This afternoon, we received an email from Oz Kafe‘s chef Jamie Stunt, the wonderkid who won silver at this year’s Canadian Culinary Championship in Kelowna. We’ve been watching his unique career unfold since we named him one of the city’s up-and-comers in 2007. Since then, the no longer anonymous Jamie Stunt has become one of the best known, most respected and universally adored chefs in town.

On the jumbotron, winner of this year's Gold Medal Plates Jamie Stunt (centre). Photo by Anne DesBrisay.

Here is the note he sent around this afternoon announcing his departure from Oz Kafe. We can’t wait to see where he turns up next — fingers crossed it will be in Ottawa!

“It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that I have decided to leave my position as chef at Oz Kafe at the beginning of July.

It has been an amazing seven and half years watching the restaurant grow and I am certain that it will continue to thrive once I am gone. I feel extremely lucky to have found such a wonderful place to work and in Ozlem Balpinar, such a supportive and awesome person to work for. 

The very able and talented Simon Bell will be taking over as chef and I look forward to frequently coming to Oz as a customer to eat his food and enjoy the restaurant as a guest. 

As for myself, I will be taking the summer off to recharge my battery and spend time with family and friends. I also plan to do some travelling as well as some apprenticeships to expand my skill set and better myself as a cook.

It’s been a truly amazing time working at a truly amazing restaurant and I would like to thank everyone I have had the pleasure to work with, the awesome clientele, the suppliers who brought such great products and the countless chefs who have graced our little kitchen in collaboration[ so much talent in this city!]. 

Thank you Oz and thank you Ottawa.”

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You've seen dark and milk chocolate but what's that above the white chocolate? That's blond, an entirely new category of chocolate created by Valrhona.

First there was milk, dark, and white chocolate. Now there is blond.

Invented and launched recently by Valrhona — one of the top chocolate companies in France — blond chocolate, dubbed Dulcey, began its life as a happy accident.

The story has the ring of a fairy tale: the head chef at Valrhona’s chocolate school, Frédéric Bau, put some white chocolate in a bain-marie to melt it, and then forgot about it.

Ten hours later, he followed the beautiful aroma back to the kitchen where it had taken on the characteristics of caramelized milk. It developed a gorgeous blond colour and an unusual toasty flavour that lingers on the tongue.

“The taste of Dulcey has an emotional dimension that makes it a very unique chocolate,” says Quentin Chapuis of Valrhona Canada. “It reminds a lot of people of the butter biscuits they ate when they were kids.”

Valrhona first rolled out the product by getting it into the hands of some of Canada’s top pastry chefs, including the chef at Maison Boulud in Montreal, Thomas Haas in Vancouver, and Nadège Nourian, a fourth-generation pastry chef with two shops in Toronto.

Adored by those I spoke to who have already experimented with it in pastries, truffles, and other baked desserts, it offers pastry chefs and chocolatiers a new level of seasonality to their menus. They say customers tend to crave dark chocolate desserts more in the winter, but in the summer they like their sweets to be lighter (and milk chocolate is often dismissed as too sweet). Blond chocolate fits the bill and also happens to pair well with fruits.

I first sampled Dulcey at a funky new chocolate shop in San Francisco where it was sold in bars in which the creamy caramelized chocolate was combined with raspberries and pralines. Divine. One bite and I knew I had tasted something completely new. I sent a tweet to Vancouver chocolate expert Eagranie Yuh. It said: “I bought a bar of something ‪@craftsmanwolves called blond chocolate. It’s fantastic — but what is it?”

Now I know. And I’m hooked. Now you know, too.

I’m happy to report that Valrhona’s Dulcey is already available in Ottawa at the following stores:

La Bottega, 64 George St.

Grace in the Kitchen, 442 Hazeldean Rd. (professional size, sold in bulk)

International Cheese, 40 Byward Market

It can also be purchased online.

The post SWEET CRAVINGS: Introducing Valrhona’s blond — a totally new chocolate obsession appeared first on Ottawa Magazine.

