Smoked Salmon and Prawn Party Shooters.

Here is a tasty appetizer Smoked Salmon or Spot Prawn Shooters. In a stainless or glass bowl make a salsa. 1/2 cup each of diced 1/4”cubes of nectarine or peach, avocado mango and papaya. ½ a cup of fine chopped cilantro.   ½ cup chopped green onion 1 tbs. of chopped garlic, ginger and shallot. 1/4 cup of fine chopped pistachios or cashews.   Add one deseeded and fine chopped red jalapeno pepper. Use a red sweet bell pepper in place of if required. Add 2oz. of some Vodka.   Add fresh squeezed juice with pulp from 1 orange, 1 lemon and 1 lime. Add 1 tbs. of extra virgin...

Red Hot & Blue Vegetarian Boogie

Red Hot & Blue Vegetarian Boogie!     Red Hot & Blue was the first restaurant as an executive chef that I got to be part of the design team during the inception both in front and back of the house. I created the initial theme menus along with the kitchen design and conception. This flag ship restaurant was a tribute to musicians and their music. The owners with strong roots in the music industry built the restaurant in a Toronto Yonge Street office tower which was home to twenty five hundred workers. The restaurant sat 350 people and had an express pasta...

Gazpacho Elixir

Gazpacho Elixir Working as an Executive Chef means that you must possess decorum, accountability and the ability to speak in front of a group of people besides being a humble cook. Over the years I have had to lecture on the proper methods and procedures of cooking too many teams of staff. I also had to converse to guests and diners about my style of cuisine. I gave many presentations at dinner parties and seminars as well as a lot of cooking demonstrations. One of these venues I liked to do was the International Ploughing Match because of my connection to farmers and...

Christmas Prime Rib of Beef

Christmas Prime Rib of Beef Here is the prime rib and Yorkshire pudding recipe that has been requested. Makes me hungry for a good feed. For the beef to qualify it has to be free of bruises, evenly marbled steer meat, dry aged for at least 29 days and a one inch thick fat cap is also required. Start by rubbing a spice mixture which contains equal amounts of kosher salt, garlic powder, beef base, ground black pepper, keens mustard powder and mild paprika. The spice rub is most important to making a tender roast. Massage this mixture all over the room temperature beef until...

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....

Seafood and Chicken Paella

Seafood and Chicken Paella On the Mediterranean coast, Valencians used seafood instead of meat and beans to make paella. Valencians regard this recipe as authentic as well. In this recipe the seafood is served unshelled. A variant on this is paella del senyoret which utilizes shelled seafood. Later, however, Spaniards living outside of Valencia combined these two recipes and mixed paella was born. During the 20th century, paella’s popularity spread past Spain’s borders. As other cultures set out to make paella, the dish invariably acquired regional influences....