Community served right in his own Backyard Farm
Restaurant’s chef-owner serves up local food on Oliver’s Golden Mile
It’s less than an hour before the guests arrive, but Chris Van Hooydonk isn’t worried. After all, he’s just feeding 20 people tonight. No big deal. Not long ago, he was watching flames flick closer and closer to the edge of his property on Oliver’s Golden Mile. Compared to that, making braised beef cheeks and ricotta gnocchi is a snap.
Tonight it’s the Johnson family coming to dinner. It’s kind of a reunion — six of the seven siblings are in town, so Pat Johnson decided to bring everyone over to his friend Van Hooydonk’s place. They’re an old Oliver family and they know no matter what’s happening out in the vineyard, even if it’s the threat of a forest fire, at the end of the day, there is always good food, good wine and a community to share it with.
And that’s exactly why Van Hooydonk is here, cooking in a small house he calls Backyard Farm, and not at a luxury hotel or a big city restaurant.
“People ask me what I like most about being here, and it’s that sense of community,” the 35-year-old chef says. “I’ve never been happier. I’ve never been more creative or more inspired.”
He opened Backyard Farm in June 2014 after years of cooking at golf courses, on cruise ships, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston and, most recently, as executive chef at Burrowing Owl Estate Winery.
Then he found this property right across the valley from the winery, with its two houses — one to live in, one to work in — and a small orchard that he plans to develop into a food forest. It was the perfect setting for his dream of offering hands-on cooking classes and chef’s table dinners, with some catering on the side.
“I came to the conclusion that I was happier with less. It’s more about the opportunity to cook what I want for the clients I want to cook for,” Van Hooydonk says. “It needs to be more than just sitting down to eat. I guess I just wanted to get back to the roots of what I think is important in food, and what is important in food is the people in food.”
Backyard Farm is a unique concept in the valley, and one, it seems, the community has been hungry for. From the day Van Hooydonk opened, he’s been slammed — the only break he’s been able to take was a few weeks from December to February when his daughter was born.
And it’s not just that the community has supported him; he’s also supporting the community, particularly by using local ingredients as much as he can.
“It’s more fun for me to develop recipes based on what’s local and in season,” he says, adding, “I always felt it was my responsibility because I am a farmer, to represent the farmer.”
Tonight, for instance, he’s serving lemon cucumbers and heirloom tomatoes from Fester’s Organics just up the road, as well as wild porcini mushrooms a forager found near Big White, peaches from his own trees and heritage Angus beef from Cache Creek. Other days he might serve Arctic char farmed in Oliver, salmon fished in Osoyoos, cheese made in Penticton, and produce from any number of local farms.
Even the sourdough starter for his bread is as local as it can be — “Delilah,” as he calls it, is made from his own organic plums. As his assistant, Kyle Campbell, pulls a sheet of baguettes out of the oven, Delilah’s seductive aroma fills the kitchen.
It’s only a few minutes until the Johnsons arrive, and things are getting just a little heated. Quickly, Van Hooydonk and Campbell whisk together the ingredients for the gnocchi, roll it out into long ropes and chop it into bite- size pieces. Campbell begins slicing the bread, while Van Hooydonk briskly starts plating the salads, creating bright bouquets of peaches and tomatoes and nasturtiums.
Suddenly, the dining room is filled with the exuberant Johnson family, talking and laughing and hugging each other.
Pat and his sister Amy start unpacking the wine they brought to pair with the menu: Cellar Hand Free Run White, a fragrant blend from Black Hills, for the salad; Syrah from Le Vieux Pin and Burrowing Owl, where Pat works, for the meaty main; and his own homemade fortified wine to go with the chocolatey dessert. “It was all done by hand,” he says proudly. “We crushed it by hand, literally by hand.”
Wine is the one thing Van Hooydonk doesn’t provide. Instead, he usually recommends wines to go with the menu he’s preparing. That way, he can encourage guests to explore the region, meet the winemakers and discover what they have to offer.
“If I want to support the local wine industry, what better way than to send guests out on almost a treasure hunt to source their own wines?” he says.
“I like that you can bring your own wines because it promotes the whole valley,” Amy Johnson says. “I think Chris has embraced the true value of food and wine and what the valley is all about.”
As the Johnsons take their seats, a pair of servers deftly place the fresh bread on the tables and top up wine glasses. “Cheers,” the family calls to each other, raising glasses.
Here in wine country, Van Hooydonk has found a place where wine and food go together like good friends and good stories, a place where the bounty is limitless, and so, it seems is the joy in sharing it.
“It’s something that allows me to go home happy all the time,” he says. And who could ask for anything more?
• Backyard Farm is located at 3692 Fruitvale Way, Oliver. Info: backyard-farm.ca