Shep Ysselstein, the owner and operator of Gunn's Hill Artisan Cheese has partnered with Beau's to make a beer washed-rind cheese that will change with the seasons .

I guess the monks in the Middle Ages knew something that many of us are just starting to figure out: beer and cheese taste great together.

Back in the day, artisan monks brewed beer and made cheese in monasteries for their communities. Typically washed rind cheeses are bathed in saltwater brine; the washing helps break down the curd from the outside. It’s fun to imagine the day the monks discovered that they could use beer to wash the rinds of cheese during the aging process to influence the texture, aroma, and flavour of the cheese.

Flash-forward to today, to a small cheese plant near Woodstock Ontario, where the next chapter in the history of beer washed-rind cheese is being written.

There, 30-year-old Shep Ysselstein, of Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese (located on his family’s third-generation dairy farm nestled in the rolling hills of Gunn’s Hill Rd. in Oxford County, Ontario — the Dairy Capital of Canada), has been working over the past few months to create a cheese using Vankleek Hill’s beloved brew, Beau’s.

Beau's Beaver River--it's spring seasonal beer will be featured on the first batch of the new cheese that will be unveiled at the Great Canadian Cheese Festival

Ysselstein admits most small-scale cheesmakers don’t bother with washed-rind varieties because the process is laborious; it’s all done by hand. “We wash it every day and keep it moist so that more bacteria grows and the cheese gets more of the beer flavour.”

For Steve Beauchesne, Beau’s co-founder, the partnership is an opportunity to help more people make the connection. “Not enough people are onto the beer and cheese pairing yet and it’s one of the most exciting things about beer right now.”

The test batch began with Gunn’s Hill Oxford’s Harvest cheese, a semi-soft mild and creamy cheese washed with Beau’s Bog Water. For the next batch, Ysselstein switched to Beaver River, Beau’s award-winning IPA, described by Beauchesne as a relatively bitter beer with a nice caramel malty backbone and hop aroma. “Shep wanted a beer with a bold enough character — the flavours need to be bold enough to transfer over.” The idea is that Ysselstein will work with each of Beau’s seasonal beers — Festivale in the summer, for instance — creating a truly seasonal cheese.

Georgs Kolesnikovs, the engine behind what has become the largest cheese show in Canada — The Great Canadian Cheese Festival — says this is big news in the world of artisan cheesemaking: it’s the first collaboration between an Ontario cheesemaker and an Ontario beer maker. He is delighted that the yet-to-be-named cheese will be unveiled at the festival on June 1 and 2.

The cheese will then be released at Farm Boy stores across the city in conjunction with craft beer week (June 16th), but the first place to get a taste will be at the Cheese Festival in Picton.

Kolesnikovs can’t help himself from gushing about the young cheesemaker who “came out of nowhere” and is already winning awards for his Alpine-style cheese. He recently took top honours in the firm cheese category in the annual Dairy Farmers of Canada Canadian Cheese Grand Prix.

Ysselstein has only been at it for a year and a half. He took cheesemaking classes at the University of Guelph and then the University of Vermont before going to upstate New York to work at a small cheese factory for three months. From there was given the opportunity to make cheese in Switzerland using techniques passed down for centuries, where cows are sent from the valley up into the mountains and milked morning and night.

Now, running his own artisan cheese plant, he is freed from the task of milking (the milk comes from his parents’ farm, where cows roam outside in the summertime) to concentrate on making great cheese. He appears to genuinely love it. The fact that he has to bring beer to work every day now is just a bonus.

Details: The yet-to-be named Beau’s beer washed cheese will be available for sampling at the third annual The Great Canadian Cheese Festival: June 1 and 2; 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Crystal Palace at the Picton Fairgrounds in Picton, Ontario, in the heart of  Prince Edward County.

Tickets: Tickets can be purchased in advance online. Cost is $40 for a one day pass; $55 for a two-day pass. 

The post CRAFT BEER + ARTISAN CHEESE: Beau’s partners with Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese to create a new beer-washed rind cheese — just in time for the Great Canadian Cheese Festival appeared first on Ottawa Magazine.

