The 2023 Canadian Culinary Championship (#CCC2023) is the cook-off finale among the 9 regional winners from Canada’s Great Kitchen Party (@GKitchenParty) competitions held in major cities across the nation during the Fall of 2022. The Vancouver BC champion Bobby Milheron’s winning dish of lightly smoked Canadian Geoduck & BC Spot Prawn terrine was written up here on November 28, 2022. Your scribe had judged the final CCC many consecutive times but decided to step down this year being replaced by the most competent new Senior Judge Joie Alvaro Kent. Good timing by me to miss this past weekend in the minus 41C frigid snowy weather in Ottawa Ontario including cancellation due to a power outage of the always challenging Black Box event. The final results are in with the top 3 finishers being home town fav Briana Kim of Alice in Ottawa submitting a “plant-based adventure” for first place, Bobby Milheron (Homer St. Cafe & Bar, Tableau Bar Bistro, and Maxine’s Cafe & Bar) of Vancouver is second, and Serge Belair of Edmonton Convention Centre is third. James Chatto has written up the CCC2023 here in an erudite detailed blow-by-blow account of the amazing culinary skills shown by all the chefs competing this year. It also provides valuable insight into food trends, artistic ideas, local ingredients, and what is “hot” now so it is highly recommended reading! Congrats to all the participants!
Congratulations to Briana Kim who is the winner of Canadian Culinary Championship 🎉 #CCC2023 pic.twitter.com/A3JIJkxhMf
— Canada's Great Kitchen Party (@GKitchenParty) February 5, 2023
2023 Canadian Culinary Championship
Culinary Report by James Chatto
To the nation’s capital on a cold and frosty first of February to
begin the Canadian Culinary Championship – this country’s most
significant chefs’ competition and the culmination of the Canada’s
Great Kitchen Party 2022-2023 campaign. This is the fifteenth time we
have held the CCC – and past champions have emerged from Winnipeg,
Whistler, Edmonton, twice from Vancouver, twice from Montreal, twice
from Toronto, twice from Calgary and three times from Ottawa-Gatineau.
This year’s competitiors all won their regional competitions last
fall. They are, from East to West: our St. John’s champion – David
Vatcher of Best Coast Restaurant, in Corner Brook, NL; our Montreal
champion – Imad-Eddine Makraji of Bab Kech; our Ottawa-Gatineau
champion – Briana Kim of Alice; our Toronto champion – Sebastian Perez
of Isabelle, in Burlington’s Pearle Hiotel & Spa; our Winnipeg
champion – Edward Lam of Yujiro Japanese Restaurant; our Saskatoon
champion – Steve Squier of Picaro and Cohen’s Beer Republic; our
Edmonton champion – Serge Belair of the Edmonton Convention Centre;
our Calgary champion – Scott Redekopp of Yellow Door Bistro in
Calgary’s Hotel Arts; and our Vancouver champion – Bobby Milheron of
Homer St. Cafe & Bar, Tableau Bar Bistro and Maxine’s Cafe & Bar.
A strong group indeed! And having tasted all their food in the
regional events, I can honestly say that any of them could end up on
the podium. Who will decide the winner? Canada’s Great Kitchen Party
has more than 75 judges across the country – a regiment of chefs,
writers, critics and chef-instructors who together form an
extraordinary academy of expertise! And in each city we have a Senior
Judge – men and women with the best palates in the country. Only they
have the courage and moral authority to pass judgement on our chefs. I
write their names with pride…
Senior Judge St. John’s is Roary Macpherson, Chef, father and promoter
of all things Newfoundland. Senior Judge, Montreal, Gildas Meneu has
been a food and gastronomy journalist for almost 25 years. Senior
Judge, Ottawa-Gatineau, Anne DesBrisay is an Ottawa-based food writer
and editor. Senior Judge, Toronto, Sasha Chapman is an award-winning
writer and editor. Senior Judge, Winnipeg, Barbara O’Hara is a chef,
pastry chef, chef educator and culinary judge. Senior Judge,
Saskatoon, Noelle Chorney is a food writer and editor, leader of Slow
Food Saskatoon. Senior Judge, Edmonton, Mary Bailey is a food, wine
and travel writer. Senior Judge, Calgary, John Gilchrist is an author,
critic and broadcaster. Senior Judge, Vancouver, Joie Alvaro Kent is
an author, culinary judge and entrepreneur. Our Judge Invigilator this
year, Chris Johns, is an author and food and travel writer who flew
over from Spain to be part of the fun.
