We welcome Rochelle Lockhart to Good Life Vancouver. Congrats on her first post to our site.
You’re at the Hyatt Regency, third floor, the room’s packed, you’re standing there with a glass of wine in one hand and a prawn canapé in the other, you wait. Anticipation is high, tonight you have the opportunity to sample dishes from some of greater Vancouver’s top restaurants and be part of a select few who get to experience flavour combinations best suited for culinary war.
You contemplate whether you should remain where you are for a few moments longer, enjoy another glass and allow that anticipation to build but you don’t, so you enter the ballroom, drop your things and take a walk. You head north, to other side of the room where a series of stations–makeshift kitchens/distribution centers/visiting posts–are set up for each participant.
Displayed at each station is a sample of what you could potentially have for dinner, or dessert, if you’re lucky enough to draw that restaurant’s card. Each sample is perfect, arranged much like an ornament to impress both you, the consumer, and the judges.
This year’s Healthy Chef Competition, organized by the BC Produce Association, took place mid March. Nine restaurants competed for the healthiest chef, people’s choice, best entree, dessert and table top awards: Hyatt Regency Vancouver, River Rock Casino, Preston’s, Dynasty Seafood Restaurant, Copper Chimney, the Grand Dynasty, Tivoli, the Art Institute of Vancouver and the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. Pictured above was the cured salmon starter from the Hyatt Regency.
The Art Institute of Vancouver wooed the crowd and won the People’s Choice Award. To be honest, it’s not a surprise, the sous vide sword fish with tropical fruit salsa and grilled papaya puree was amazing and it didn’t hurt that it was topped off with coconut lime rice and pan seared scallop carefully placed on top of pickled fennel and asparagus salad.
The Arts Institute carried the fruit and lime theme into the dessert with Napoleon fruit coated in coconut and served with lime .
Tivoli’s produced the best entree. Their roasted, grain-fed CAB Beef Tenderloin was complimented by a nine vegetable ragout and applewood smoked Yukon gold gratin potatoes, the perfect balance of original flavour without any attempt to skew the natural taste of each ingredient. For dessert, port poached bartlett pear, white chocolate cherry parfait and fruit salsa.
Copper Chimney made a bold move and was recognized for it with the best dessert award. Imagine a mousse cake, popular in Europe, made with poppy seed and mango paired up with coconut pitaya fruit cake. Don’t forget the berry coulis, dark chocolate and caramel swirl.
Although the River Rock won for best tabletop presentation, and indeed their presentation was good, that’s not the detail that stands out. River Rock made this avocado green tea shake that makes you want to scour the internet for a recipe because it’s something you’d want to have every morning as you rush out the door. Their entree, seafood soup packed with prawns, red snapper, scallops, coconut milk, fresh vegetables plus sambal oelek, unforgettable.
Healthy Chef Award? Well, that went to Preston’s. Baked sablefish carefully placed on forbidden rice and served with a medley of stir fried vegetables and black bean sauce. It was the right balance between incredible and a bit mysterious. As for the dessert, goat cheese cake with vanilla parsnip gelato, beet compote, and sunflower seeds praline, an combination of ingredients that worked but wouldn’t normally be used in this way. The Healthy Chef awards proved once again that local, fresh, clean ingredients trumps some of the unhealthy elements that traditionally make a lot of popular dishes to die for.
