BACKYARD TO TABLE
Chef goes all out in Oliver
A chef worth celebrating is nothing without great farmers and artisanal producers. But together, it’s a connubial bliss. So, in a way, Chris Van Hooydonk married himself. The longtime chef is now a farmer, too.
After cooking stints at Four Seasons in Boston and Burrowing Owl Estate Winery in Oliver, Van Hooydonk and wife Mikkel Day bought a two-acre hobby farm just down the road from Burrowing Owl and transformed it into Backyard Farm, a culinary destination.
It’s also a venue for private dinners for up to 20 guests. You work out needs and details and cost with him, depending on number of courses and complexity of the dinner.
The food is from his backyard (organically grown but not certified) and local farmers. His orchard, so far, includes three varieties of cherries, four of plums, two of apricots, four of apples, as well as nectarines, mulberries, hazelnuts, walnuts, heirloom tomatoes (up to 15 varieties), figs, and lots and lots of vegetables. He also preserves what he doesn’t use, and some of his preserves are for sale at Lake Village Bakery in Osoyoos.
We arrived at the farm as the sun was slanting into its seductive golden hour. A glass of bubbly in hand, Van Hooydonk toured us around the farm, introducing us to Tony the rooster and his concubine (Tony’s, that is). At the dining room, a chalkboard proclaims the evening’s menu and wine pairings from Oliver’s Road 13 Vineyards, 2018 winery of the year at the National Wine Awards. Winery general manager Joe Luckhurst joined the group to talk about the pairings during dinner.
Breads arrive: whole wheat plum sourdough and himrod grape ciabatta, handmade with roasted garlic hummus for spreading. The breads are made with natural yeast from mashed plums and grapes.
“It’s about breaking bread with people, so someone else’s bread’s not sufficient. I have control issues I guess you could say,” says Van Hooydonk.
I like his plating ouevre, and dishes pop with brightness. We start with an amuse bouche of vanilla-cured salmon lox on cucumber and yogurt. Next, olive oil-poached longline halibut bathed in a soft, silky chartreuse leek and mussel veloute. An emerald-hued parsley oil and radish slices add extra pop. The flavours mix beautifully.
Applewood-smoked char, caught the previous day, is another beauty. It comes with a slice of asparagus terrine dotted with cross sections of stems, frills of pea tendrils, edible flower, and dots of late harvest peach and egg emulsion. An excellent dish in every way.
The main course is oven-roasted Peace country lamb and cherry-braised Berkshire pork cheek. On the side, WTF king oyster mushroom polenta, beetroot puree, parsnips and a crown of wild watercress. (I know you’re wondering: the initials stand for What The Fungus, the oyster mushroom company.) The dish was earthy and intense with lengthy flavours.
“I don’t do sous vide. I don’t follow food trends. I go by what French chefs have done for hundreds of years. It’s the way I think it’s done best,” says Hooydonk.
Dessert is another arty job: a rectangular chocolate mousse enrobed in chocolate ganache over pistachio financier. There was a lot going on — too much, I’d
say — buttons of coffee meringue, zigzags of red-wine-spiced cherry sauce, dots of pumpkin puree and beet-star anise caramel drizzles. And edible flowers. There’s a point at which too much subtracts from the overall.
The dinner I attended was a winery partnership, but generally it’s BYOB.
“Basically, it’s a private dinner and a multi-course culinary demonstration. Our kitchen’s a stage and, in essence, it’s like a cooking school,” he says. “We’re educating our clients.”
And that’s how it’s not a restaurant, but an educational event and can be BYOB.
Some guests bring stashed-away special occasion wines, but a lot see it as a reason to visit local wineries, menu in hand (created and emailed a week in advance) and ask for advice.
“We charge a little more for the food, but allow guests to bring in wines,” says Van Hooydonk. “The wineries are over the moon about it and want to help guests have an amazing experience.”
There’s a minimum charge of $800 for a group on weekdays (closed on Mondays and Tuesdays as they’re his “orchard days”) and $1,000 on weekends. An average would be $90 per person. It’s one group per evening, so the staff is yours for the private event.
Hooydonk also cooks at ticketed events, mostly wineries, and you can see those on the Backyard website under “Events.” Van Hooydonk prefers the intimate groups to the impersonality of restaurants.
He introduces his young daughters, one-year-old Baker and fouryear-old Ainsley, to the diners during the course of dinner and conversation, at least among the women, screeches to a halt and dissolves into a chorus of awwws. They are the reason for Backyard Farm. Van Hooydonk didn’t want to miss out on being a family man.
“I’m working harder than ever before, but loving it,” he says.
Bookings are a tight squeeze so jump on it if interested.