge’s eye view of the proceedings from the very start to the very end. I hope you enjoy it and the many dozens of photos below. My friend and colleague James Chatto (head judge) has written a thorough synopsis, one which my skills could never match, so I’ve included it in its entirety after the pictures. Read more

Who Will Be The Next Canadian Culinary Champion? (UPDATED)

Chef Rob Feenie gets started at this morning's Black Box competition, part of the Canadian Culinary Championships

UPDATE: Mathieu Cloutier of Montreal’s “Kitchen Gallery” won

I’ve been buried judging and refereeing the Canadian Culinary Championships for the last two days so I apologise for the lack of posts/updates. The seven competing chefs finished the wine pairing competition last night at Republic (the mystery wine being the Black Hills “Alibi”), and the Black Box competition has just finished here at The Sheraton Wall Center.

Who’s competing? Each winning chef from the seven Gold Medal Plates competitions held this Fall across the country:

Vancouver | Rob Feenie
Ottawa | Matthew Carmichael
Montreal | Mathieu Cloutier
Edmonton | Nathin Bye
Canmore | Jan Hrabec
St. Johns | Ivan Kyutukchiev
Toronto | David Lee

My friend Sid Cross and I were tasked with choosing today’s 6 mystery ingredients, and we came up with a vicious assortment: fresh fennel, dragon fruit, whole jumbo quail, arctic char, arborio rice, and bottle of R&B Brewing Co.’s “Hoppelganger” India Pale Ale. The chefs had only 10 minutes to dream up two dishes that would incorporate all of the ingredients, and then just 50 minutes to prepare them. It was intense, to say the least, and the results across the board were remarkably impressive. What’s more, only one chef was injured (a minor nick to an Edmontonian index finger). A good day.

I’ll have more on the morrow, but in the meantime I have to head back down to the kitchens to ensure the rules are being followed to the letter. I’ll be tweeting updates on my cell throughout the evening, so if you’re not yet following Scout on Twitter, please do. You’ll be among the first to learn who the new national culinary champion is later tonight.

PS. Rest assured, Video and hundreds of photos won’t be too far behind. If you have no clue what any of this is about and would like to see more, I’ve included a video that I shot from last year’s CCC, held in Banff, Alberta. Check it out after the jump… Read more

Rob Feenie’s Great Big Comeback At The 2009 Gold Medal Plates

L to R: Dale Mackay of Lumiere (silver); Rob Feenie of Cactus Club (gold): Pino Posteraro of Cioppino's (bronze)

“Comeback” might be a bit of a loaded word, but it fits to an arguable degree. After Rob Feenie left his eponymous Feenie’s restaurant and flagship Lumiere two years ago and landed as the Food Concept Architect for the Cactus Club chain, it could have easily been assumed that he had bought a one way ticket to the wilderness of the restaurant world. But last night, at the prestigious Vancouver Gold Medal Plates cooking competition, he bested nine of BC’s greatest chefs and reminded this town of his incredibly refined talent by taking gold. And he totally deserved it. Read more

2 Wines And 20 Vintages With Sid Cross

Sid Cross has been kindly contributing to Scout this week as we cover the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival. Widely considered one of the finest palates in the world, Sid’s list of honours and accomplishments are staggering. He is Wines Committee Chair for The International Wine & Food Society (www.iwfs.org) headquartered in London England; an Officer in France’s prestigious Ordre du Merite Agricole; a Membre d’Honneur of the L’Academie du vin de Bordeaux (and the only Canadian to receive that honour); and he has been named The Gourmet of the Year by The Society of Bacchus America. He’s also co-founder and an advisor to The Chef’s Table Society of BC, and an all around gent, first class… Read more

Feenie’s Weenie Rising Again?

If you’ve been looking for Cactus Club food concept architect Rob Feenie around the test kitchen at the Ash and Broadway location this week, you likely didn’t find him. He’s been in West Vancouver, at the Village Taphouse, helping to develop a new pub menu.

Formerly a Steamworks, the place was bought late last year by the CC chain, and the plan has always been to turn it into – according to manager Trevor St. James – a pub that’s fun and very different from Cactus Club with great food and a killer beer program. This past Monday it closed for renos, and the ambitious plan is for a soft re-opening tomorrow (Friday).

Right now, it’s a worksite, with plenty of noise and sawdust, but there’s no hiding the excitement on the part of St. James, Feenie and the rest of the team who are in there, pulling all-night shifts to get it ready.

Twenty local beers (seasonal ales, lagers, wheat ales, IPAs, brown and cream ales from all over the province) will flow through a Perlick Century beer system and out of taps mounted on the brick wall behind the bar. The focus for the 20 bottled brews is on unusual imports from global beermakers in places like Singapore, the Czech Republic and Brooklyn.

Beer lovers can opt for a Salt Tasting Room-like sampler, featuring three drafts, served with a big old homemade pretzel.

The rest of the menu is still undecided but at a CC media event on Tuesday the Food Concept Architect himself said it’s possible that some of the dishes from Feenie’s may find their way onto the Taphouse menu: that decadent burger, Feenie’s Weenie, and my favourite, his shepherd’s pie made with duck confit.

That’s good news for me. For years, I pestered Feenie about bringing his food to the North Shore. Even in print I may have whined about his disinclination to open in the community where I make a living as a food and restaurant writer. (The mandate where I work is local, local, local. So while I am able to slip in a Vancouver story once a month or so, it’s a lottery win for me whenever a restaurant opens on the Shore. Especially a good one.)

Well, from my keyboard to God’s ears, my friends. Or maybe it was to Cactus Club owner Richard Jaffray’s ears. Whatever. Semantics.

Of course, the strangest part of the tale is that the Village Taphouse is just steps away from a very busy Cactus Club, and it might seem odd to pit them against each other. Truth is, the pre-reno Taphouse has been doing fine, picking up the overflow from the often sardine-squeezed restaurant across the street.

So maybe it will work in reverse for a while. Which is nothing to cry in your tasty local microbrew over anyway: the new dishes created by Feenie for Cactus Club are exceptional, especially at the price point. Not all of them are at every location, but look for tuna tataki in a yuzu vinaigrette for $13.50; a generous plate of beef carpaccio for the same; airy butternut squash and mascarpone ravioli for $18; and a huge serving of braised Angus beef shortrib — that at the touch of a fork falls apart like Britney Spears off her meds — served with celeriac puree, baby carrots, sweet green beans, nugget potatoes and shaved pecorino, for $30.

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