As a first-time attendee of Bon Appetit, I appreciated the relaxed and hospitable ambiance of the food and wine show that took place on Tuesday evening. It was a stark contrast to the intensity of other endless-grazing events like Gold Medal Plates in which the chefs are competing to create the best dishes of the night.

The ox tongue pastrami was brined for 2 weeks, smoked for 16 hours and steamed for 3 hours; topped with Juniper Farms sauerkraut, Gruyere sauce, Russian dressing on Rideau Bakery ry

Not just a welcome relief from bun-centric slider overload, this dish hit all the right notes: fresh, crunchy, spicy and light. I didn't want it to end.

Still, I couldn’t help but to rank some of my favourites bites of the night:

GOLD: It’s a tie between…

Les Fougeres‘ tandoori-spiced grain-fed mini chicken burger served on spring salad with fresh herbs and peanuts (left)

…and Social’s ox tongue Reuben on rye (right).

SILVER: Coconut Curry Shrimp on tropical slaw prepared by Chef Carlton of Island Spiced.

Chef Carlton's shrimp featured his Island Spiced Citrus Rub and his Coconut Curry Sauce, sold in gourmet and natural food stores across the city.

BRONZE: It’s a Matter of Cake “Xposed” Peanut Butter Crunch cake. Matthew Somer might be Ottawa’s next great cake baker.

Peanut Butter Crunch: oatmeal cake, peanut oil soak, peanut butter crunch, peanut butter cookie crumb, and peanut butter icing. Otherwise known as: my next birthday cake.

Lunch's owner, Tim Van Dyke stands in front of his freshly-painted food truck which made its impressive debut at the 17th annual Bon Appetit

Honourable mention goes to:

• The Smoque Shack for the delicious finger-licking good ribs and creating such an amusing display of people in cocktail attire wrestling with bones and faces full of sticky barbecue sauce.

• Brut Cantina Sociale for the guinea fowl pot pie that tasted like grandma made it. It was nice to put a face to Chef Jonathan Harris, who recently took the reins from Danny Mongeon.

• The handsome new Lunch truck! I enjoyed the open-faced porchetta sandwich featuring Bootleg porchetta, but it was the eye-catching new food truck (at left) — which owner Tim Van Dyke had to drive out to Ernst & Young Centre in first gear — that had everyone talking. That gorgeous hand-painted retro lettering looks good enough to eat.

The post IN DIGESTION: Best bites from Ottawa’s 17th annual Bon Appetit appeared first on Ottawa Magazine.

Farmer Rosemary Kralik is using crowdfunding to save her farm from foreclosure

Crowdfunding — the popular method of online fundraising for startups — is becoming the next major financial model for entrepreneurs. Kickstarter is the biggest platform, but there are dozens of clones, imitators, and innovators helping little guys get the cash they need for everything from the making of indie films and funny T-shirts to self-publishing novels and creating a line of hats for cats.

But what about helping a young chef pay for his new food cart or helping a lone farmer buy enough hay for a herd of yak to last until the pasture grows?

Yes, there’s crowdfunding for that.

WHO: ROSEMARY KRALIK, farmer, Tiraislin Farm

GOAL: $26,000

CROWDFUNDING: GO FUND ME

When Oz Kafe chef Jamie Stunt won the Canadian Culinary Championships with a dish featuring succulent yak meat from Ottawa Valley’s Tiraislin Farm, the nation’s culinary elite were introduced to the extraordinary work of 68-year-old farmer, Rosemary Kralik.

Known to her customers at the Ottawa Farmer’s Market affectionately as “The Yak Lady”, Kralik lovingly raises Tibetan yak among dozens of other species free to roam on her property. In order to pay the bills, Kralik has increasingly had to rely on her artistic talent — painting and drawing, creating portraits of animals and humans on commission — after a series of unexpected events over the last few months threatened the survival of her farm. There was drought, rising costs of hay, vet bills for an injured dog, and tractor repair costs.

