Dana Ewart and partner Cameron Smith of Joy Road Catering, BC

Dana Ewart attended the prestigious Stratford Chef’s School in Ontario, where she completed her chef’s training with honours as well as an extensive pastry training program. After completing her formal education, Dana worked as the head of pastry and garde manger at the highly-regarded Avalon Restaurant in Toronto and under Normand Laprise at Toque! in Montreal.

While in Montreal, Dana also staged and worked at many French bakeries, such as Le Passe Partout and Le Fromontier, and as the pastry chef at Les Caprices de Nicolas. Dana has traveled to New York, California and France to study technique and theory with some of the industry’s finest. An internship on Quadra Island early on in her culinary journey sparked a natural affinity for sourcing superior ingredients. She and her partner Cameron Smith run Joy Road Catering in the Okanagan Valley.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Pastries.  But really- if you want a cook to be truthful? Espresso and booze.

Who or what got you interested in food?
I grew up in farm country eating ripe raspberries.

What inspires you?
Ripe raspberries.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
My mom didn’t have white death in our house when I was a kid. So no sugar, salt, white flour etc. and milk was for baby cows. On special occasions we would have canned Campbell’s cream of mushroom  soup lead from cans was going to poison us, so it was really a treat.

I have since discovered the world of wild mushrooms, so I have not had mushroom soup from a can in a long long time. I’ll have to get back to you on whether I like it now.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
I remember learning how to crack an egg. Fun times.

Proudest food-related moment?
Every time one of our clients enjoys something we have brought to the table.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Strange for normal people? Cod tripe, calves brains, crab guts, all pretty normal to chefs.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
The whisper of a really sharp knife going through chives.

Favourite cooking smell?
Sourdough baking.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Anything made with care by a Canadian with ingredients grown here. Quintessential- tourtiere, pate chinois, butter tarts made with maple.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
It’s not black or white. That’s for sure.  I make mayonnaise, you make mayonnaise, Harold McGee would call that molecular gastronomy. It certainly has its place. Haute cuisine/ couture will always push the boundaries.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
When I was a kid I used to swear a lot, so I don’t mind the taste of soap. I love cilantro, and it doesn’t taste like soap — believe me I would know.

What local foods can’t you live without?
Garlic, onions and shallots, apples, fresh herbs, nectarines, raspberries.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Travel.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Oven mitts, especially those rubbery ones.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
All of the incredible fresh ingredients that we buy from our local farmers. Because without we cannot make beautiful food.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
Green peppers.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Hemingway. He appreciated and loved good food and he’d be really entertaining. We’d have some cocktails, eat something savage, and then drink more, and then have some drinks.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Probably something simple. Freshly caught fish.

What  was the last thing you ate?
A cinnamon bun (leftovers from the farmers’ market that we freeze for winter). We do not go to the store in winter. We only eat from our freezers and what we have canned. We have 3 chest freezers full of treasures from catering all summer.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
Farm — but wait, that’s in the culinary field.

“Last year’s inaugural workshop was a roaring success, so I’ve expanded the workshop to 20 participants and I’m bringing in food writing experts from the US and Canada,” explains independent food journalist Jennifer Cockrall-King, workshop coordinator. “It’s part food-writing workshop, part food and wine tour in the incredibly vibrant Okanagan Valley when local products are at their peak and just before the wine harvest.”

2010 instructors include:

• Dianne Jacob is a California-based writing coach, editor, and author of Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Articles, Memoir, and More. Re-issued in July 2010, the book won the Cordon D’Or International award for Best Literary Food Reference Book. www.diannej.com

• Born in Vancouver, Claudia Cusano is Italian by blood, and thus grew up with a love of food, family, and friendship. Claudia is the editor for NUVO magazine, a lifestyle magazine for the Canadian sophisticate. www.nuvomagazine.com

• Liane Faulder is The Edmonton Journal’s food columnist and appears in the Bistro section on Wednesdays, and on Saturdays in Lifestyle. She is also food columnist for CBC radio’s afternoon program in Edmonton, Radio Active. An award-winning reporter, Liane’s features have been published in Reader’s Digest, Today’s Parent, Venture and Chatelaine magazines.

• South Okanagan’s own Rhys Pender, is a wine educator, freelance wine writer, wine judge and consultant to the industry. In 2010 Rhys became the 4th Master of Wine (MW) in Canada. Rhys is a regular contributor on wine to publications Wine Access, Scout Magazine, CityFood and Montecristo. http://www.wineplus.ca/

• Cuisine Canada member Jennifer Cockrall-King is a food writer (www.foodgirl.ca) with over 13 years of contributing to publications in Canada and the US. In 2008, Western Living named her as one of the “Top 40 Foodies Under 40.” She teaches food writing courses with MacEwan’s Writing Works in Edmonton and at UBC Okanagan. And she is the producer of the Okanagan Food & Wine Writers Workshop because it’s just too good here not to share it with like-minded people.