All of the above-mentioned took their introductory bows on Thursday
night in a splendid ceremony held in the elegant, Wedgewood-inspired
surroundings of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier’s Adam Room, applauded by
an invited audience of media, sponsors and friends of the Kitchen
Party. Past stars of our Ottawa Kitchen Parties provided marvellous
food, including Yannick La Salle (2019 culinary champion and now
Executive Chef of the Supreme Court of Canada), 2019 gold medallist
Ian Carswell of Black Tartan Kitchen, Joe Thottungal of Coconut Lagoon
(2016 gold medallist and 2017 CCC silver medallist), Daniela Manrique
from Soca (2018 and 2019 medallist) and the Fairmont’s own chef, David
de Bernardi. The evening ended with each competing chef being handed a
bottle of mystery wine, unlabelled and with an anonymous cork, chosen
by KP’s own National Wine Advisor, David Lawrason. This year, just to
set the cat among the pigeons, there were two mystery wines – one red
and one white – and chefs received one or the other entirely at
random. They had all night to ponder and taste the wine before being
sent out shopping in Ottawa, charged with creating a dish that was a
perfect match for their wine. The catch? They had to make the dish for
300 people and spend only $600 on ingredients. The results would be
tasted and judged on Friday night – the weekend’s first competition.
Meanwhile, even as we partied, a fiendish polar vortex hit
the Ottawa area with temperatures plummetting. By the time the chefs
started shopping on Friday morning, it was minus 41°C in the nation’s
capital, but they stepped boldly forth… Briana Kim even went foraging
for pine needles! By the afternoon they were all busy cooking and the
Judge Invigilator and I checked their receipts to make sure no one had
overspent. All good.
Here are the dishes they made, starting with the four
chefs who ended up with the white wine, later revealed to be a rich,
weighty and complex 2020 Chardonnay from Le Clos Jordanne in Jordan
Village, Niagara.
Sebastian Perez (Toronto) braised leeks in white wine with butter and
thyme until they were beguilingly soft then cut them into rounds.
Beside them he set a mound of sliced and roasted mushrooms (king
oyster, cremini and shiitake) moistened with beef stock. Matching the
wine’s texture was a delicious sauce of heavy cream and vegetable
stock spiked with a touch of gorgonzola – and here was a crunchy slaw
of fennel and apple (echoing notes in the wine) tossed with a litle
red onion and a carefully judged citrus vinaigrette that did not
overwhelm the wine with its acidity. A drizzle of blueberry gastrique
brought a little more acid to the party. The dish was finished with
two sturdy but crisp crackers flavoured with powdered porcini
Briana Kim (Ottawa), whose restaurant is vegan, chose yuba as her
protein, folding and compressing 16 layers of the tofu skin to imitate
a schnitzel, breaded with panko, black pepper and sesame and then
fried. Two small squares of this were layered between leeks that had
been confited in charcoal oil, and a little kombu jam, the kelp cooked
down with charred onions, miso paste, fermented black bean paste,
honey and apple cider vinegar. On top of these stacked elements was a
little cap of exquisitely patterned membraneous basil “lace” like a
square swatch of silk, flavoured with foraged pine needles. Chef Kim
finished the dish with a rich miso and yeast bisque scented with
coriander, star anise, fennel and cumin. The fennel and leek certainly
found similar flavours in the wine but it was the textural affinity
between the dish and the Chardonnay that really pleased the judges.
Steve Squier (Saskatoon) approached the wine in a different but also
very effective way. He made perfect agnolotti – one for each plate –
filled with a tasty farce of green pea and scallop. Beside that lay a
thick slice of slow-cooked pork belly that he had braised with fennel
and garlic then crisped in a frying pan. A charred red pepper purée
worked like a romesco sauce – a great condiment for the pork, as were
the dots of balsamic-spiked black olive tapenade and tangy little
fried capers. The bright fennel notes in the wine were echoed by a
small rhomb of fennel root braised with saffron and garlic oil and
there was more fennel in a honeyed emulsion that bridged some of the
other elements on the plate. The dish was finished with pea tendrils
and micro radish.
Scott Redekopp (Calgary) was the last chef to pair with the white
wine. His dainty dish centred around a loin of Pacific cod,
delightfully tender and cooked just to the point where its juices were
seized. Nestled inside the fish was a delicate curried shrimp
mousseline, then the whole fillet was wrapped in zucchini ribbons.
