STEP BACK IN TIME FOR BRUNCH AT HISTORIC RUTHERFORD HOUSE
Stepping into historic Rutherford House always feels a bit like a voyeur’s tour of the lives of the formerly rich and famous.
You can peer into the bedroom where Alberta’s first premier, Alexander Rutherford, and his wife Mattie slept when they moved into their new home shortly after he left office in 1910, or poke around the parlour where for decades they entertained local leading lights.
The red-brick mansion at the University of Alberta, open for public snooping as a provincial historic site since 1974, is particularly appealing around Christmas, when pine and spruce bows, a wreath on the door and candles in the windows enhance the regular cosy charm.
Fortunately, there’s once again a place where you can sit down for a meal and soak in all that atmosphere. The Vintage Fork opened in October, replacing the old Arbour Room, which closed several years ago.
Visitors can sit in the breakfast nook where the Rutherford family ate most of their meals, or the bright, cheerful sun porch where Mattie liked to host teas and meetings with community organizations.
Chef Salar Melli is still finetuning his weekend brunch — the original a la carte fare was replaced with a set menu so Melli can experiment with a wider variety of dishes, and the offerings regularly change.
On a recent sunny Saturday, the four-course brunch started with porridge and fruit, a controversial choice for people such as my wife whose childhood aversion to mucilaginous cuisine means she would rather die than allow such a dish to pass her lips.
But as rarely happens, she was wrong to turn it down. This cinnamon oatmeal was delicious, a creamy concoction enhanced by honey, raspberries, blackberries, oranges, bananas and apple chunks.
Then came a wild mushroom involtini, a small smackerel of food inside a wrapper about the size of a sausage.
This brilliant Italian treat contained mushroom bits rolled in eggplant and surrounded by prosciutto, topped by a poached egg under Bernaise sauce.
While the involtini looked a little lonely by itself in the middle of the plate, it was artistically
presented and the combination of tastes exquisite.
The next course provided the morning’s only choice — pork tenderloin or chicken fillet? Both were tender morsels accompanying skewers of bread pudding made of brioche and apple, along with bacon-wrapped pineapple and a dollop of rich Amaretto cream.
Another hit. The bread pudding has a bit of a savoury taste that pairs well with the meat, and they contrast perfectly with the fresh pineapple. However, the two protein dishes are rich and could do with fresh vegetables or salad on the side for balance.
The finale is a Paris-Brest, a small wheel of choux pastry (the type used for eclairs) and roasted almonds filled with praline cream invented a century ago to celebrate a bicycle race between the two French cities.
Squishy delicious, the way I like such desserts, although my companions wanted crisper pastry to provide better contrast with the cream.
The menu is apparently inspired by Rutherford family recipes. While it’s unlikely the Rutherfords often sat down to an involtini, the Vintage Fork is an excellent, relaxing opportunity to get a feel for how the other half ate.