On April 29, she followed some friends’ advice and began to explore the prospect of crowdfunding. She set up a page on GoFundMe and asked for donations of any size. She also offered to do a portrait sketch in exchange for a $500 donation or a portrait in oil paint for $1,000. But for someone as self-sufficient as Kralik, asking for help doesn’t come naturally. At first she refrained from sharing her campaign page with her friends by email and on Facebook.

The first donation came in for $25 from a friend with an apology for the small amount. Next, there were two donations from strangers and then one from a woman in Toronto who teaches Tibetan students. Her total after the first week was still under $500 but Kralik is thrilled, insisting that every little bit helps.

“It’s paralyzing,” she says, “But I know if I can just get though this rough spot, I’ll be ok.”

Tarak Hassan has been really surprised that half of the people who have helped fund the purchase of his food cart have been strangers.

WHO: TAREK HASSAN, chef, Gongfu Bao cart

GOAL: $15,000

CROWDFUNDING: INDIEGOGO

When Tarek Hassan won one of the City’s coveted street food permits to operate a food cart, he needed investors. He consulted with his sister Robin, who works in digital marketing, to develop a fundraising strategy. At the beginning of April, he signed onto Indiegogo and created a crowdfunding campaign for his cart, Gongfu Bao.

He wanted to raise $15,000 to pay for the cost of the cart itself, figuring he would need another $8,000-$10,000 on top of that to start up the business — an amount he could get from family and friends. He wanted the nature of his campaign to represent one singular achievable goal: “Let’s all get together and pay for the cart,” he says.

He wanted potential customers for his Asian-style steamed buns, to feel they could get some compelling value for money, so he created some unique perks (moving away from the idea of just giving away buns) and drawing attention to his background as a restaurant cook and caterer.

Within weeks, there were dozens of funders who signed up for various perks including a discount card, lunch for two at the cart, and a catered 4-course dinner — each paying from $10 up to $200. Participating in social media and adding new perks is all part of the game of getting people to actually put down their money, he says, “You have to feed it.”

Now, with less than 2 weeks left of his campaign, he has raised $4,500 thanks to 70 individual funders, many of whom are strangers to Hassan. He seems delighted: “You get all of this buy-in before I even had the means to cook anything!”

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Samples of boa (Asian steamed, filled buns) from the Gongfu boa cart are being prepared in the kitchen at the Piggy Market. Owner Tarek Hassan is making 250 mini-buns for Wednesday's launch.

Are you ready for a taste of some of Ottawa’s new food truck menus? Come to City Hall on Wednesday for the official launch of the new generation of street food vendors. Philip Powell, the City administrator of the new licenses, confirmed the launch is on, but he didn’t say which trucks and carts would be in attendance.

I get the sense that several of the new vendors are scrambling to put everything into place to launch their businesses this month. They have had just a few months from the time they got the green light back in February to the time they are expected to hit the streets. As the appetite for street food builds to a frenzy, some truck-owners are experiencing natural delays related to equipment and permits.

But the show must go on. The trucks and carts that are ready will roll on over to City Hall this Wednesday with samples galore.

The most complete information about the lunchtime festivities came from the website of The Shepherds of Good Hope — the recipient of the event’s proceeds. The site states that Mayor Jim Watson and Community and Protective Services Chair, Councillor Mark Taylor, will be joined by special guest, James Cunningham, host of the Food Network’s popular T.V. show Eat St. (However this information was not confirmed on the City’s media release.)

What: Ottawa’s Street Food Showcase

Where: Marion Dewar (Festival) Plaza at Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Ave. W.

When: May 8, 12-1:30 p.m.

Cost: A $10 bracelet (sold on first-come, first-serve basis) allows you to sample selected menu items from  the new cart and truck food vendors. All proceeds will be donated to the Shepherds of Good Hope.

*******

Paul Bergeron has been serving up creative comfort food from his truck for the last year at festivals and on the University of Ottawa campus. He says he has learned a few lessons — the hard way.

