Winter the season of the sea – Octopus and Uni!
As a chef that focuses on foraging and seasonality, winter always starts with sadness for me. Seeing those zombie tomatoes in the grocery store, slightly grey red and tasting of tart cardboard makes me want to scream and pout. Fortunately, three of my favourite winter delicacies are oysters, white truffles and uni. I love ingredients…
November 29, 2015
Secret Supper Soiree 2016
A sold out Dine Out Festival event every year, Secret Supper Soiree is Vancouver’s culinary road trip! Hop on board your private classic Vancouver trolley and be whisked off to three hidden locations for your mouth-watering canapé creations, beverages and dinner. This tour is the best way to explore the city’s culinary secrets and tantalize…
November 25, 2015
Foraging saffron milk caps in BC
I was out with Chef Jefferson Alvarez this week to hunt for unique, edible mushrooms. We were actually foraging for bears tooth, but we found these beauties instead by the basket load growing in rings on the mossy forest floor. The saffron milk cap or Lactarius deliciosus is enjoyed fried by Catalan chefs (called rovelló)…
November 4, 2015
Dyeing Mushrooms in BC
Want to learn which wild mushrooms will create that perfect purple or moss green for wool or paper even? Here’s a list of wild dyeing mushrooms that you can find in BC. Mushrooms can make some of the most gorgeous wool colours I have ever seen. So let’s get picking! Vancouver Myco Society Show Fall…
October 9, 2015
Thimbleberry Jam Recipe
The elusive thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus) is bright red and looks like a raspberry. They taste like an intense raspberry and strawberry combination and they make kick ass jam. Also, Check out our Foraging 101 Free online videos if you want to learn more about wild foods. Where do I look? Thimbleberries are found at lower…
June 25, 2015
BC Wild mushrooms – Chicken of the Woods
Chicken of the woods mushrooms are abundant in fall in BC forests. I stumbled upon a huge fruiting of them yesterday and it is one of the most beautiful, otherworldly sights to encounter. The Chicken of the Woods mushroom (Laetiporus sulphureus) is bright orange and really easy to identify for beginners. They are edible! Ohpa! …
May 25, 2015
Simple shrimp canape recipe – Roe, cucmuber, wasabi
I just got back from New Zealand and bought a gorgeous bottle of Alpha Domus chardonnay there. If you love a good chardonnay or want to turn someone into a chardonnay lover, this is the food pairing for that wine for sure. This shrimp canape recipe is pretty punchy and will stand up well to…
May 4, 2015
Easy dashi stock recipe
Golden dashi broth Dashi stock is just seaweed and smoked, dried fish lightly simmered in water. Simple! Anyone can make it, I swear. And with that gorgeous base stock you can add miso paste to make miso soup or just make a tasty hot pot by adding fish and vegetables to it. It’s really fast…
April 30, 2015
Preserving Edible Flowers – Vinegar Recipe
It’s so simple to create a beautiful vinegar of fragrant edible flowers this spring. I’ve used flowering currant (kicks rose petal ass in my opinion) which is native to BC and smells like sweet sage. This vinegar is amazing to flavour rice or add to a vinaigrette or dip fish in. Pick flowering currants in…
March 8, 2015
Edible weeds: How to ID wild broad-leaved dock and cook it
Hi everyone, Rumex obtusifolius – Broad-leaved dock – edible Broad-leaved dock (or bitter dock) is sprouting out of the ground around Vancouver. This weed is absolutely everywhere and is one of my favourite edible weeds to forage for. It’s similar to spinach, and is only good to eat in early spring before it gets tough….
February 23, 2015