Alta Bistro

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At Alta Bistro, Executive Chef Nick Cassettari’s commitment to local, seasonal products fuels his desire to bring a modern point of view to seemingly ordinary ingredients.

His Pemberton potato salad is no exception. He started with the idea of using hay, infusing the dried grass into oil by cooking it until the aroma and flavour was unlocked. “The result is difficult to describe,” Cassettari says. “It’s very savoury, almost nutty.”

The oil forms the base for a gribiche sauce, but that’s only one use of the hay in the dish: finely chopped, it is pushed through a smoking gun to flavour red onions; water infused with hay and garlic is used to cook the potatoes.

This echoing of ingredients is something Cassettari enjoys. Take his use of egg in this salad: “I have a sous vide yolk – it’s perfect – and the whites are both chopped into the gribiche, and also seasoned and dropped into hot oil to form pearls, “he explains. “It’s taking something very common, and giving it a surprising twist.”

He also uses parsley oil, leaves and chopped stems for added crunch. “We try not to throw anything away here,” he says. “It’s our philosophy to use every part of an ingredient that we can.”