![\"Chef](\"http:\/\/jameschatto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/MW-OFLYNN1.jpg\")
<\/a>Chef O\u2019Flynn decided to draw on his European experience of dishes involving monkfish and red wine and went for fish, haggling for fresh sturgeon at Codfathers, which had stocked itself up to the gills in the hope that the mystery wine would be white. He felt the wine needed fat to balance its acids and tannins so he brought in a rich garnish of cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche, devilled egg yolk and a dab of Northern Divine caviar. He turned to beetroot to build a sturdy bridge into the heart of the wine, smoking some red beets and pur\u00e9eing them into silky, bittersweet heaven. He also made tiny cubes of beetroot jelly and a beetroot fluid gel, marinated some golden beets to the precise level of acidity of the wine and finaly made a beetroot crumble for texture. A sprinkling of crushed almond brought out the earthy note in the Pinotage and, all the time, the rich, succulent sturgeon was making its own sophisticated conversation with the fruitiness of the wine.<\/p>\n Chef Lavall\u00e9e was almost vegetarian in her approach, creating\u00a0 beautiful salad of barley and many kinds of beetroot, each one variously but perfectly textured and sliced into slender rounds. Threads of shallot and an array of radishes, sliced even more thinly, surrounded a mound of creamy, homemade quark; croutons of rye bread fried in duck fat provided an opulently rich contrast. Two dressings \u2013 a green goddess and a honey pistachio vinaigrette \u2013 brought tangy flavours to the party while crisp, crumbled fried speck and a scattering of Vancouver Island sea salt satisfied all possible cravings for saltiness. The beets and the croutons worked notably well with the wine.<\/p>\n Chef Horne felt the wine needed red meat but didn\u2019t want to do a braise. Instead he chopped a delicious venison tartare tossed with crispy bacon. He turned the bacon fat into a soft white powder that lay in little hillocks along the linear presentation of the dish. Deep-fried bannocks, broken roughly in half, did double service as a bread for the tartare and as wicked little pillows of doughnut-like richness. Chef picked up the fruit in the wine with a dusting of raisin powder and garnished for freshness with wild chickweed harvested from the Okanagan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chef Rebello offered a fascinating presentation, typical of his affection for culinary and visual puns. He cut lotus root into the shape of a marrow bone and confited it in duck fat, then he braised oxtail and spooned it inside instead of outside the \u201cbone.\u201d As so many of the chefs did, he felt the wine demanded fat on the plate, and rovided it by turning the fat from the oxtail into a dab of a\u00efoli. A delectable pur\u00e9 of lotus, cauliflower and cashew nuzzled up to the lotus; a blueberry and blackberry gastrique that was almost jelly-like in its consistency echoed the fruit flavours Chef found in the wine. The finishing touch was a wafer-thin fin of translucent potato slices sandwiching flecks of cherry and beet sprout. He called this dish \u201cIllusion.\u201d<\/p>\n Chef Eligh was next, introducing his dish by saying he \u201cwanted to keep it simple.\u201d He chose to work with duck, a Yarrow Meadows duck breast, to be precise, perfectly tender and spiced with star anise, cinnamon, allspice and fennel \u2013 a single perfect slice of the meat lay upermost on the dish, fringed with fat and a nicely crisped skin. Beneath it was a mound of impeccably textured lentils dressed with a rich bacon vinaigrette while parsnip manned the flanks, on the left as a silky pur\u00e9e, on the right as crispy shards. Fronds of fresh fennel weed brought fresh, aniseedy flavour. It was a multi-faceted approach to the earthy spice of the wine that paid dividends while the Pinotage itself provided the dish with a fruity element that so often flatters duck.<\/p>\n Chef Hill also gave us duck, smoking the breast and presenting a slice of it pink and medium-rare. Showing impressive skills as a shopper, he bought four lobes of foie gras with much of the rest of his budget and spread them among the multitude by turning them into a mousse stretched with emulsified agar-agar and egg yolk. It tasted beautifully of foie and had the desired effect of taming the tannin in the wine. Beet also played a role \u2013 as a broad stripe of red beet pur\u00e9e and shards of golden beet on top of the duck. Pungent micro-arugula and hazelnut dust added more colour to Chef\u2019s flavour palette while camolina oil, with its pleasing grassy note, and leeks confited in duck fat further boosted the richness of the dish. The most successful link into the wine remained the smokiness of the duck and the fatty, salty umami that lurked all over the plate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chef Park turned to pork and blood to tame the wine, cooking a soft boudin noir flecked with slightly firmer mini-dice of pork belly: the whole pudding looked disarmingly like a chocolate brownie. Jerusalem artichokes were everywhere \u2013 as crispy chips and also as a luxe, caramelized pur\u00e9e invigorated by pur\u00e9ed Granny Smith apple and hidden inside a crispy shell. Roasted vanilla oat crumble was strewn like granola and a second crumble of salty bacon added to the overall intensity of flavour. A smudge of vanilla dust kept its distance on the edge of the plate, in case we decided the granola needed reinforcements.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chef Bohati decided chilled, nose-to-tail pork would provide the necessary fattiness to match the Pinotage. He made an oniony pork-belly rillette shaped like a sausage and flavoured with five-spice then set it over an a\u00efoli of smoked ham hock sweetened with vanilla bean. A crispy blood wonton furthered the porcine cause, as did crispy deep-fried pig ear dusted with five spice powder. Earthiness came courtesy of marinated enoki and shiitake mushrooms; freshness was provided by a tissue-thin slice of compressed pear, prepared with some of the wine, lemon, cinnamon and sugar.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chef Garland nailed the identity of the wine, characterizing it as \u201chot, with ripe fruit, warm spices, potent\u2026\u201d and matching it with juicy, shredded braised lamb shank. Those warm spices were echoed by white and black pepper, vanilla, clove and cinnamon in the braising liquid and by the black pepper and rosemary in a delicate biscuit. Fennel, tarragon and pea shoot salad with a walnut vinaigrette offered big fresh flavours and another line of approach into the wine. Crispy leeks were perfumed with sage and a smoked ham hock and red wine reduction was an extra sauce on the plate.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chef Jean gave us a dramatic presentation with his elements artfully arranged on just one side of the plate. His main protein was a coffee-rubbed short rib, seared and medium rare in the Korean style then sliced as if it were tenderloin. Beneath this was a white navy bean pur\u00e9e and a jumble various delectable things \u2013 brussels sprout leaves tossed with butter and speck, caramelized pearl onions, crunchy hazelnuts \u2013 all making significant contributions of taste and texture. A tangy wild blueberry gastrique worked well with the Pinotage and an unexpected hit of gorgonzola on the plate was a star turn, nicely meeting the rough-and-ready charm of the wine.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>