{"id":1675,"date":"2011-11-18T08:22:14","date_gmt":"2011-11-18T13:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1675"},"modified":"2012-05-01T10:13:25","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T15:13:25","slug":"st-johns-gold-medal-plates-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/?p=1675","title":{"rendered":"St. John’s Gold Medal Plates 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The bronze medal winner from chef Tony Velinov of Bistro Sofia - not at all what it seems<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All good things come to an end and the weather finally caught up with us in St. John\u2019s last night as the Gold Medal Plates team blew in for the final gala of the year. But a little drizzle failed to put even the suggestion of a damper on things (they\u2019ve seen worse here) as an exuberant local crowd packed the Convention Centre. And when our event was over we found the rain had stopped and we stepped out into a mild clear night to make our way to the first after-party at the Majestic.<\/p>\n

The music is always a particularly important part of our visits to Newfoundland and Labrador and last night we were delighted to hear Jim Cuddy, Anne Lindsay, guitar whizz Colin Cripps and local star Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea. Their rocking blue-grass version of Honkey-tonk Woman had the whole room in an uproar. The trips we auction off fetched Rock-solid prices and the keynote speakers were awesome \u2013 especially Catriona Le May Doan and the great Scotty Bowman, who was interviewed beautifully by Seamus O\u2019Regan and received the first of the evening\u2019s several standing ovations.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the food side of things, the judges worked hard, as always \u2013 an admirable team led by Senior Judge for St. John\u2019s, television, radio and print journalist Karl Wells and including chef and educator Bob Arneil, restaurateur, food consultant and food stylist Kitty Drake, food columnist and all-round gastronomic guru Cynthia Stone, renowned local chef Todd Perrin and last year\u2019s gold medal winner, chef Jeremy Charles. Standards were very high and there was no run-away winner, with only two percentage points separating first, second and third.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our bronze medal went \u2013 for the first time ever in Gold Medal Plates history \u2013 to a dessert. Chef Tony Velinov of Bistro Sofia was the brave man who decided to bring forth something from the sweet kitchen, though more than a couple of guests did a double take before realizing it. What looked like a small burger with fries and ketchup was nothing of the sort. The bun was soft sesame cake, the slice of cheese was firm apricot jelly, the patty was a disc of stiff chocolate mousse and the fries were crunchy sable biscuit, perfect for dipping into the tart raspberry ketchup. The only component of the dish that really was what it seemed were the rashers of crispy bacon in the \u201cburger\u201d but they had been candied. Indeed, the salty bacon worked beautifully with the chocolate and added a new level of sophistication to the whole witty idea. Chef Velinov\u2019s wine match worked nearly perfectly \u2013 the Peller Estates sparkling Ice Cuv\u00e9e, a lively bubbly sweetened with a dosage of Icewine.<\/p>\n

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Chef Chris Chafe of Magnum and Steins won the silver medal with four cuts of lamb<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our silver medal went to Chris Chafe, a talented young man of 24 who is chef at the veteran St. John\u2019s establishment, Magnum and Steins. He worked with lamb, offering four different cuts and four different cooking methods. First there was a thick slice of a soft, caseless lamb sausage \u2013 something like a muergez \u2013 made from the shoulder and smoky roasted red pepper. It crowned a mound of creamy celeriac pur\u00e9e. Beside this we found some of the pulled leg meat of the lamb, moist and well-seasoned, set on a tiny round of toasted focaccia, a raft it shared with caramelized onion, a herby ragout of chanterelles and a partially dried tomato. A nicely frenched lamb chop was the third element, cooked rare and full of flavour, set over a hillock of what chef called \u201crisotto\u201d but was really finely chopped potato in a creamy, parmesan-spiked sauce. The fourth lamb moment was a crisp fried raviolo filled with osso bucco. Scattered over everything, adding colour and tang were glistening red beads of \u201ccaviar\u201d made from the wine Chef Chafe chose \u2013 the terrific Van Bers Vineyard 2008 Cabernet Franc from Tawse winery in Niagara.<\/p>\n