Each guest received a slice of this, laid upon a purée of smoked corn
enriched with saffron. Tangy little cherry tomatoes also came to play,
together with Thai basil leaves and rings of shaved celery. The
crowning glory was a crumble of crushed chicken skin and panko fried
in chicken schmaltz.
At this point, we moved on to dishes matched to the mystery red –
which turned out to be the sibling of the Chardonnay, Le Clos
Jordanne’s 2020 Pinot Noir, a beauty that proved surprisingly
vulnerable to acidity on the plate.
Edward Lam (Winnipeg) was the first chef to present a dish.
He used part of his meagre budget to score a case of frog’s legs
which he deboned then marinated in rice wine before deep frying them
and tossing them in a rich sauce of rice lees miso, oyster sauce,
garlic and 13-spice powder. He made ribbons of rutabaga and cooked
them with Chinese vinegar and Szechuan pepper oil. Another compionent
was a rich purée of spinach, goat cheese and caramelized onion. Chef
then poured on a savoury broth made from beef stock enhanced with the
bones from the frog’s legs and flavoured with star anise, cumin, roast
onion and garlic, and with shiitake mushrooms that dramatically
boosted the umami level. One or two juicy poached goji berries added
bright red colour and savoury tang.
David Vatcher (St. John’s) made arancini, starting with
moist mushroom risotto using button, cremini, chanterelles and morels.
Each golden sphere was properly moist and rich inside its crisp crust.
Sharing the plate was a ring of silky butternut squash purée and two
spoonfuls of bacon and caramelized onion jam that hid soft, juicy
whole bing cherries (a great avenue into the wine). A drizzle of herb
oil and some refreshingly tart red currants finished the plate.
Serge Belair (Edmonton) made paté en croute for the entire crowd of
300 – a process that usually takes three days but that he achieved in
a matter of hours. Slicing each perfectly browned dome of pastry
revealed a mosaic of bacon-enriched pork shoulder, some of the pieces
limned with leek ash, studded with dried cherries and seasoned with
cinnamon. A stripe of pickled beet purée was crowned with a salad of
kale, fennel, radish and parsley drizzled with a subtle white wine
vinaigrette, and a scattering of pickled carrot and onion. A wee
quenelle of Dijon and mustard seed was the paté’s companion.
Imad-Eddine Makraji (Montreal) braised beef “tagine-style” with onions
and cranberries then forked it into shreds and set it beneath an
ethereal wafer of crisp, almond-covered pastry, like a deconstructed
pastilla. He made a mash of butternut squash flavoured with cinnamon,
orange flower water and fennel seeds and set a spoonful on every
plate, sprinkling it with sesame seeds. Beside this was a spoonful of
whole green peas in a stiff matrix of stewed buttion and shiitake
mushrooms, sharpened with confited lemon. Beside both stood a sturdy
puck of red beet glazed with orange.
Bobby Milheron (Vancouver) was the last chef to present his dish to
the judges. He wrapped a juicy pork loin in a coarse, rustic pork paté
then laid a pretty slice of it onto every plate. Beside it was a
crisp, tissue-thin toasted rye cracker that hid the dish’s other
elements. Here was Savoy cabbage, charred and roasted but still
toothsomely tender, topped with raw kohlrabi. There was a spoonful of
deeply flavourful, stiff-textured purée of roasted Ambrosia and Granny
Smith apples. A small pool of pale green buttermilk dressing had been
sharpened with juiced kohlrabi and apple then split with herb oil.
The judges mulled over the marks they awarded but did not reveal them
to the chefs or the audience. At this stage, three chefs had pulled
away from the pack, led by Briana Kim. We were then informed that her
station had run out of food fifteen minutes before the end of service,
which meant we had to penalize her by taking away five percent of her
marks. It was a consolation to her, perhaps, to receive the People’s
Choice award for her dish.
As always, the second competition in this gruelling culinary triathlon
is the Black Box challenge, in which chefs have an hour to create two
dishes using seven mystery ingredients. We had an intriguing inventory
for them this year – two whole walleye (aka pickerel), silken tofu
from La Soyarie in Gatineau, a bundle of hay, black walnuts from Grimo
Nut Nursery in Niagara, a bunch of chioggia beets with their greens,
some forced rhubarb and 12 duck eggs. Our venue was Algonquin College
but we were only one hour into the event when a power outage occurred.
