You’ve seen it before on this blog. I have a thing for organization. I have a thing for geometrics. I have a thing for bacon. This dinner combined all three.
This semester Freya and I have gotten a new subletter, Shannon. Shannon was away in Chile for a year on exchange for her international business program. All you need to know is that she makes a lot of Mexican-inspired meals. Fajitas, tacos, everything delicious, fragrant and Tex-Mex-y. When it comes to food, I’m very impressionable. And so, a Hilary Makes Tex-Mex night was in order. Shannon’s weekday taco night was enough to push me off the edge. I needed it.
So what are these small spherical items, you ask? Only your future favourite thing ever.
The first are mini salsa-stuff meatloaves, a recipe found in March’s issue of Canadian Living (which is now splashed with bacon grease). The second were bacon smashed potatoes, something that I’ve been wanting to make for at least a year-and-a-half.
Partial smashed potato filling
This was just what the doctor ordered. The two dishes were easy, filling and made my entire house smell like delicious cooked things. Normally I hate when my clothes absorb the smell of my kitchen, but I made an exception for this meal. I actually made an effort to open some of my dresser drawers so my clothes could flirt with the wafted aromas. Bacon-scented pajamas? Yes please.
Not the most photographic meal, but a solid dinner, lunch, lunch for someone else, dinner again, and late morning snack. Perfect.
This is the second post in a series I’m writing about the second annual Celebrity Chefs of Canada event. Confused? Find out more details in my original post!
A word to the wise – if you ever askChef Marc Lepine to describe one of his dishes to you, the answer will not be short.
Chef Marc Lepine in his Ottawa restaurant, Atelier
I should have known better, as I asked Chef Lepine to describe his favourite dish of the moment. It’s the scallop plate that he first prepared for February’s Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna (where, in case you haven’t heard, he blew the competition away).
The five minute answer that followed made me gape in awe, and feel terribly guilty for having him recite all 20 ingredients on the spot. The dish involves ingredients ranging from celery compressed with sambuca to an aerated potato and truffle puree to tonka beans (one of his favourite ingredients at the moment that is actually banned in the United States). Even with his impressive naming of most of the ingredients, Chef Lepine had to email me a few hours later because he forgot to mention porcini mushroom powder.
A sampling of Chef Lepine's Atelier dishes: (top left) an elk tenderloin plate with trumpet mushrooms, (bottom left) a beet and citrus dish with walnut, (right) a chocolate, pomegranate, banana, and passion fruit dessert
It is this attention to detail and use of creative techniques and flavours that make Chef Lepine unique. The creations that come from his kitchen are equal parts complex and obscure, creating a memorable mix of innovation (smoking chocolate cake with a pipe) and homespun “guilty pleasure food goes gourmet” (Dorrito gnocchi, anyone?).
Chef Lepine beat out nine other chefs to win the sixth Canadian Culinary Championships
Despite recent culinary wins, Chef Lepine is still incredibly down to earth. He offers me a mug of green tea to match his own and we sit near the front window of his gastronomy kingdom, Atelier. When I ask to take pictures, he self-consciously points at a small brown stain on the front of his otherwise pristine chef jacket. I tell him to hold his restaurant’s Holy Grail – the large Canadian Culinary Championships trophy – in front of it. It works.
With Celebrity Chefs of Canada three weeks away, Chef Lepine is looking forward to participating for his second year.
For him, the highlight of the annual event is simple: it’s all about the chef-to-chef interaction.
“I look forward to it more than a lot of other events. Meeting some of the chefs from the other cities is really cool and something I enjoy,” he says. “You get to learn a lot.”
This year he’s paired with Chef Quang Dang of West Restaurant in Vancouver. The two have been collaborating over email for the past few weeks, bouncing ideas back and forth before finally settling on a guidock clam dish.
“I’ve never worked with that product so I’m really excited to watch him and learn,” Chef Lepine says about their choice of protein. “It was one of the ingredients that I was scared might turn up during black box challenge out in Kelowna.”
As for his pairing, Chef Lepine says he can sense Chef Dang’s passion for food through his emails.
On the day of, Chef Dang will be responsible for the clam, while Chef Lepine will work on the rest of the plate. That plate involves jalapeno, beets, herbs, and a charred citrus pomello ash, all served with a side of Lepine-style creativity. Case in point: the latter is created by burning the leftover pomello rind to produce a special, charred coal. That coal is then ground into an ash, which Chef Lepine says is incredibly fragrant.
“Chef Dang was really intrigued by that technique and apparently he’s doing something similar with apple cores and chives. He’s getting excited about the dish,” Chef Lepine says.
Though I mention that he seems to be achieving a sense of national notoriety following his big Kelowna win, Chef Lepine remains modest and humbled by others’ talents.
We’ve had our success here in Ottawa and last month’s win probably helped people in other parts of the country get to know us a little better, but the caliber of chefs this year – it’s quite the roster,” he says. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
Fun! Food! Laughter! A shot from last year's Celebrity Chefs of Canada event. (Courtesy of the NAC)
Why? Well I’m an awful spoilsport and the title of this blog post probably gave me away. But let me explain more. Promise to act surprised, okay?
I’m going to be blogging for the Celebrity Chefs of Canada event taking place at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa! Here’s what the NAC website says about this gastronomical day of fun:
Launched by NAC Chef Michael Blackie in 2011, Celebrity Chefs of Canada is an exciting partnership between Ottawa’s talented local chefs and the national superstars changing Canada’s culinary landscape. All of them will converge on the National Arts Centre stage on March 25 for an unforgettable gastronomic experience!
Events like this normally elude budget-conscious students like myself, so I was particularly excited to be asked to write about it. Not only will I get to be in the presence of some of the most talented local and national chefs, but as a blogger I will get to hover about at their preparation stations as they prepare the day’s plates. I will not blink for an entire day for fear that I will miss a mere second of the culinary mastery.
This year's chefs
Here’s how it works for us bloggers: Each of us has been assigned a team, which is made up of one local and one national chef. So who is on my quote on quote “dream team?” Well, I am happy and incredibly excited to be coveringAtelierowner and chef, Marc Lepine and Chef Quang Dang, the executive chef of West Restaurant in Vancouver. Just in case you dropped off the face of the earth last month, Chef Lepine is the newly minted champion of the Canadian Culinary Championships! A huge win and, to put it in technical food terms, pretty damn awesome.
In anticipation of March 25’s event, I will be writing several blog posts over the next two weeks so you can better get to know both Chef Lepine and Chef Dang and find out what dish they’re preparing for your soon-to-be spoiled palettes.
Oh, and get your tickets before they sell out! Say hello if you see me – I’ll be the one looking overly excited near the front. I might also be drooling. Don’t judge, okay?
Want to see the full press release for the event? That’s past the jump (click see more!)
Hilary Makes 