Wine and Food Pairing

We dropped by yesterday evening and saw that you were leading a Quail’s Gate Wine Tasting event. How do you come up with the food pairings for wine?
Our tasting events are approachable, casual and the goal is to demystify the wine. With events like this, we’re making wine more accessible to people. We talk about the food and the wine and how the particular combinations came up.

For wine pairings, I focus on texture. Everyone’s tastes for flavours can vary. A lot of commonality in wine pairing is how it feels in your mouth because that’s how we might react to more similarly. For example, I often hear wine tasters say I taste cinnamon and tabacco, fern and burnt leaves. And…I don’t. But if you say I feel crispy or fatty, I think that’s more common.

Actually, we have ideas on how to make it even more interactive:

Dining at the Empress

Is the Empress approachable for the middle-class and working demographic?
Historically, this hotel has catered to wealthy people. But that market over the years has been shrinking, so we’re trying to cater to the new market…like you and your friends to come in once a month or something. Usually we get special events such as anniversaries, proposals, birthdays, which are great, but we would like it to be more regular. It’s a little bit daunting – there used to be a harpist in a tuxedo. We used to have those polished silver dome covers at every dinner service up until 2 weeks ago, but now it’s gone. We still do it for special events like those 2 or 3 hour dinners.

We’re famous for our afternoon tea, but it’s not the only thing we do. The Bengal Lounge gets a lot of good feedback. A lot of people say that the food has been consistently the same for the past 10 years. It’s because the chefs that has been cooking it has been here for 30 years!

What do you serve as Canadian cuisine here?
We do classical French techniques, but try to use all local ingredients like salmon. We feature regional products from the fishermans and farmers. The recipe I’m going to send you is something I created for this purpose – to start our regionality and showcase our products. It’s a scallop dish with wild mushroom streudel. It includes a local winery, Venturi Schulze, who makes balsamic vinegar in Modena Style and it showcases local Qualicum Bay scallops.

The geoduck that I demonstrated is from Fan’s Seafood. There’s not a big market for them here in Canada yet though but I’m always trying. Right now I’m helping create awareness for side-stripe shrimps, amaebi, from Iron Maiden Seafoods. Everyone is used to spot prawns. I showcased it last night at the Quail’s Gate pairing:

The side-stripe shrimps are vegetarian and they sit a few meters above the ground, whereas spot prawns are on the bottom eating anything on the bottom. They have a sweeter taste and have a different texture.

Advice for Us

What’s your favourite tool?
Chopsticks. I use them all the time – here at the restaurant I keep them in my jacket for plating. People use tongs. I find chopsticks more precise and we have a certain dexterity that we call Ki-you in Japanese.

What’s your advice for people who are just starting to cook?
Get the right cookware. Pots and pans are sold in sets, but they’re not all well suited for what you cook. I have a cast iron frying pan for searing things. I have a cast iron braising pot. I have a copper fry pan and saute pan. Don’t get caught up in buying sets, but look at tools for your individual needs. Same goes for hand tools such as knives.

What knife should beginners get?
If you are just starting out and want to learn, get a carbon-steel knife. It takes more maintenance, but it will teach you to understand and respect your knife. You need to buy a stone to sharpen your knife. It’s a little bit daunting to figure out how to sharpen it. Once you understand how to sharpen it the knife will wear down in 15 or 20 years but during that 20 years you’ll have the best knife you’ll ever use. It won’t be shiny and stainless, but if you are worried about how pretty your knife looks, don’t get it.

Your Culinary Identity

What influenced you in becoming a chef?
My parents are both Japanese and immigrated here. Japanese food is highly seasonal and highly regional. Every food has a meaning, whether its food festival day or boys festival or girls festival. My brother and I gardened – my mom was a great cook and meals were important! It wasn’t something where you just eat and go. You stop, make sure you get the good stuff, eat it, clean up…and then go.

Where have you cooked?
Coming out of cooking school at BCIT – I worked at the Delta hotel in Vancouver under a German chef who highly was involved with Team Canada competitions. Then I went to Singapore at the Hyatt. Then Crystal Cruise lines to Malaysia and Indonesia. It was a small luxurious ship – 180 passengers and 180 staff. I learned a lot – the menu was: 4 soups, 4 cold appetizers, 5 hot appetizers, 6 hot entrees and 5 desserts which changed everyday for 2 weeks at a time! The menu was set because we had to buy everything before we left the port. It was a great experience!

For chefs, it’s great to go out of your food chain. When you go to the tropics, there’s a different degree of freshness for fruits and vegetables. It’s hard to explain to someone what the difference between a grocery store banana and what a fresh banana tastes like.

What is the Island Chefs’ Collaborative and why did you join?
When I first came to Victoria, I lived at the hotel for a few months and I’d walk around and eat around. I’d do some research to see what the trends are. As I’m doing this, I’d walk by a small corner grocery store and they’ll have these cherry tomatoes grown in Saanich. They would be fiercely proud of it. I started looking around a bit and there were more farmers markets, like James Bay. It didn’t take me long to get engaged in what was going on. Then I became involved with the Island Chefs’ Collaborative. It originally started as 6 to 8 chefs that wanted to get the freshest produce from farmers. Now, it has grown to raise public awareness of local foods and supporting local farms. We also helped bring Ocean Wise over to Victoria.

What is Defending our Backyard?
This is our third annual local food festival happening May 30th, 2010. It is happening at Fort Rodd Hill, a national historic site.

We get involved in a lot of food events where we go and it’s all about us and where we’re from. We have big signs with our restaurant and we have the chef jackets. However, with the collaborative, it’s about the farmers. All of our work goes directly to the farmers – its not for profit. Everything that we do is to increase their ability to maintain their farms. We’re putting the farmers and growers and fisherman’s first. They’re there shucking oysters and talking to the people. We’re there offering the food, but we’re showcasing them. That’s part of the fun. We get some exposure, but its for the farmers. We want to show people that “We’re cooking the food, but it’s only because we got the good stuff from that guy”.

Thanks so much and see you on May 30th!