Registration is limited to 20 writers in order to give each writer personalized instruction. The cost of the workshop is $650 — a few early bird spots are still available at $575 (email to inquire), and includes all professional development seminars, field trips, wine touring, meals and activities, excluding travel to and from the workshop and accommodations. Special workshop room rates are available at the host hotel, the Penticton Lakeside Resort.

Detailed workshop information is available on the Okanagan Food and Wine Writers Workshop Website, or by contacting workshop coordinator Jennifer Cockrall-King at 780-242-3663 or jennifer@foodgirl.ca.

Better than burnt smores?

For many children summer camp meant hiking, canoeing, scraped knees and adventures. The postcards home were scribbled out of guilt and only when rained forced us indoors .

But the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver’s Summer Camp sends kids into the kitchen not the woods — rain or shine. Under the tutelage of Chef Barbara Finley, young would-be chefs  learn to navigate a kitchen, prepare meals and plan a healthy menu.

Parents might imagine their children returning home with expanded palates and able to help prepare dinner, but what did the kids think? Was it Hell’s Kitchen or The Best Summer Ever?

In the spirit of summer camp postcards, Amy Proulx asked some young campers to write about their adventures at cooking camp. Below are letters from two of the attendees. They gush about gnocchi, plan on profiteroles and even sing the praises of kitchen safety.

The kids are as remarkable as the program and its instructor.

Spencer baking bread at camp

Dear Chefs and Food Writers in Canada,

I’ve been busy at summer culinary camp, a course that teaches us children to cook like chefs.  This course is held in the Northwest Culinary Academy, a professional cooking school.  Chef Barbara Finley is the head chef and instructor.

Every day we have a three course menu that we prepare.  First, Chef Barb shows the class how to make the specific recipe.  We are then separated into groups.  Chef Barb selects people that attended the Northwest Culinary Academy as group leaders.  We are also taught about kitchen safety like how to handle a knife properly and other safety tips such as cleaning up a spill immediately or to never run in the kitchen.  Once we’re finished with one or two foods, there is a snack break with juice, water and fruits or vegetables.  Once we finish our last item on the menu everyone is happy because the end of the day is the time to eat what we make!

Personally, I think that the course is an amazing course because it really teaches you to be responsible around the kitchen.  The summer camp is also a great way to meet new people but the best part, I think, is the food.  We learn tons of amazing recipes and they all taste delicious.  When I finish the course I know I can make delicious food by myself and I definitely know I’ll be coming back.

Bye for now,
Spencer Louie, 11 years old

I’m having a great time at the Culinary Camp at Northwest Culinary Academy. We’ve been making a lot of amazing things that I never knew I could make. Everything we do is great fun and at the same time I’m learning a lot. For example, Gnocchi is amazingly simple. I always thought it would take hours upon hours to make it. The sauce we made for the Gnocchi was really simple too! I’m beginning to think that the Italians just want to make it seem difficult to make their food so that they can keep their secrets to themselves. But, we aren’t just doing Italian food, we’ve done some foods from all around the world.

The first day was all breakfast foods, like smoothies, scones, raspberry French toast… things of that sort. The other days we made recipes for a patio party, French food and the best BC has to offer. I’m really looking forward to making these things at home. I think I’ll start with the profiteroles. They were really good! And, not as difficult as you would think!

My favourite thing about this camp is that it really makes it easy to do it yourself. Even at home, I can make these wonderful concoctions with relative ease. Next time I see you, I’ll have a full, three course meal made for you. And, you’ll love it. Without a doubt. Hope to see you soon.

Kyle Jenkins, 14 years old

______________________________
Chef Barbara Finley is the chef-instructor for the Northwest Culinary Academy’s Summer Camp. She is also the director of the Project Chef Program, educating youth across the lower BC mainland about the wonders of cooking and eating fresh.

For more information about the programs, please contact the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver.

Photos © Leeanne Munn and published with permission. More photos of this camp can be found on Leeanne’s photostream.

Judith Lane

Judith Lane is a Vancouver-based wine, food, and travel writer who contributes regularly to the Georgia Straight, Taste, BC Restaurant News, Flavours, Vines, and gremolata.com who will go almost anywhere for a good story and a glass of wine. She’s also an in-demand judge for wine, food, and cocktail competitions, including the several at the annual Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Mains. Anything savoury. Right now spatchcocked lemon chicken is a favourite as is mérquen rubbed grilled chicken.

