Dish – May/June 2013

The new crew at EPC, left to right are Boonie Inthavong, prep cook; Bonnie Kang, pastry chef; David Coyle, line cook; Mary Saydi, prep cook; Shane Loiselle, executive sous chef; Patrick Chaudet, executive chef; Doreen Prei, head of culinary development and chef de cuisine; Karen Kwong, chef de partie; John Lau, junior sous chef.
The new crew at EPC, left to right are Boonie Inthavong, prep cook; Bonnie Kang, pastry chef; David Coyle, line cook; Mary Saydi, prep cook; Shane Loiselle, executive sous chef; Patrick Chaudet, executive chef; Doreen Prei, head of culinary development and chef de cuisine; Karen Kwong, chef de partie; John Lau, junior sous chef.

Brunch lovers delight

RGE RD's Blair Lebsack.
RGE RD’s Blair Lebsack.

The Edmonton Petroleum Club offers a new brunch for members and non-members alike featuring their new kitchen crew on June 9, July 7, August 11 and September 8. Enjoy three courses or a buffet featuring foodstuffs from the Artisan Market held on those Sundays at the club. Have brunch, then browse the market for tasty baked goods from Boulangerie Treestone and Bon Ton Bakery, Steve and Dan’s BC fruit and charcuterie from K&K Foodliner, along with coffee, live entertainment and free parking. As well, the club will stock a booth with signature prepared foods to go.

Cooking at a castle

“We’re waiting on our wood oven,” says chef Blair Lebsack. The question was: when are you opening? Blair was on his way to cook for a week in Scotland while enduring the inevitable delays in starting a new restaurant. When RGE RD (10643 123 Street) does open this summer, expect Blair’s seasonally expressive cooking, what he calls untamed cuisine in a warm ambiance with tables made by the Prairie Barn Wood Company. Along with the new resto, Blair and Caitlin Fulton will continue their marvellous on-farm dinners including four with Prairie Gardens, beginning Sunday, July 14.
Menu? What’s ripe, fresh and seasonal. Visit prairiegardensadventurefarm.com for tickets.

Chef Michael Seiffert
Chef Michael Seiffert

Learning the ropes

Restaurants close. Even good ones. That’s the sad fact of what some call the hardest business. We interviewed the chef, Michael Sieffert about a month before Ousia announced they were shutting the doors.

He was running the kitchen of the smart the Whyte Avenue restaurant for about five months. “I’m new to cooking in general. This was my first restaurant job; I just graduated from culinary arts. I’m learning every day.”

How was the transition from school to behind the stoves? “In culinary arts you don’t feel rushed. You are learning to cook, but not the actual restaurant experience. There’s a lot of pressure working in a restaurant. I’m getting used to working six days a week, 10-12 hours a day.

“Before I took culinary arts, I took retail meat cutting so I’m comfortable with that. I recommend people do that first before culinary arts — learn to butcher in retail meat cutting. We just took some lamb neck out of the oven — it’s been braising in red wine and tomato.”

Bringing back the country supper

Carol Neumann started the company 10 Mile Meal to celebrate the culinary and cultural traditions of local farming communities. Carol wanted to highlight not only the foods grown, but also the German foodways that she had grown up with such as smoked fish, sauerkraut and cider made from winter apples. Highlands Kitchen alum Annand Oliviere cooked from family recipes and created a few new traditions of his own at the inaugural 10 Mile Meal held in the historic Glen Park Hall near Thorsby in March. The next 10 Mile Meal is on July 14. Expect a summer fair atmosphere with farm tours, craft and farmers market, and live music. For more info, tickets and directions 10milemeal.com.

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Shane Chartrand of Von’s.

Shane Chartrand’s new adventure

“The thing was, I was thinking about opening something next year,” said Shane Chartrand, the new exec chef at Von’s. “One of my purveyors said: ‘Go talk to Von’s. They need someone who understands local ingredients.’”

Fast forward to late April: “We’ve gutted the whole kitchen. I have brought in new folks, we’re painting, installing new equipment, designing new menus. It’ll be a chop house-style. Dishes like steak tartare that’s torched, when mixed in you get a roasted flavour. We’ll roast marrow, Irvings Farms pork chop, and in the fall we’ll do a stuffed popover made with pork shoulder.

“Some things are really progressive, but we don’t want it to be too much, too soon, because there are good things on the menu now — prime rib or the Spring Creek Ranch ribeye. We don’t want to scare people.

“Yes, we’re doing Indulgence, and I’ll be heading up Aboriginal Day at Taste of Edmonton, called Sip and Savour. I’m trying to make indigenous food in a progressive way.”UrbanHome

Help for the urban homesteader

Gastronomic do-it-yourselfers now have a clubhouse. The new Urban Homesteading Store (4917 51 Avenue, Stony Plain, 780-591-4566) offers not only the various equipment you need to do cool gastronomic stuff at home, but also the know how, offering classes in fermenting, cheese-making, canning. Aspiring gardeners can learn about sustainable landscaping, composting, sheep mulching and harvesting rainwater, and how to make vegetable gardens out of unproductive side yards. Jody McKee and Eric Fontenot were in oil and gas and realized this was what they wanted to do, so they opened the store to help others do it too. Urban Homesteading stocks grain grinders, non-gmo grains, fermenting supplies, seeds and plants. Visit urbanhomesteadingstore.com for hours and class schedule.