Tasting Room Radio - August 22, 2012

David Hawksworth and Friends Culinary Adventure 2012


One of the most exciting culinary events in the country returns for its sixth year at the West Coast Fishing Club. David Hawksworth & Friends Culinary Adventure 2012 was hosted at The Clubhouse on Langara Island, one of the properties of West Coast Fishing Club’s collection of luxury fishing lodges, situated in Haida Gwaii, one of the most remote and breathtaking regions of the Pacific Northwest.

Chef Hawksworth, fresh from the hot opening of his first eponymous restaurant – Hawksworth (Best New Restaurant in Canada, Maclean’s magazine) – located at Vancouver’s Rosewood Hotel Georgia, is joined this year by celebrity Chef Marc Thuet. Thuet is best known for his gourmet food shop in Toronto – Petit Thuet – and more recently for his starring role in reality TV show Conviction Kitchen. One of Vancouver’s rapidly rising star chefs Dale MacKay (ensemble and etap) returns to the Resort where he earned his first ever Executive Chef posting. Also in the mix is Clubhouse Executive Chef Tim Bedford. Esteemed wine expert Mark Davidson (Sommelier and Wine Educator) will join the two chefs in presenting a weekend of gourmet chef dinners, hands-on cooking classes and wine seminars, luxurious lodgings and incomparable fishing and outdoor wilderness adventures.

The Clubhouse is situated on Langara Island’s highest point offering spectacular views of pristine ocean and lush, green rain forest, not to mention the best salmon fishing in the world. This is the ultimate luxury retreat with a culinary twist showcasing Canada’s premier chefs from East and West.


David Hawksworth

Chef/Owner - Hawksworth at The Rosewood Hotel Georgia

Chef David Hawksworth is Winner of seven Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards in 2012, including Restaurant of the Year and Chef of the Year, as well as accolades from enRoute magazine and numerous others, Hawksworth has anchored himself at the helm of the Vancouver dining scene. A native Vancouverite who spent a decade honing his talents in Europe working in Michelin-starred kitchens such as Le Manoir aux Qaut’ Saisons, L’Escargot and The Square, David Hawksworth soon emerged as one of Canada’s leading culinary talents upon his return in summer 2000. With Hawksworth at the helm, Vancouver’s West restaurant became a perennial winner at the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards and drew attention from international media who immediately recognized his talents. In 2008 David was named to Western Living’s ‘Top 40 under 40’ and became the youngest chef inductee in to the British Columbia Restaurant Hall of Fame.

Marc Thuet, Tim Bedford Dale MacKay David Hawksworth

David Hawksworth donates his time to various charitable causes and is especially committed to Fishing for Kids, a charity tournament that benefits the Canucks Autism Network and B.C. Children’s Hospital.


Marc Thuet

Chef/Owner - Petite Thuet, Toronto

Marc Thuet is a fourth-generation chef who grew up on a farm near Blodelsheim, Alsace. At age six, his pre-school duties included helping his mother peel her white asparagus crop for market. From there he graduated to plucking pheasant and partridge and skinning rabbit and hare – and finally, at the ripe age of twelve, he began his culinary apprenticeship the kitchen of his uncle’s restaurant, Chez Pierre. Next he enrolled in the Institut Régional de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie, in Strasbourg. Two years later he graduated with top honours, and took on a series of stages in the best restaurant kitchens in Alsace. Then, aged nineteen, he left for London, England, to take a job as commis under Anton Mosimann at the Dorchester Hotel. He was working there at the Terrace restaurant when it became the first hotel restaurant outside of France to ever earn two Michelin stars.

In 1984 Thuet quit for Toronto, working briefly at the Hilton before settling in more happily at the Windsor Arms and its iconic Three Small Rooms. Next, he moved uptown to Centro Grill & Wine Bar, where he eventually became co-owner. It was over his nine highly successful years in the kitchen there that chef Thuet established his inimitable culinary style: a highly imaginative application of French and other classic techniques to the best available Canadian ingredients – with often surprising results. His plates were always complex, but their many flavours always shone through with clarity. The style was often mimicked, but never duplicated.

2002, left Centro for a fresh challenge, and joined the splendid French restaurant The Fifth. Under his tenure it was named best restaurant in the city by Toronto Life magazine for two years running. Next, in 2005, he partnered with his wife Biana Zorich to open his own restaurant, Thuet Bistro and Bakery. Then in 2009 he started filming a reality television series called Conviction Kitchen, which recounted the chaotic but hopeful story of giving freshly sprung ex-convicts a second chance in life by giving them jobs in Thuet’s restaurant, which he renamed Conviction. For the second season, shooting moved to Vancouver. Both series were produced by Cineflix and aired on CityTV – as well as 20-odd foreign markets. (Earlier this year, Thuet and his wife were unexpected mobbed by fans in Uraguay). But the success of the television and the pressures of the shooting schedule proved impossible to balance with the demands of a fine dining restaurant. So in 2010 Thuet and Zorich closed Conviction and instead launched a chain of bakeries and traiteurs called Petite Thuet, as well as a catering company called Thuet Caters, both of which continue to thrive today.


