Royals to get taste of B.C. in Kelowna
Top chefs prepare dishes showcasing local food during visit to Okanagan
On their visit to Kelowna today, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will visit the Mission Hill Winery with its breathtaking views of lake, vineyards and mountains.
And some of Vancouver’s top chefs will be there cooking for them. David Hawksworth, Rob Feenie, Hidekazu Tojo, Ned Bell and Vikram Vij, along with Bernard Casavant, culinary manager at Okanagan College, will be preparing dishes showcasing B.C. foods and wines.
“My understanding is the couple is happy to try everything, but they’ll be choosing what they eat. It’s more of a reception,” said Mission Hill Winery chef Patrick Gailor. “We’ll be hosting them at 12:30 and the food will be appetizer sized, about two bites.”
Hawksworth, of Hawksworth and Nightingale restaurants, cooked twice for the late Queen Mother at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons in Oxford and will make dishes guaranteed to please the Duchess — Shuswap watermelon with black lime, puffed rice, Dungeness crab and mint, along with an heirloom tomato salad with Okanagan peach, burrata, Mission Hill honey and pistachio granola. Feenie (of Cactus Club restaurants) will be serving braised Cache Creek oxtail and caramelized onion ravioli with Hazelmere Farm celeriac purée, port wine jus and shaved Parmesan cheese.
Tojo (Tojo’s Japanese restaurant) will offer adventurous bites — B.C. albacore tuna, cubed with soy wasabi-roasted sesame sauce; geoduck sashimi wrapped in Japanese cucumber with miso mustard sauce; vegetarian roe in soy paper stuffed with roasted red pepper, pickled carrots, asparagus, tempura, zucchini and pickled ginger garnished with B.C. caviar; and wild B.C. salmon pressed sushi. He was hesitant to serve geoduck, but since B.C. has just started exporting it to England, he wanted to showcase it.
Bell (Vancouver Aquarium chef) will have a spot prawn and cranberry dish and Vij (Vij’s, My Shanti) will be making his popular lamb popsicles and some coconut curried vegetables for the couple and other guests.
“The chefs will be talking about their own experiences of being restaurant owners and chefs in this country and in Vancouver,” Vij said.
He included lamb because the couple served it for the main course at their wedding. “But they haven’t had my lamb popsicle. They’ll be watching us prepare the food and we can explain what we’re doing.”
Knowing the couple’s good humour, Vij says he might thank them (the English) for leaving India in 1947. “And I’ll talk about curry and that it’s not just about butter chicken or onion bahji.” He will present them with a copy of the just-released cookbook, Vij’s Indian, which he wrote with wife Meeru Dhalwala.
Hawksworth has fond memories of cooking for William’s great grandmother. “She was always very, very sweet and had fond memories of visiting Vancouver,” he says. “I’m excited to showcase our Dungeness crab for the duke and duchess. It’s the best crab in the world.”
As for Tojo, he has already cooked for the duke, on his first visit, as a teenager, to Vancouver.