To everyone’s profound regret, the Black Box had to be cancelled and
the unfulfilled, adrenalin-charged posse of chefs returned to the Shaw
Centre to prepare their dishes for the evening’s Grand Finale.
Once again, the judges were sequestered, like 11 Wizards of Oz, behind
a curtain in a distant corner of the Shaw Centre’s Trillium ballroom,
but this time the chefs were allowed to accompany their dishes into
our lair and explain what they had created. Our judging criteria
included marks for presentation, texture, technical achievement, wine
compatibility (each chef chose the accompanying wine for their dish),
wow factor, and above all taste.
Bobby Milheron (Vancouver) presented first, bringing us the essence of
the Pacific ocean in a bowl. Cured geoduck clam was lightly smoked,
poached and then very briefly seared to a remarkable tenderness.
Echoing its sublime marine flavour was a dainty slice of spot prawn
held in a matrix of shellfish mousseline, wrapped in bull kelp.
Beneath the geoduck lay a finger of grated sunchoke cake, creamy
inside, crispy on the surface. A leaf of lightly pickled bull kelp
provided acidity and another taste of the sea, while sunchoke skin
crisps gave us scrumptious crunch. Chef’s sauce was a shellfish
reduction made from spot prawn, geoduck and bull kelp oil, as rich as
butter. Two intensely flavourful oyster leaves offered another marine
nuance. Mission Hill 2021 Reserve Rosé from the Okanagan was the wine
match.
Steve Squier (Saskatoon) was up next. He had prepared a torchon of
foie gras cured with miso, spruce and whiskey and wrapped it with
tender duck breast cured with ash and mushroom and a hint of white
truffle shoyu. Beside a slice of this gorgeous roulade layhalf a juicy
morel stuffed with a smooth duck-meat farce. Fermented faro and
crunchy puffed wild rice gave the dish a base of pleasantly chewy
grain; roasted celeriac purée was as smooth as silk. A spoonful of
redcurrant jell brought tangy acidity and garnishes included a moment
of caribou moss seasoned with nori dust, a scattering of shiso sprouts
and a dainty tuile that looked like the skeleton of an autumn leaf,
made from crisped duck skin. Chef poured on a perfectly judged
demiglace, leavened and brightened by dashi. His wine was Benjamin
Bridge’s Pétillant Naturel from Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
Briana Kim (Ottawa) now brought us a plant-based adventure for the
palate that had grown judges sighing with pleasure. The experience of
this dish began with a glass cloche filled with a whisp of kombu
smoke, lifted away to release the scents of a campfire on an ocean
beach and to reveal a timbale of layered ingredients. The crown was a
delicate tuile flavoured with “funk dust,” a fine powder of fermented
and dehydrated seaweed, onion and mushrooms. Beneath it was a layer of
dime-sized potato slices that had been confited in black garlic oil,
creamy tofu and fennel pollen, each one dotted with a citrus gel.
Below that lay strands of honey-preserved rhubarb jerky and smoked
maitake mushrooms over a porridge of charred corn and toasted barley.
Chef poured on a rich broth made from green tomatoes fermented in
brine for two years, blended with koji butter and smoked kelp broth.
Her wine was Pearl Morissette’s 2019 Irreverence, a blend of Riesling
and Gewürztraminer with a hint of Chardonnay from Ontario’s Niagara
Peninsula.
David Vatcher (St. John’s) gave us a trio of beautifully executed
elements. Here was a perfectly seared scallop on a spoonful of buttery
truffled hollandaise sauce. Nestled up against it was a small cube of
tender roasted pork belly glazed with a sweet-sour moment of hoisin,
sesame and soy; a little partridgeberry compote was spooned on top. A
piece of halibut, cooked sous-vide, came topped with a green
chimichurri, while a curry aïoli was swirled around the plate. The
finishing touches were a hank of crispy parsnip shavings and a
teaspoonful of beads of bakeapple “caviar.” Chef’s wine match was the
off-dry 2021 Riesling from Benjamin Bridge in Nova Scotia’s Gaspereau
Valley.
Edward Lam (Winnipeg) delighted the judges with his whimsical plating.
