FINE DINING FUNDRAISER
Gaoler's Mews always a hit
When tickets for the 20th No. 1 Gaoler's Mews dinner series went online recently, they were sold out in four minutes flat.
Lee Cooper, chef/owner of L'Abattoir restaurant and host of these exclusive dinners invites a guest chef, usually a friend. Some pack serious heat, like Kyle and Katina Connaughton of the three-star SingleThread in Healdsburg, Calif.
And usually, it's at a stretch chef's table in a kitchen across the cobblestone alley from the restaurant, once the city's first jailhouse.
“This jailhouse rocks,” I wrote about an exquisite 2018 dinner I had there.
Recently, after hitting a pandemic pause, Cooper resuscitated the event with friend and one-time boss, Scott Jaeger, as guest chef. It was pure kismet because soon after talks began, Jaeger shuttered his beloved Pear Tree restaurant, no thanks to a difficult landlord.
Normally, Cooper and his guest chef alternate courses, but this time, he handed the menu over to Jaeger so that Pear Tree fans could have their “last supper.”
“I was happy to be his sous chef again,” Cooper said.
The menu? Some of Pear Tree's greatest hits. This time, however, guests were safely distanced in an event space upstairs, rather than in the open kitchen.
The exuberant response, Cooper said, was a testament to Jaeger's reputation.
“There's a huge appreciation for what he and (wife) Stephanie were able to do for such a long time, waking up every morning
and performing at such a high level. He's got street cred like few others. He came up at a time before social media. People knew him from eating at his restaurant. I find it so impressive,” Cooper said.
Frankly, Gaoler's Mews dinner tickets always sell out within a few minutes of posting and ironically, it's a money loser for Cooper. Ticket sales go straight to the B.C. Hospitality Foundation, which helps hospitality workers and their families facing medical emergencies, and about 20 per cent of funds go to culinary scholarships. This time, with the pandemic affecting L'Abattoir's bottom line, he deducted some of the production costs.
The meal, with wine matches by general manager and sommelier Nick Bertoia, began with one contribution from chef Cooper: the L'Abattoir bread basket, including his signature bacon brioche. Dinner began with a canapé of butter-poached Kusshi oyster with white asparagus kim
chee butter. The first course was a beauty — B.C. prawn cappuccino with cubes of dashi custard, a creamy “drink” of prawn bisque foamed with a whipped cream dispenser. For texture, a squidink rice cracker. On my last visit to Pear Tree I had this dish made with lobster.
The second course, beef tartare, usually isn't a dish I get excited about, but this was a refined version. Instead of an egg yolk plopped atop a mound of ground beef, the chef placed the tartare mix in a tart shell for textural contrast. He mixed cured egg yolk, black garlic and pickled garlic scapes in the dressing and grated more cured egg yolk with its Parmesan-like umami over the meat, and on the side, some pickled celeriac.
Bertoia worked hard to find a white wine to match, recreating the dish at home to test matches. He'd wanted to avoid serving a red followed by a white, which the next course demanded. Ta da! The Quails Gate Pinot Gris
worked. The third course was built around roasted North Arm Farm sunchokes dressed in sunflower-seed pesto with a Canadian grain salad. It was my least favourite because it could have used some bright notes and colour, but it was in step with the feel of autumn.
It was followed by luscious slow-cooked Thiessen Farm pheasant. Smoked bacon, thigh farce and leg confit meat was wrapped around breast meat; pine mushrooms and parsnips accompanied.
Dessert was a split-personality pumpkin pie. A wedge of glazed caramel mousse was parked atop a wedge of sugar pumpkin pie to double the pleasure. And to end, some perfect macaron mignardise.
When he started the Gaoler's Mews dinners, it was Cooper's aim to push himself creatively, but his motive has changed.
“The fundraising means more to me at this point,” he said.
“We get the opportunity to give back to people who work in the industry. People I know have benefited from the foundation in the past.”
The event raised $3,000 for BCHF.
There will be more No. 1 Gaoler's Mews dinners in the coming year, but certainty and planning has lost its way for now. Sign up at gaolersmews.com for updates.