SO, YOU WANT TO START A FOOD TRUCK…

With the launch of Ottawa’s new Street Food Program, City Bites invited Paul Bergeron — who recently celebrated the first anniversary of his food truck, Relish — to share his best advice for the new crop of mobile food vendors. Here is his Top 5:

1) PRICE I found $8 was the magic number for what people want to pay for food from a food truck. People expect to pay between $4-$10 for lunch.

2) ADVERTISEMENT For me word of mouth was the best way to gain customers but social media was a close second. I think next year I will invest in sandwich boards, comp cards, and business cards.

3) CUSTOMER SERVICE This is the most significant investment you should make in your  business. You need to show people that you love what you do. If you can do this and put out a good product for a good price, then people will come.

4) STANDARDS When it comes to cleaning, sourcing, and using quality ingredients, customer service and creativity, you have to set a personal standard and stay committed to keeping it up — even when you are tired, stressed, busy, slow, very cold, or sick. This can be one of the most difficult aspects of running the business.

5) CREATIVITY The concept of my truck is to offer an ever-changing menu. It can be challenging but it worked well because many customers came to my truck several times a week and they could enjoy something different each visit. Also, for me as a chef, I love not getting stuck into one style. I could explore all of my culinary passions.

The post FOOD TRUCK FEVER: Taste the trucks! Wednesday, May 8, 12-1:30 p.m. at City Hall; plus the owner of Relish reveals his Top 5 tips for new mobile vendors appeared first on Ottawa Magazine.

When word got around that Paul Meek, the face of local brew darling Kichisippi Beer Co., was in the process of starting up a line of “olde fashioned” soda called Harvey & Vern’s — let’s just say the city’s gourmet geeks were like kids in a candy store.

Make no mistake. There’s no alcohol in this relatively wholesome product, aimed at adults. While the reputation of mega-pop brands like Coke are under tremendous scrutiny these days for contributing to obesity and other ill-health conditions, Meek says the message is — if you’re going to drink soda, you want it to be all-natural.

He admits they weren’t legally allowed to call the product “all-natural,” so the bottles tout another one of its virtues: Canadian Original.

For food business owners like Ben Baird who just launched a food truck, Ottawa Streat Gourmet, the idea of serving locally-made, natural cane sugar-sweetened cream soda and ginger beer (the first two flavours in the line) just hit the spot.”I’m very happy to serve a product that is made with integrity of ingredients,” says Baird. The fact that these sodas contain no high fructose corn syrup — the devil of our food system —impressed him the most.

There’s been so much buzz building about the soda that even without the bottles being ready, kegs of it started popping up around town. It’s sold “on-tap” at The Wellington Gastropub, The Piggy Market and the Black Tomato, among others.

Grayson McDiarmid, a familiar face to many wine lovers from Play Food & Wine and Gezellig, was named “Chief Soda Jerk” for Harvey & Vern’s, becoming the soda’s Brand Manager a few weeks ago.  Pouring a sample glass of the cream soda for me last week, he noted the missing bright pink colour — no artificial colours here — and nailed the taste description: “We call it the white freezie flavour.” Bingo.

The ginger beer has a slightly more refreshing taste thanks to the spicy zip of natural ginger mixed with ginseng, a root that is sometimes associated with a boost in energy. Meek, who was born in Jamaica, says the ginseng gives a more “Caribbean flare to it.”

When the bottles finally do arrive, at least 30 retailers, bars, and restaurants have signed on already and are waiting to sell it. Unlike Kichisippi beer, designed to be an Ottawa-only product, there is potential to take the sodas to a much wider audience.

The post EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK: Bottles of Harvey & Vern’s, Ottawa’s own soda pop — coming soon to a shoppe near you appeared first on Ottawa Magazine.

LeRoy Walden is keeping Soul Food in the capital, this time on wheels...and on a stick.

While out for coffee, Ottawa’s self-proclaimed Soul Food King, LeRoy Walden spotted his former neighbour. After a big hug, he shared the news that he closed his restaurant and is about to launch a food truck this spring. The first question out of her mouth was: “You’re still going to make fried chicken, right?”