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Goat brought hom the gold for chef Mike Barsky of Bacalao<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u00a0Our gold winner was a chef who has really been building his approach over the last two years of Gold Medal Plates St. John\u2019s \u2013 Mike Barsky from Bacalao. He chose to work with local goats, putting no fewer than 11 separate components on his plate. Slices of the seared loin were the major element, the meat rare, juicy and admirably tender, dressed with a classic demiglace of red wine and partridgeberries. A goat rillette was crusted with pank crumbs and fried to create a scrumptious little croquette the size of a loonie. Beneath it was a spoonful of smooth, creamy mousse made from the goat\u2019s brains. Two slices of pickled goat tongue were propped up against brussels sprouts petals. There was a comma of bright yellow saffron goat-milk pudding and some crunchy crumbs of crumbled goat cheese sabl\u00e9. Two dots of goat curd vinaigrette stood apart from the well-composed arrangement, matched by two perfectly turned spheres of turnip. All in all, it was an amazingly labour-intensive offering but it ate beautifully, paired with the Pinot Noir Reserve from Pelee Island Winery.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, Mike Barsky now joins a potent line-up who have until February to prepare for the Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna \u2013 Michael Dacquisto from Winnipeg, Jean-Philippe Saint-Denis from Montreal, Mike Dekker from Calgary, Jan Trittenbach from Edmonton, Rob Feenie from Vancouver, Anthony McCarthy from Saskatchewan, Jonathan Gushue representing Toronto and Marc Lepine from Ottawa-Gatineau. I\u2019m already pondering what fiendish items to hide in the black box for that part of the competition \u2013 and I\u2019m sure David Lawrason has an idea of what the mystery wine will be\u2026 It\u2019s going to be extraordinarily good fun.<\/p>\n

And here is David Lawrason’s wine report from St. John’s – very aptly titled, in my opinion.<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s Wine Report \u2013 The Party\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 by David Lawrason<\/p>\n

With fewer chefs (only eight competed) and less access to Canadian wines from the mainland, the wine component of Gold Medal Plates St. John\u2019s was clearly not as strong as in other cities. But there was plenty of it consumed, along with Molson\u2019s M beer as St. John\u2019s turned out to party.<\/p>\n

Several chefs sought my help in finding pairing partners, but I would like to defer to and thank St. John\u2019s GMP Chairman Scott Giannou of Beverage World for his help in co-ordinating so much of the wine presence, as well as donating the Moonlight wines by Andrew Peller to the Celebration and Awards portion of the evening<\/p>\n

I was joined by two of Newfoundland\u2019s most prominent wine palates to find our Best of Show Wine Award. Local wine connoisseur Tom Beckett of Beckett on Wine is widely known as one of the most experienced palates on the Rock. Stephen Delaney is a former area rep for the Opimian society who writes a wine column for the St. John\u2019s Telegram. It was my first time working with these two gentlemen and I was impressed by their fastidious note taking and rating of the wines.<\/p>\n

Our opinons on the best wines lined up well, with a unanimous choice of Tawse 2008 Van Bers Vineyard Cabernet Franc as Best Wine of Show. From an organically farmed vineyard just on the escarpment downslope in the Twenty Mile Bench this was impressive indeed with much more richness and depth than expected from the vintage. Second place was awarded to the complex, firm Le Clos Jordanne 2008 Village Reserve from Niagara, and third spot went to the very well balanced off-dry Andrew Peller Ice Cuvee sparkler.<\/p>\n

The wine that accompanied the Gold Medal winning chef Michael Barsky\u2019s inventive goat-inspired dish was Pelee Island 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve, a quite successful match. Other chef-paired wines included Henry of Pelham Cuvee Catharine Brut, Peninsula Ridge 2008 Chardonnay Reserve and a delicious Eric\u2019s Cream Ale from St. John\u2019s Quiddi Vidi Bewery.<\/p>\n

And that was a wrap \u2013 nine cities almost 100 wines and beers later. It was a fascinating tapestry of Canadian wining and dining.<\/p>\n

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All good things come to an end and the weather finally caught up with us in St. John\u2019s last night as the Gold Medal Plates team blew in for the final gala of the year. But a little drizzle failed to put even the suggestion of a damper on things (they\u2019ve seen worse here) as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,92],"tags":[544,548,545,542,546,543,547],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1675"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1954,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1675\/revisions\/1954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}