Who or what got you interested in food?
An aunt who lived on a farm in Manitoba. Her breads and buns were amazing, as was her flavourful braised beef.

What inspires you?
Fresh ingredients like spot prawns and pink salmon fresh off the boats at the False Creek Fishermen’s Wharf, local mushrooms–chanterelles and pine, and just-picked veggies from our Farmers’ Markets which go year round in Vancouver.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
Fish and chips and orange crush which I was allowed each birthday at my daughter-and-Dad restaurant dinner. Still love fish and chips.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Cakes because I loved to decorate them. My mother would serve them at tea time to her envious friends.

Proudest food-related moment?
Turning out dinner for 12 in my teensy 5′ x 8′ kitchen.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
My Mom’s boiled tongue complete with taste buds, and stuffed heart…not great kid food.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Sizzle.

Favourite cooking smell?
Garlic.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Bison burgers, bannock.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
Somewhere in between. Its ‘hauteness’ is often altered enough so that it can go mainstream.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
I actually liked the taste of soap as a kid but detest cilantro…it overpowers every dish it’s used in rather like a bully or an attention-getting kid who says “look at me, look at me”.

What non-local foods can’t you live without?
Lemons, pepper.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Good olive oil, and Solera Pinot Noir Balsamico made by Okanagan Vinegar Brewery in Peachland, B.C.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Don’t know–my only ‘gadget’ is a Waring blender.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My chef’s knife given to me many years ago by a chef friend.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about ______ again, I’d be happy.
Goat cheese. There are thousands of cheeses in the world. Let’s see something else on menus and in the dishes we make.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Jacques Pepin. He’s an enormously generous man, and a sparkling table companion. (I had the pleasure of dining with him a few years ago and the experience is worth repeating.) I cook simply and find that chefs are the easiest and most appreciative dinner guests.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Fish or chicken.

What was the last thing you ate?
Mérquen-rubbed grilled chicken (mérquen a Chilean spice mix based on smoked goat’s horn chili).

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
Go back to my previous profession, designing and making clothes.

Jennifer Cockrall-King

Jennifer Cockrall-King splits her time between Edmonton, Alberta, and Naramata, BC in the Okanagan where she eats, drinks, writes and teaches food writing courses. Her articles have appeared in Canadian Geographic, Maclean’s, the National Post, Chicago Sun-Times, Slow Canada, Homemaker’s and on CBC Radio among others. She posts them on-line at her website, when she manages to find a few spare moments. She is also the co-founder and the co-publisher of The Edible Prairie Journal, a print publication which began in 2004 and now continues on-line at www.edibleprairie.ca.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Definitely mains. I used to have a sweet tooth, but I am definitely more interested now in savoury foods, especially the flavour-packed foods of hot climates. One day I’ll make it to my “culinary homelands” of places like the Middle East or Vietnam and Thailand.

Who or what got you interested in food?
My immediate family loves good food, and my grandmother on my dad’s side was a great, basic Prairie home cook. (My other grandmother is a notoriously bad cook — well, notorious within our family. I don’t think she ever threw a dinner party so no one outside of our family knows how truly bad a cook she is!!) But my Grandma Cockrall canned peaches, pears, sauerkraut and pickles. I got the basics from her. My parents were and still are quite avid foodies. They used to have incredible dinner parties with friends in the 1970s, where they made really cutting edge dishes. I guess they taught me how to be a fearless cook and an adventurous eater.

What inspires you?
I guess I am on the endless search for the “ultimate” in any kind of food: the freshest, most “carroty” carrot, the most savoury tarragon leaves, or the best lobster tail on the planet. I love the basic flavours of food. I get frustrated when there’s too much going on in a dish and I can’t taste the pure elements.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
As a kid my favorite dinner was probably something shamefully processed, so I will “refuse to comment” on that

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Melted cheese on Triscuits in my Easy Bake Oven. The cheese used to get all over the light-bulb that was the heat source in those contraptions. But it was a fun way to spend an afternoon — baking cheese appetizers for passersby in our neighbourhood.

Proudest food-related moment?
Probably when I got my first “big” article published. I got a full-page food article on saskatoons published in the National Post in 2000. I loved it because it was so “prairie” yet it got some play in a national food venue. (Remember this was way before local was the new exotic.)

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Knowingly or unknowingly!!?? Lord knows what I’ve eaten unknowingly, but eating cold, sliced beef tongue was the most difficult thing I’ve had to choke down. I was 14 years old and I really thought I would die right then and there. But I had to try it to be polite. Since then I’ve eaten all sorts of weird things, like bison testicles, but nothing was as difficult as choking down that jellied beef tongue as a 14-year-old girl.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Oh, good question. Probably the hiss and pop of something hitting a hot frying pan.