Was there any doubt? LeRoy’s name is synonymous with fried chicken in these parts. And he likes it that way. My question is: What took him so long?

Back in 2008, I directed Ottawa Magazine readers to a little place I’d found called Jean Albert’s. It was a cottage off the highway in the quiet rural Ontario town of Hallville where — lo and behold — Walden, a Detroit record producer, was serving up his grandma’s super-succulent crispy batter-fried chicken and other comfort food recipes with tall glasses of fresh lemonade and sweet tea at picnic tables in his wife’s hometown.

It’s safe to say, it was the first authentic American Soul Food restaurant in the national capital region.

For people who were less familiar with the hearty home cooking of the American south, it was the first chance to try things like sweet corn pancakes, fried catfish, collard greens, and black-eyed peas. But as it turns out, soul food is easy to love. Jean Albert’s soon moved to the city to be closer to its fans and had a second life in a little house on Somerset street.

Now, nearly five years later, personal matters have put Walden in the position of starting again. “It’s a new beginning,” he says. This week he travelled to Mississauga to pick up the 14-foot Purolator truck that symbolizes his future. He won one of the City’s new food truck licenses; his spot is on Courtwood Crescent near the Maitland exit of of the 417.

After chatting with him a few times over the years, I can’t imagine anyone who seems better suited to the food truck scene. For one thing, he adores unapologetic decadent eating—his bacon-wrapped chicken ‘n’ waffles on a stick is ready for its close-up on the Food Network.

He says, “I’ll be the truck that people will almost feel guilty about, but then they’re like: who gives a ___?”

Secondly, he’s got the larger-than-life personality. It’s no surprise that Walden’s face will appear on the side of the truck. He’ll be inside, smiling and daring customers to try the deep-fried, marshmallow-stuffed sweet potato balls drenched in syrup.

“My mother always told me, I am the entertainer,” he says.

LeRoy’s Detroit-style Soul Food. Look for the truck later in May on Courtwood Crescent near Woodward Drive (off Maitland Ave./417 Exit).

The post FOOD TRUCK FEVER: There’s only one LeRoy. He’s back with grandma’s soul food recipes — and his face on the side of a Purolator truck appeared first on Ottawa Magazine.

Last year, Chef Brearley of Castegarth Restaurant foraged all the ingredients except for the venison for his spectacular dish at the Gold Medal Plates competition. Designed to resemble the forest floor, his plate had acorns, black walnuts, hawthorn berries, Jerusalem artichokes, wild apples, and wild ginger – all the things that the venison would eat. It was an impressive and delicious dish, and I have never forgotten it.

This spring, Chef Brearley has teamed up with fellow foraging enthusiast Scott Perrie of Morels Ottawa to prepare very special menus based on the gifts of nature. City Bites got the scoop on the exciting world of foraged ingredients from one of the region’s most passionnate practitioners.

City Bites: Have you done foraging dinners in the past?
Matthew Brearley: Yes I have been doing foraging dinners for many years I believe this is the seventh one.  In the early years the wild food was more of the accent of the meal and consisted of the usual suspects morels, wild leeks, wild ginger. Last years was the most experimental using ingredients like lichens, wild carrot and yarrow. Before Castlegarth I did a special foraging menu at the 4&20 Blackbird Cafe

Where did your interest in foraging begin?
My experience with foraging started with my parents (there was a copy of Stalking the Wild Asparagus on the shelf as a small child) my father picked field mushrooms, puff balls and morels and my mother used to pick amaranth and lambs quarters I was a picky eater so I would have nothing to do with it. It wasn’t until I worked at Domus and John [Taylor] was getting wild ingredients that I remembered all of the stuff from my childhood — and I never looked back.

I bought 12 books on mushrooms and seven books on edible wild plants. There are many things I like about wild food and foraging. Firstly I love being outdoors in the bush and fields, also a lot of wild foods are weeds so it is a good way of weeding your garden by eating the weeds as retribution. Also plants like lambs quarters are packed with nutrients — three times as many as spinach — and it tastes better.

