Scout works with a lot of local restaurants to get the word out about the cool and delicious things they’re doing, but they couldn’t do what they do without access to awesome ingredients. To get what they need, culinary creatives depend on personal networks of passionate artisans, farmers and producers who often work hard without ever seeing the glory they deserve. Since it’s always good to recognize those who have your back, we bring you the Supplier Shout Out!

Today we turn to Amanda Healey, Head Chef at Royal Dinette. She chose to highlight the young Abbotsford farm that supplies her kitchen with, among other things, a hugely underrated ingredient: sunchokes. Take special note that this is the final week to get a taste of Healey’s delicious dish, which is pictured below.

Which one of your suppliers do you want to draw attention to? Earth Apple Organic Farm, Abbotsford.

What are you look forward to using that they supply? What makes them so special? Sunchokes. Earth Apple Organic Farm harvests their sunchokes in the Glen Valley, BC. As an ingredient, sunchokes are very versatile and can be prepared in different ways to highlight the sweetness, earthiness, crispness and depth of flavour that they exhibit. This has meant that we can use them to create a vegetarian (can be vegan) dish on the menu at Royal Dinette.

How can we get a taste? Which of your dishes features what they supply? Our menu features ‘Earth Apple’ sunchoke, foraged greens, RD buffalo milk ricotta, vegetable jus for $28. We get a lot of guests with dietary restrictions and this dish allows us to cater to them very easily. Sunchokes are hearty enough to substantiate being the focus of the dish. They are served in three different ways: roasted whole, fried and shaved raw. They are paired with a buffalo milk ricotta that we make in house from buffalo milk sourced at ‘Tesfa Farm’. Our forager, Lance brings in miners lettuce, chick weed or other foraged greens. The dish uses our RD Vegetable Jus which is result of all our our vegetable scraps in the kitchen cooked down for weeks. This dish will be available throughout May.

How fleeting or seasonal is the supply? Sunchokes are available from Early Fall until Spring. The cold earth in winter makes them sweeter so that’s when they are in peak season but with such cold winters like this year, we are still enjoying beautiful sunchokes and will be for a little while longer.

Is there a local glass of wine or beer that you like to suggest alongside it? We choose to pair our sunchoke dish with Neon Eon’s 2018 Zweigelt Pet Nat from West Kelowna, BC.

Royal Dinette

Neighbourhood: Downtown

905 Dunsmuir St.

(Closed)

604-974-8077

WEBSITE