The other night at the Dirty Apron cooking school, the Chefs’ Table Society hosted a launch party for their new cookbook, Vancouver Cooks 2. Several contributing chefs served up samples of their recipes from the book using the school’s many stations, while dozens of guests from the media and the restaurant world sipped on Mission Hill wines, R&B Sun God Wheat Ale, and bottles of Chambar’s signature brew…

The book – a long labour of collective love edited by Joan Cross, Jamie Maw, and myself with a lovely foreword by Vicki Gabereau – sees over 100 recipes for the home cook by nearly 70 of BC’s best chefs. It has been available at Barbara Jo’s Books To Cooks for the past few weeks, but now the distribution and sales start in earnest.

If you haven’t purchased a copy yet, please consider buying several. Not only do they make handsome editions to any coffee table or kitchen shelf, they’re also perfect gifts for Christmas. Those who purchase the book can be happy in the knowledge that all royalties go to the Chefs’ Table Scholarship and Bursary Fund, supporting and shepherding the next generation of Vancouver cooks.

As I said in my little speech that night, this book is an accomplishment our city’s restaurant community can really be proud of. To see chefs and restaurateurs from competing establishments come together for a selfless common purpose is a rare thing, a phenomenon that I think is exclusive to this province. It was an incredible experience being a part of this book’s production, one I won’t soon forget.

On behalf of my co-editors Jamie Maw and Joan Cross, I’d like to once again extend our many thanks to Tiffany Soper and Michelle Sproule (my wife) for their tireless wrangling and organisational prowess; to Sid Cross for his dozens of BC wine pairings (and behind-the-scenes guidance); to CTS president Pino Posteraro for his leadership and navigation; to Lucy Kenward and Chris LaBonte at Douglas & McIntyre for their forthrightness and always open minds; to photographers Shannon Mendes and John Sherlock for their appetite-accelerating artistry (just look at Stephane Istel’s pork belly on pg.136); and to all the many dozens of chefs, chefs de cuisine, pastry chefs, and sous chefs who instantly recognised what we were trying to accomplish with this book and took time from their busy lives to do something that would enrich our culinary community for the better. Thank you.

Who are the chefs depicted in the photo?

STANDING, Left to Right: Nico Schuerman (Chambar), Dave Robertson (Dirty Apron), Yuji Otsuka (Yuji’s), John Bishop (Bishop’s), Robert Clark (C, Nu, Raincity Grill), Mary Mackay (Terra Breads), Cameron Hock (Terra Breads), Angus An (Maenam, Gastropod Catering), Alessandra Quaglia (Provence), Julian Bond (PICA), Robert Belcham (Fuel, Campagnolo), Dino Renaerts (Diva at the Met), Neil Wyles (Hamilton Street Grill), Stephane Istel (DB Bistro), Bruno Marti (La Belle Auberge).

CROUCHING, Left to Right: Todd Hodgins (Pair Bistro), James Campbell (Tomato Fresh Food Cafe), I think that’s a few inches of Marc-Andre Choquette (Voya), Sean Riley (Glowbal Group), Pino Posteraro (Cioppino’s), Tina Fineza (The Flying Tiger), Vikram Vij (Vij’s, Rangoli), Quang Dang (C Restaurant), Don Letendre (Elixir Bistro), Jean Francis Quaglia (Provence), Dale Mackay (Lumiere), Nicholas Lim (Gusto di Quattro), and Neil Taylor (Cibo Trattoria, Uva Wine Bar)

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