How did you get connected with Scott? What is his involvement in the dinner?
Scott and I had been communicating on social media for a while, but we had never met. Then one day he and his wife, Amica, came in to the food shop and happened to bring in a bag of mulberries, something I hadn’t seen since I picked them from my balcony when I lived in Toronto.

Since then we have been sharing information on wild food. We seem to have the same bizarre obsessions with mushrooms. Both of us have been firing ideas back and forth for this menu — we are going to forage it together — and he will narrate the evening while I prepare it.

Any hints about what will be on the menu?
I will be doing some interesting things with cattails, pine flour, and wild flowers, but that is all I am saying for now. Last year I did a “Salad of a Fallen Tree,” which consisted of acorn and black walnut edible soil with fried reindeer moss, butter poached morel, daisy leaves, violets, and snails. If you scroll down on the Castlegarth Facebook site you can see pictures from last year’s menu. The menu will have the same kind of playfulness this year.

Do you think there is a growing interest in foraged food? If so, why?
I do think there is a growing interest in foraged food. Europe has a culture of it and England has a full-fledged industry, as do the Scandinavian countries. With the dominance of Noma and Fäviken on the world’s top restaurant lists, there seems to be a wave of people becoming interested.

There are tours and classes occurring in cities like New York and Toronto for the Urban Forager. As well as blogs like Hunter Gatherer Cook, Langdon Cook, Tama Matsouka, and Hank Shaw, which have brought foraging into the mainstream too.

In Canada our Native population is an untapped wealth of knowledge about wild foods and we still have huge areas of wild places that can be sources of inspiration for chefs and businesses like Morels Ottawa, Societe Orignal, and myself.

What foraged ingredients are you most excited to work with? 
It changes from year to year and season to season. Two years ago it was acorns, last year lichens (this year too), and this season white pine.

Last year’s menu had a white pine chocolate for the dessert. A couple of others are wild hops (found a whole bunch growing down the road from my house) and wild carrot roots. This time last year it was the leaves.

There are few tables left for the May 24 dinner but a second night will likely be scheduled on June 7. To reserve contact: Castlegarth Restaurant & Food Shop, 90 Burnstown Rd., White Lake, 613-623-3472

 In addition, Chef Brearley and Scott Perrie are doing a foraging dinner in Ottawa called  “Into the Wild” at Urban Element on June 3. To book, visit urban element’s website,  find the event in their calendar, and reserve online.

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An appreciation for small French luxuries is what ties together the items on the shelves of Chez François like twine around a bouquet of lavender. What binds the customers may be something more primal: pining for fresh, flakey buttery croissants.

The croissants have been luring customers into Westboro’s gourmet boutique since December when husband and wife owners, Jean-Francois Maranda and Viktoriya Melenteva, transplanted the shop to Ottawa from Mont-Tremblant.

It existed for 20 years under the name Plaisirs de Provence, with food entering the business in 2007. The couple owned another shop in Quebec City and one in Montreal before they relocated to Aylmer, Quebec, with the idea of bringing their French import business to the capital city.

While Chez François specializes in typical Provencal housewares, including lovely textiles and tableware, more than half of the shop is now dedicated to food — fresh-baked goods and refrigerated items like imported cheeses, foie gras (goose and duck), and French dried sausages. There’s also a sweet counter full of such goodies as macarons, cookies, fruit tarts, chocolates, and candies.

The bulk of the shelves represent a Provencal home cooks’ pantry: top quality whole spices, dried herb blends, coffees and loose-leaf teas, homemade preserves, specialty beans, as well as tapenades, oils, and vinegars.

Complementing the imported products are many of Maranda’s own culinary creations: in addition to the baked goods, there are homemade mustards and vinegars, as well as take-out meals like beef bourguignon, lobster bisque, pizzas, and quiche — all designed to transport our tastebuds to the French countryside.

Chez Francois – Plaisirs de Provence, 427 Richmond Rd. 

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