Salted Vine Partnered With Foxtrot Vineyards For An Epic Lunch at Cornucopia

Last week we decided to partake in some Cornucopia activities and bought tickets for aluncheon at a private residence catered by Salted Vine, a restaurant in Squamish, . I’d done this lunch series before in past years and always loved the intimacy of the event and the fact you get to check out someone’s awesome home.

Tess and I and about 35 others headed up into the hills on a coach bus to the house that was hosting the lunch and the views were perfect. It was a brilliant sunny day and just crisp enough to suggest winter wasn’t far. I dined at Salted Vine last summer and had really enjoyed it, so was looking forward to tasting Jeff Park’s cuisine and Pat Allan’s hospitality and wasn’t disappointed! A bonus was the winery that was paired with Salted Vine was Foxtrot from the Naramata Bench and they served up a stunning Chardonnay and two excellent Pinot Noirs.

First Course was a Hamachi Crudo with chili lemon vinaigrette, watermelon radish, yuzu gel and crisp shallots. What I most love about Chef Park’s cooking is his attention to textures. This dish was a perfect example of this skill.

Next we enjoyed a Chestnut and Squash Tortelloni with brown butter sauce, walnut and a shaning of burgundy truffles.

Wagyu Short Rib was braised in red wine and served with a crispy polenta and marinated vegetables. It put recent memories of short rib to shame, the meat was so flavourful.

For dessert Park served a White Chocolate Panna Cotta with rum pineapple, passionfruit gel and almond crumble alongside the Inniskillin Riesling Ice Wine.

Gustav Allander, the winemaker from Foxtrot explains the wines.

We sat with a great group of people, some insurance guys who gave us a ride back when it looked like the bus would make me late for my ride down, the caretaker of the house and a chef who we had much to chat about with. Highly recommend these lunches and will definitely get to one in 2019.