Dancing in the Isles
It’s always exciting to bring the Gold Medal Plates phenomenon to a new city. Last night we were, for the first time, in Victoria, British Columbia, where chefs from the city challenged their colleagues from elsewhere on Vancouver island, from Vancouver itself and from Sonora Island to see who would win the gold medal and progress to Kelowna in February. It was an extraordinary evening with a sold-out crowd of 500 completely involved in proceedings, with emcee Adam Kreek in fine form and more dancing to the music than I’ve ever seen at any GMP event. It seemed like half the room was up and rocking to a veritable orchestra of musicians – Jim Cuddy, Barney Bentall, Dustin Bentall and Kendal Carson, John Mann and Geoffrey Kelly from Spirit of the West, and trumpeter Daniel Lapp.
The competing chefs also performed brilliantly, crossing the line like some kind of gastronomic peleton, all marks tightly bunched within a mere 12 percentage points. Fortunately, I had a brilliant team of judges to help me sort them out, led by co-Senior Judge, educator and international wine and food guru Sid Cross and co-Senior judge, author and editor, Andrew Morrison, alongside writer, blogger, editor and culinary judge, Shelora Sheldan, hotelier, international food and wine judge and Slow Food ambassador, Dr. Sinclair Philip, former chef, sommelier and innkeeper, now writer and editor, Gary Hynes, and last year’s gold medallist from our Vancouver competition, Chef Mark Filatow of Waterfront Restaurant and Wine Bar in Kelowna.
Taking the bronze medal was Terry Pichor of Sonora Resort on Sonora Island. Ambitiously, he included a foie-gras-filled raviolo on his plate, pulling off the textural challenge in a masterful way for the pasta was tender and the foie almost liquid. Under the raviolo was a cushion of duck leg confit surrounded by a rich butternut squash purée but the dish’s main focus were two slices of duck breast that chef had brined poached in duck fat with star anise, the pink meat ending up with the sleek and juicy texture of ham. A number of garnishes added nuance. Black garlic granola had a very fine texture, sprinkled onto the ravioli with a spoonful of the duck’s natural jus bolstered by a brunoise of pine mushroom. Candied squash seeds and a sprinkling of vividly purple young beet seedlings completed the plate. Chef Pichor chose Foxtrot Vineyard’s 2010 Pinot Noir from the Naramata Bench, a wine that picked up the mushrooms and brought a refreshing acidity to the dish.
Our silver medal was won by Darren Brown, executive chef of the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel in Vancouver. He worked with local Camp River Farms pork belly, deliberately grown to be leaner than most pork belly, confiting it in Kahlua and carving a thin slice that had a lovely crust and a flavour like first-class bacon. The meat lay on a pool of poi made not with the traditional starchy taro but with much lighter lotus root, coconut and heart of palm. Limning the poi was a second sauce, a sweet pineapple and maple-mustard glaze thickened by a syrup made from Chef’s chosen wine. Sprinkled on top were some tangy mustard seeds, slices of crunchy betel nut, a cross of puffed white pork cracklings and a scattering of dehydrated pineapple flecks that worked particularly well with the wine. A final flourish of welcome green came from a floret of baby bok choy. And the wine? An old friend – JoieFarm Winery’s delicious 2012 Noble Blend, an Alsatian-style melange of Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Pinot Blanc, Auxerrois and Schoenberger.
Who won gold? Chef Brian Skinner of The Acorn in Vancouver, who achieved the exceedingly rare feat of winning at GMP with a vegetarian dish. His dish was a casual assembly of pale drums, some of them cut from smoked king oyster mushrooms, others turning out to be confited potatoes. Thumbelina carrots had been roasted to soft caramelization while others had been turned into “carrot meringue” like shards of paper-thin wafer. Minute braised shallots no bigger than chickpeas were a sweet component while acidity came from dots of intensely flavoured sherry fluid gel. A combination of mushrooms were used to make the fragrant mushroom jus and the coup de grace was a scattering of wild-foraged watercress. The dish was relatively simple but most effective, with every ingredient coming from within 100 miles of his restaurant, and the wine pairing worked on many levels. Clos du Soleil’s 2012 Chegwin & Baessler Pinot Blanc is delightfully aromatic with a hint of sweetness that worked with the carrot and shallot components and a sly acidity boosted by the sherry gel, all in a fine balance.
