Putting art on a plate
Art is not limited to paintings on a canvas, but encompasses a wide range of creative activities that push imagination forward.
While the cook or chef is a craftsperson at heart requiring great precision and planning, curiosity and creativity added to their skill set can produce meals as memorable as great works of art.
That skill set is at play at Liquidity Bistro. Contemporary art throughout the bistro and winery’s tasting room is a fitting backdrop for a menu that utilizes organic and local ingredients as its medium and modern, inventive techniques for its execution. At the helm is chef in-progress Matt Martin, a driven 21-year old with fire in his belly.
At 14, he found his brethren in restaurant kitchens, quickly working his way through the ranks. For three years, he worked with local company Vintage Hospitality under noted chef Lee Humphries, who commends Martin for his work ethic and creativity, adding, “he could go into any situation and cook – he’s way ahead of his time.”
Martin furthered his experience with world travels, cooking along the way, before landing a stage at the Michelinstar Relae in Copenhagen, where cooks go through a rigorous farm-to-kitchento-table experience.
From picking ingredients from the onsite garden, cleaning and cooking them, and presenting the finished dish to diners, it drove home respect for ingredients from start to finish.
This experience has primed Martin’s canvas at Liquidity. An incredibly prolific on-site garden and ace sourcing from like-minded purveyors and foragers – including Martin – provides a seasonal and adventurous ingredient list, and everything from breads to charcuterie is made in-house.
Secondly, fermentation, dehydration, infusions and other techniques are his cooking’s leitmotif. They amplify flavours and allow the creation of textural layers and nuances, explorations that delight both the eye and the palate.
Chips and dip provides a colourful and artful start on the menu with carrot and beet chips, flaxseed and buttermilkdill crackers. The carrot and beet varieties are wafer-thin, made from the pulp leftover from juicing the vegetables.
The dip is not a blob of flavoured mayo but a house-made cultured cream, heightened by fragrant pickled and pureed fennel and sprinkled with fennel seeds. Beet chips are covered in onion ash and beet powder, and carrot, with dill and lovage powder, providing flavourful nuance.
A plate of house made sourdough, made from five B.C.-grown wheat varietals and “Otis” the starter, is moist, aromatic and toothsome served with an herb butter supplemented with concentrated kohlrabi oil.
From the small plates section of the menu, ostrich tartare is coarsely chopped from various cuts of the locally raised bird and delightfully seasoned with coriander and elderflower vinegar. The lean meat is given a luscious lift with whipped ostrich fat and Saskatoon berries. Crispy puffed tendons is the dish’s crowning glory.
What would normally be considered a throw away byproduct, the tendons are transformed from waste to wizardry by a labour intensive process involving cooking them sous vide, slicing and then dehydrated them for up to 10 hours before being deep-fried to crispy perfection.
Madness for many, this is the sort of technique, and end results, that excites the kitchen here, a team amassed from some of Martin’s childhood friends who have the same hunger for learning – and capacity to work 18-hour days.
Crowd pleasers at lunch include seasonal pizzas and sandwiches that satisfy on wonderful house-made focaccia holding slow roasted meats, and pizza dough with great chew transporting summer yellow and red tomatoes, tender baby zucchini, housemade ricotta and parmesan.
And those with culinary adventure in their hearts can dig in to the personalized seven-course tasting menu at the dinner hour, where Martin and this team pull out all the stops.
It’s inspiring to see such innovation, creativity and zeal brought to the table. I can’t wait to see – and devour – what Martin holds in store for the future. Chef Matt Martin is one to watch.
With fork and pen in hand, and a passion for culinary adventure, Shelora Sheldan, writer, cook and traveller, goes in search of the delectable.