The Classic Chateau Briand

The Classic Chateau Briand. Working at Hotel Vancouver during my apprenticeship The Timber Room and the Panorama Dinning Rooms steak nights were popular on a regular bases. For those having a special dinner out the Classic Chateau Briand for two was beautiful aged beef tenderloin done to perfection. If you were a capable cook the sous chef would give you the privilege to work one of the cooking stations during these orchestrated periods of chaos. When the lunch or dinner hour was in full swing you had to be ready to produce your part of the menu at least 40 or 50 times....

Finding Seafood Nirvana

Finding Seafood Nirvana Shopping for some quality fresh seafood has become more detective work tracking down where it where and when and who caught it. Most of the my best recipes start with a good selection of fresh wild caught and prepared shellfish. Lots of chemicals used for fish preservation, especially from foreign companies using forced labour and under the radar practise of over fishing and protected species. Even today I still have not found a seafood purveyor like the fish surgeons at One Fish Two Fish in Langley BC or at the Satellite Fish Company Sidney BC and...

Pork Torchière

Pork Torchière You can never underestimate what your followers ask for the most. Folks seem to enjoy my other retro recipes like French Torchière which is a traditional French-Canadian Meat Pie. If you happened to spend Thanksgiving in Quebec The feast is an old tradition from France called “Réveillon”. The torchière is a French-Canadian meat pie that originated in the province of Quebec in Canada as early as 1600. Most recipes for torchière include ground pork and other ground meats. The torchière is a traditional part of celebrations in Quebec, but the pie is also...

You Say Perogy’s, I Say Varenyky&#...

You Say Perogy’s, I Say Varenyky’s! Authentic Perogy’s A large solid wood table sat in the kitchen with my grandfather’s hand crafted homestead chair’s and well hued benches which could easily sit a dozen people. This vast table was used as the main preparation table that all my aunts and us kids sat at while hand prepping the many perogy’s, cabbage rolls, and other cultural delicacies from early homestead recipes. Easter and Christmas season meant lots of company to feed. My Ukrainian born mother and Romanian father had 21 siblings between them and about half...

Waterloo County Mennonite Summer Sausage...

Waterloo County Mennonite Summer Sausage. One of my main objectives was to get a good sampling of some Waterloo County Mennonite summer sausage directly from the source. I have tried several of the farmers market varieties like; original Recipe Schneider’s Summer Sausage in a cloth sock is still produced in small batches, Original recipe KW Fiedlermeat. Noah Martins, Kitchen Kutting’s, Heidelberg Foods, Stemmler’s and many more across the Canadian prairies still using original ingredients and seasoned smokers with …old age. Some of the sausage meisters use the...