Dale MacKay

Executive Chef/Proprietor - Ensemble Restaurant & Bar

Before opening ensemble restaurant & bar and eTap restaurants in Vancouver in 2011, Top Chef Canada Winner Dale MacKay earned his stripes – the hard way, through hard work. Which is the only way to get from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to opening restaurants the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Daniel Boulud. MacKay was only 17 years old and still living on the prairies when he focused on proving to himself and to his family that he could become a great Canadian chef with his own unique culinary style and voice.

His experience runs a full gamut from the anonymity of serving as a personal chef in Italy to being named Executive Chef of Lumière in Vancouver at age 27 – and so becoming youngest of only 160 Relais & Chateau Grand Chefs in the world.

Amusingly, his love affair with kitchens began in Vancouver just a few doors north of his ensemble address – at a chain diner where he worked as a fry cook. Soon after, armed with more enthusiasm than savings, MacKay set off for London, England. He had no appointment, no formal culinary training and no resumé – but he still managed to get Chef Gordon Ramsay to give him a job in his eponymous three-Michelin starred flagship in Chelsea.

He would become a Ramsay protégé. Over seven years, MacKay worked 30,000 hours in five different hell’s kitchens: at Restaurant Gordon Ramsayand at Claridge’s in London, at The Conrad Tokyo Hotel in Tokyo, and at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Maze Restaurant at the London NYC Hotel in New York. Chef MacKay moved back to Vancouver in 2007 to work as Executive Chef at Lumière under Rob Feenie. Then in December of 2008 MacKay became Executive Chef of both Lumière and its neighbouring bistro db bistro moderne. Both restaurants closed in March of 2011 – and one week later MacKay announced the May 2011 opening of ensemble.  One month later, Top Chef Canada began airing on the Food Network. Having consolidated and successes into the pre a career’s worth of lessons,  mistakes, opportunitiesvious 13 years, Dale knew exactly what he wanted for his first restaurant. In July 4, 2011, Dale was named Top Chef Canada – the country’s first. MacKay made history when the 13-episode series became the highest rated program in network history. In March, 2012 Dale won three Golden Plate awards for ‘Best Chef’, ‘Best New Casual Restaurant’ for ensemble.


Tim Bedford

Executive Chef - The Clubhouse, Langara

Chef Tim Bedford takes the helm as Head Chef at The Clubhouse on Langara Island. With two Bocuse d’Or competitions under his belt, Chef Bedford is an outstanding talent, whose food has wide appeal. Starting his career with the Vancouver Community College Culinary Program, Chef Bedford learnt the ropes in the kitchens of the Pear Tree, mentored by Chef Scott Jaeger. Following a stage at Vancouver’s Marriott Pinnacle Hotel, Chef Bedford was invited to join the culinary team at the West Coast Fishing Club, moving to The Clubhouse on Langara Island five years ago. Supporting fellow chef at The Clubhouse, Ryan Stone in this year’s Bocuse d’Or was a highlight in Chef Bedford’s career. Menus at The Clubhouse for 2011 will feature fish and seafood fresh from the Haida Gwaii waters as a focal point. Salmon, Halibut, Ling Cod, Spot Prawns and Scallops will feature, supplemented with farm fresh vegetables from Haida Gwaii farms, Hereford beef from Richardson Farm in Tlell and local Chanterelle mushrooms. Eggs, lettuces and an array of herbs are brought in from Masset’s South Beach Gardens farm on a daily basis; South Beach Gardens is owned by co-owner of West Coast Fishing Club, Rick Grange.


Mark Davidson

Global Education Director Wine Australia

Born in London, raised in Sydney, Mark Davidson has over twenty five years experience in the hotel and restaurant business, fifteen of those as a Sommelier. In 1990 Mark was named Best French Wine and Spirit Sommelier in British Columbia and in 2001 he was name Sommelier of the Year by the British Columbia Restaurant and Food Service Association.

As a Department Head and instructor with the International Sommelier Guild he was instrumental in the on going development of the curriculum and has taught classes in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas. In addition he does a weekly radio wine review on CKNW and developed a wine education and restaurant etiquette course for Simon Fraser University Global Asset and Wealth Management MBA program.

Now based in San Francisco Mark is the Global Education Director for Wine Australia.


NEXT WEEK

Napa,  San Francisco and SF Chefs.
Includes interviews with Marcus Samuelsson and Chris Cosentino

STORIES WE’RE WORKING ON

We give away two tickets to all events at the Naramata Tailgate Party September 8th. ALL the parties.

John Casella, the maker of 14 Million cases of Yellow Tail
Banfi
David Suzuki
Chappell Hill
Benjamin Bridge
Antonia Mantonakis Brock University
Sir George Fistonich – 50 years at Villa Maria
Hawksworth Launches a house wine with Orofino
Joy of Feeding
Chris Wyse – Young and Wyse
Matt Sherlock – Clean Slate
Hayley Hamilton – Dallas Sommelier
Napa Revisited/ SF Chefs – A tent full of cooking stars.
Corso 32 Edmonton’s great Italian Bistro
Joe Beef – The book and the Montreal restaurant that’s changing EVERYTHING. Fred Morin guests
Barbara Joe McIntosh Books to cooks
Royal Wood and Corb Lund