All in all, Victoria provided a very welcoming and energized West Coast adventure and Chef Skinner will be just as welcome in Kelowna in February. Next stop – tonight – is Saskatoon!
And now here is the Victoria Wine report by GMP’s National Wine Advisor, the great David Lawrason
An eclectic brew of local spirits, beers and wines from both Vancouver Island and the Okanagan spiced up a very lively night in Victoria, as Gold Medal Plates touched down in the B.C. capital for the first time. And Victoria can dance, demanding a double encore from the seven musicians who performed well passed the appointed hour.
So maybe the winning beverage this night packed more than great flavours. It was a creative blend of Granville Island Sake and Long Table Gin that took off in several herbal and citrus directions but was grounded by a beautiful texture. It was paired with an equally exotic risotto, onsen egg and salmon roe by Mokoto Ono of Pidgen.
But the cocktail only prevailed by one point over the runner-up wine – Clos de Soleil 2012 Pinot Blanc Growers Series from Similkameen growers Chegwin and Baessler. Made by BC/Ontario winemaker Ann Sperling it was a subtle but complex wine with a great sense of taut power and length. And two Okanagan classics tied for third position: Synchromesh 2012 Thorny Vines Riesling and Meyer Family 2011 McLean Road Vineyard Pinot Noir.
The Best of Show Wine Award is a judging of all the wines in each city to recognize the generosity of the Canadian wine industry, which each year counts over 60 wineries as donors. The winning wineries have increased odds in a draw to spend a week at Borgo San Felice in Tuscany.
Our judging panel I was joined by two very talented and incredibly knowledgeable ladies who care deeply about the progress of wine in Canada. Both are good friends, and colleagues at WineAlign.com where we judge the National Wine Awards of Canada.
DJ Kearney of Vancouver is a widely travelled wine writer, judge and educator, perhaps best known for her work with Vancouver Magazine, and as the director of the VanMag Wine Awards. Treve Ring has been raised right here in Victoria. She is writing for Eat Magazine, Sip Northwest and Edible Canada, and was a major contributor to a prize winning book called Island Wineries of British Columbia.
In all over 20 wines, beers and spirits were poured in Victoria – the number bumped by the kind donation by three Vancouver Island wineries: Averilll Creek and Enrico from the Cowichan Valley, and deVine from Saanich. The day prior I went ‘up Island’ to visit Averill Creek, a stunning property focused on sleek, bright, mineral-driven estate grown pinot noir and pinot gris. Owners Andy and Wendy Johnson poured four wines at the Gold Medal Plates VIP Reception.
I also visited Unsworth Vineyards, and impressive 12-acre start-up that just completed a new winery this autumn, and boasts a fine dining restaurant near Cobble Hill in the Cowichan Valley. Unsworth paired with local Duncan chef Daniel Hudon, providing a crisp, tidy almost muscadet-like white called Allegro that blends of pinot gris, pinot noir and a hybrid called petit milo.
In terms of the winning wines that went to the podium with the winning chefs, the bronze medal went to the complex, powerful Foxtrot 2010 Pinot Noir paired with chef Terry Pichor’s duck-foie gras-butternut squash ravioli. Silver went to the always populat Joie Farm 2012 Noble Blend which was expertly matches to Darren Brown’s pork belly. The gold spotlight shone again on Clos du Soleil 2012 Pinot Blanc, paired with Brian Skinner’s vegetarian dish that included smoked king oyster mushroom.
Other beverages included an excellent Twisted Oak Scotch Ale by Victoria’s Phillips Brewing, a pair of delicious martini’s by Victoria Gin and Merridale Cider from Vancouver Island.