A ground lamb tsukune with the texture of meatloaf, glazed with a lamb
tare demi-glace like a teriyaki sauce, was playfully presented on a
slender stick to be eaten like a lollipop. A small pool of
anchovy-flavoured yogurt and a streak of mint oil were meant for
dipping – a most delectable idea. The second component of the dish
looked like a candy wrapped in a twist of crisp phyllo pastry. Inside
it was a cube of shredded lamb flack that Chef had roasted with cumin
and 13 spices then forked apart. A pungent blue-cheese-and-honey sauce
adorned this tasty bonbon. At the centre of the plate, a spoonful of
egg yolk sauce was enisled by more of the lamb tare jus. The wine
pairing was the 2020 Nate’s Syrah from Nichol in Naramata, British
Columbia.
Imad-Eddine Makraji (Montreal) cooked us a boneless beef chuck rib,
braised until fork-tender but still moist and juicy, and topped it
with a confit of figs and prunes and a sprinkle of crushed roasted
almonds. Beside it lay an individual pastilla – a round phyllo pastry
pillow filled with a spicy-sweet mixture of tomato and onion, orange
and cinnamon, dusted with its traditional “snow” of icing sugar.
Potato appeared as a saffron-scented brunoise and as an exquisite
anise-scented tuile. Two dots of mashed sweet potato scented with
cinnamon continued the sweet-spicy interplay and the dish was
completed by a sauce reduced from the beef braising juices and infused
with a raz al hanoute blend of 24 spices. Chef’s wine was the Haywire
2019 Gamay from B.C.’s Okanagan Valley.
Scott Redekopp (Calgary) presented a treatise on superb Alberta
rabbit. He created a roulade of the juicy loin cinched up beside a
mousseline made from the leg meat and a touch of rillette, all wrapped
in his house-cured prosciutto. Two of the rabbit’s tiny ribs were
frenched and studded with a purée of mushroom and brown butter –
breaded and fried, they were gone in a trice. A bean-sized croquette
contained a creamy mix of rabbit meat and mushroom purée; beside it
lay a perfect sunchoke-and-potato pavé moistened with a smoked cream
flavoured with white truffle and topped with crispy sunchoke dimes. A
swoop of carrot and hazelnut purée brought an earthy tang to the dish,
while pickled Saskatoon berries in a reduction of Japanese plum wine
added tangy acidity. Micro greens and a slice of raw fennel refreshed
a rich jus made from the rabbit bones. Dirty Laundry 2020 Hush Red
from the Okanagan was the wine pairing.
Sebastian Perez (Toronto) approached this leg of the competiion from
an elegantly classical perspective. Saddle of red deer dusted with
rosemary, thyme, crushed chili and lemon zest was the principal
protein, cooked medium rare and seasoned with a sprinkling of
coffee-and-yuzu-flavoured Maldon salt. Two thick slices of the venison
sat on a silky, butter-rich purée of confited apple and celeriac. The
sauce was a meaty reduction spiked with pomegranate seeds that brought
their own bitter-sweet crunch to the proceedings. Juicy chunks of
sautéed maitaki and king oyster mushrooms found the textural sweet
spot between tender and firm. The coup de grace was a translucent fin
made by turning apple and celeriac juice into glass as thin as
cellophane.
Serge Belair (Edmonton) was the last chef to bring us his dish. How
brave to present a dessert! At its heart were the small pears from the
tree in Chef’s garden, prepared in many ways and in delectable
harmonies with almond and chocolate. A few grains of Maldon salt
sparked a simple poached pear; a tiny perfect macaron tasted intensely
of pear and lemon. A classic white wine sabayon served as sauce for a
golfball-sized, warm chocolate and almond cake with a sinfully gooey
heart, while an elegant little almond sablé biscuit was crowned with a
spoonful of ice cream flavoured with roasted pear and gorgonzola. A
dot of sweet pear gel and two tangy sorrel leaves rounded off this
flawless little medley. Chef’s wine was the 2019 Select Late Harvest
Vidal from henry of Pelham in Niagara.
The judges sat back at last and deliberated over their numbers as the
celebration party began in another part of the building. When all was
said and done, Serge Belair of Edmonton won the bronze medal. Bobby
Milheron of Vancouver took the silver. The gold, by a unanimous
decision and a considerable margin, was awarded to Briana Kim of
Ottawa – the new Canadian Culinary Champion! Alongside the glory of
the victory she wins our prize, provided by Air Canada, official
airline of the Canadian Culinary Championship: two business-class
tickets to anywhere in the world Air Canada flies.
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