SIDE DISHES
Chris Whittaker, long the farm-to-table, ecologically minded chef at Forage restaurant at the Listel Hotel, left in 2018 and moved to Blind Bay. It's off the southwest shore of Shuswap Lake. Having for the first time checked it out, I see its allure. Whittaker worked for a short time at Quaaout Lodge then — lucky Blind Bay — he opened his own restaurant, Timber, which is open Wednesday to Monday for breakfast, lunch, dinner and brunch on weekends.
He left the harried executive chef life in the city when he and wife Marianne adopted a little boy, now five, from Vietnam. That former life, he says, is not why he became a dad.
I stopped for lunch at Timber, a quick detour off the Trans-Canada Highway, between Chase and Salmon Arm. It takes the same name as the now-closed, casual Canadiana restaurant he also oversaw at the Listel. I had a “big” salad with carrot and miso vinaigrette, showcasing the lovely bounty from local farms.
“We're surrounded by a farming community and about eight wineries,” he says. My husband's Timber burger with locally made brioche bun, lettuce, caramelized onions, cheese, and local beef was juicy-delicious and an unbelievable $11. I stole two big bites of it.
For dinner, you can dine casually — a crispy buttermilk fried chicken thighs in a brioche bun for $14 might fit that bill. Or more serious dining might involve local beef tenderloin with gnocchi, morel mushroom espuma and wilted spinach from a farm called Spotted Moose ($42) or Douglas fir cured coho salmon with roasted radish and carrot, warm potato salad, garden “weeds” and citrus dressing ($38).