Favourite cooking smell?
Caramelizing onions for French onion soup. Somebody should bottle that smell.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Pancakes with saskatoon berry “topping” which is essentially a cooked compote of saskatoons.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
I think it’s cool to experiment but I’m sure it’s a “hit or miss” kind of cooking and eating. When I cook, I like to go for the sure bets. I hate misses when I’m dining and especially when I’m cooking, so I tend to not get too interested in making “smoke of rapini in a gelatinized bubble” and stuff like that.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
LOVE IT. I’ve got a huge patch of it in my garden because I can’t stand stale cilantro. The more cilantro, the better.

What non-local foods can’t you live without?
Chocolate. End of story. Citrus is a big one too.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
My stash of organic dark chocolate. I spare no expense on good, organic chocolate.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Most kitchen gadgets are over-rated. I am not very comfortable with most machines and gadgets, so I keep it simple. I use my mixer once every few months, and I don’t own a food processor. And those are good all-purpose machines. So something like a “salad shooter” would be totally useless to me, but I do like the concept of being about to shoot vegetables around the kitchen. Ha. I also find it weird how there are such specific one-use-only utensils. I even think it’s stupid to have different types of forks. I mean, who can’t eat salad with a normal fork. You need a special, smaller, flatter fork?? Don’t get me started on that weird cake separator fork-thing. I would have never cut it in Victorian times.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My ceramic Japanese chef’s knife. I NEVER sharpen knives, but I hate dull ones. It’s the perfect solution.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about ______ again, I’d be happy.
LIVER. I even strongly dislike foie gras. It’s a filter organ and it tastes bad. I have no idea why people even eat it. Liver pate reminds me of dog food. Yuck.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Well, just for pure fun, it would be Gordon Ramsay because he’s such a force of nature and probably a really fun guy to have dinner with. Also, he could teach me some new swears because mine are the same old ones I’ve been using for years. But really, I would want to cook for Stephen Harper so I could force him to listen to my rantings about how we need to start labelling our foods properly and stop being the patsy for international aquaculture and agriculture companies who farm products here outlawed by other countries.

What would you prepare for him/her?
I would prepare a comparative tasting of organic wild salmon and some farmed salmon, then some other comparative tastings of various fruits and vegetables all grown in Canada. I wouldn’t tell him which is which, but I’d see which ones he eats more of.

What was the last thing you ate?
I just made (and ate) the grilled fennel, grilled onion and arugula salad from Lucy Waverman’s weekend National Post recipe column. It was delish!

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
If I could conjure up any sort of talent I wanted, of course, I’d be a rock star. Doesn’t everyone want to be a rock star?

They’ll be pouring 1700 wines from 133 wineries in 15 countries at 61 events over the course of seven days. It may sound boggling but it is fascinating, delicious fun packed with food and learning if that’s your bent. There are some high level tastings like verticals of Beringer Private Reserve, Note Bene and Osoyoos Larose, and seminars that demonstrate how proper glassware elevates the taste of wine. Or perhaps you’d like to taste blindfolded at Blind-Blind.

There are a dozen wine-soaked gourmet winemaker dinners, as many decadent lunches and brunches, plus grazing events that run the gamut from a Great Big Kitchen Party featuring BC wines, Ga-Ga for Gewurz, and Fetzer’s Appetiser Challenge. If you’re into night life, then the California Wine Rush and Blasted Church Winery’s Midnight Gospel Service complete with wine and BBQ is right up your alley.

Tickets sell quickly but one way in at this late date is to buy a Gold Pass which offers access to all the Festival tastings including the two industry-only buyers’ afternoons, the Gold Pass Lounge, and a VIP reception.

Where to stay? How about where many of the visiting winery principles stay? In addition to the Festival’s partner hotels, three hot newcomers include:

• Moda
• The St. Regis
• The Loden

If you don’t make it this time around, check the Festival website in December 2009 for next year’s dates and events. It will be in April after the 2010 Olympics and will move into the new waterfront Convention and Exhibition Centre.

And I can’t wait.

Come October 2009, British Columbia restaurants will be trans-fat-free thanks to provincial legislation. As a consumer, I avoid trans fats and would be happy to know they can’t creep onto my plate when I dine out.

But as a restaurateur, how do you feel? Were you ahead of the curve on this ban or do you resent government intervention? Will this affect your bottom line or is it just the cost of doing business?

Don’ live in BC? Is the west heading up a health initiative you’d like the rest of the country to follow? Or is this micromanaging you would rather live without?

Don’t be shy. Our comments section has no bureaucratic red tape.