Sweet and savoury cookbook
Cookbook launch followed by gourmet wine-pairing dinner is the quintessential culinary double-whammy. Thus, the final long-table affair of the season at West Kelowna’s Mission Hill Family Estate was inspired.
Hospitality guru Elizabeth Blau and her chef husband, Kim Canteewalla, signed copies of their new cookbook, Honey Salt, during the pre-dinner reception on the winery’s lower lawn.
And then Canteewalla hustled off to the kitchen to put the final touches on the scallop ceviche and Coquille St. Jacques we’d devour later with glasses of Mission Hill’s 2016 Perpetua Chardonnay while seated in the Chagall gallery.
Recipes for the two scallop dishes, naturally, are in the cookbook, which is named after Blau and Canteewalla’s Honey Salt restaurants in Las Vegas and Vancouver’s new downtown Parq casino-hotel complex.
The couple’s collaboration with Mission Hill started when they were in Vancouver opening Honey Salt and took a side trip to the Okanagan to check out the scenery, wine and produce.
Mission Hill, the Kelowna Farmer’s and Crafter’s Market and recipes for Okanagan plum galette and apple pie are featured in the cookbook.
There are also recipes, stories and photos from the couple’s four other favourite places – Cape Cod, Vancouver, Santa Barbara and Italy.
By the way, Honey Salt is a fun name indicative of the couple’s, restaurant’s and cookbook’s predilection for combining sweet and savory.
Honey and salt are also two of the seven adaptable and foundational ingredients that have found their way into most cuisines around the world. The five others are tomato, chile, pork, rice and cocoa. Bau and Canteenwalla also have restaurants Andiron Steak & Sea and Buddy V’s at the Venetian Hotel, a partnership with celebrity chef Buddy Valastra, in Las Vegas.
Honey Salt, the cookbook, is $40 and available at Mission Hill’s wine shop and HoneySalt.com. plum and raspberry characteristics and even a hint of red licorice.
You can enjoy any of these wines now or pop them in the cellar for up to a decade to see what delights they’ll deliver in 2028.