Blog
Heat Seekers Season 2 Starts TODAY in Dallas | January 16 2012
For all the hot heads out there who have been looking for more new episodes of Heat Seekers, today is the day. Aaron Sanchez and I continue the spicy madness and the first city is Dallas. Check it out every Monday on Food Network (U.S. and Caribbean).
• Click HERE for more info on tonights Episode
ATL Art Random | January 15 2012
I likes this picture.
Atlanta Fish Market | January 12 2012
This fish starts at ground level and goes up about 25 feet. I saw this huge fish and decided it was somewhere I needed to go. Well, it turned out to be a very good spot to bounce into. The peeps there were very friendly and they really went nuts with the food. See below...
Great Lunch In The ATL | January 12 2012
This was lunch. Very tasty. Thanks.
Tuna Carpaccio
Crab, Calarmari, Shrimp with Spicy Remoulade
Chef Series with Jeff Van Geest | January 11 2012
1. I've read that your grandparents were farmers, have they influenced you as a chef in anyway?
I think they've really influenced the sourcing of food for me, I mean here in the south Okanagan there's a lot of great products. There's obviously the fruit, great produce, really really nice produce, tomatoes grow amazingly here. Coming from Vancouver I've had to establish new relationships and find new suppliers, but I think it has gone really well since I've been here. We have a few farms that we really like, we like the people, we like the product, they support, us we support them.
2. As a chef from the west coast, how has the Okanagan changed your cooking style?
It's not that much different, I mean we're on a lake now, not the ocean, but we still have the mountains and the mushrooms that grow on the mountains. My menu was much more influenced directly by the seafood in Vancouver, but we still bring seafood from the coast since there's very little here, the only commercial harvest is the sockeye salmon, but we still source locally first, so the salmon, Dungeness crab, farmed oysters, farmed mussels and halibut.
And your lifestyle?
It's amazing, I mean I love Vancouver and will always love Vancouver, but here it's like a small community, it's quite and you get to know everyone. And in Vancouver you might be able to afford a little condo, but here we have a house with a giant yard and a place for me to garden. We're two houses away from being able to walk into the bush, where we do lots of hikes, stuff we would have done in the city but it's just easier and closer here.
3. What are some of your favourite local ingredients to work with?
Obviously all the fruit on the trees, tomatoes are amazing, the local beef and wild ingredients, like asparagus and mushrooms, I love wild mushrooms. Wild as much as possible.
4. The Okanagan in the summer time must be a great inspiration for your dishes, but where do you find inspiration in the off-season?
It is challenging this time of the year, but we did a lot of canning, freezing, pickling. I'd say that the inspiration still comes from the growing season but you just find ways to still use that stuff. We might not do a tomato salad, but I got a freezer full of heirloom tomatoes that I would make a vinaigrette out of.
5. Are there any specific dishes on your menu that express your personality?
I think the pizza. We do a Neapolitan style pizza, which I think is a really approachable food but we take it really seriously, working out the recipe and working out the technique so that it is a really perfect product. It's caring about the details but not being too pretentious about it and still approachable
So is that kinda who you are?
Haha yah.
6. What are some of your favourite actives to do in the Okanagan?
My garden, snowboarding and fishing.
Which mountains do you like to go to?
Well around here it's Mount Baldy. Mount Baldy reminds me a lot of Cypress in Vancouver, where it's not big but it's got great terrain, great feel to it, trees, great powder and they're closed three days a week so powder Fridays! And it's really local, it's got a local feel to it. Other than that all the big mountains are awesome. I've lived in Whistler for three years, and going out to Kicking Horse and Revelstoke is great too.
7. What is soul food to you?
Hmm, that's easy to answer and hard to answer. It's obviously approachable, it's not expensive, it's doesn't have precious ingredients in it and by that I mean expensive like truffles. It's one-pot dishes, it's pizzas, it's food that doesn't exclude people.
Like OkSUPPERCLUB on Facebook and help support a group of like minded food artisans whose primary goal is to encourage the growth of a strong and local food culture in Okanagan Valley.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/OkSUPPERCLUB/149993985111046?sk=info
• Click HERE for more info on tonights Episode
ATL Art Random | January 15 2012
Atlanta Fish Market | January 12 2012
Great Lunch In The ATL | January 12 2012
Tuna Carpaccio
Crab, Calarmari, Shrimp with Spicy Remoulade
Chef Series with Jeff Van Geest | January 11 2012
I think they've really influenced the sourcing of food for me, I mean here in the south Okanagan there's a lot of great products. There's obviously the fruit, great produce, really really nice produce, tomatoes grow amazingly here. Coming from Vancouver I've had to establish new relationships and find new suppliers, but I think it has gone really well since I've been here. We have a few farms that we really like, we like the people, we like the product, they support, us we support them.
2. As a chef from the west coast, how has the Okanagan changed your cooking style?
It's not that much different, I mean we're on a lake now, not the ocean, but we still have the mountains and the mushrooms that grow on the mountains. My menu was much more influenced directly by the seafood in Vancouver, but we still bring seafood from the coast since there's very little here, the only commercial harvest is the sockeye salmon, but we still source locally first, so the salmon, Dungeness crab, farmed oysters, farmed mussels and halibut.
And your lifestyle?
It's amazing, I mean I love Vancouver and will always love Vancouver, but here it's like a small community, it's quite and you get to know everyone. And in Vancouver you might be able to afford a little condo, but here we have a house with a giant yard and a place for me to garden. We're two houses away from being able to walk into the bush, where we do lots of hikes, stuff we would have done in the city but it's just easier and closer here.
3. What are some of your favourite local ingredients to work with?
Obviously all the fruit on the trees, tomatoes are amazing, the local beef and wild ingredients, like asparagus and mushrooms, I love wild mushrooms. Wild as much as possible.
4. The Okanagan in the summer time must be a great inspiration for your dishes, but where do you find inspiration in the off-season?
It is challenging this time of the year, but we did a lot of canning, freezing, pickling. I'd say that the inspiration still comes from the growing season but you just find ways to still use that stuff. We might not do a tomato salad, but I got a freezer full of heirloom tomatoes that I would make a vinaigrette out of.
5. Are there any specific dishes on your menu that express your personality?
I think the pizza. We do a Neapolitan style pizza, which I think is a really approachable food but we take it really seriously, working out the recipe and working out the technique so that it is a really perfect product. It's caring about the details but not being too pretentious about it and still approachable
So is that kinda who you are?
Haha yah.
6. What are some of your favourite actives to do in the Okanagan?
My garden, snowboarding and fishing.
Which mountains do you like to go to?
Well around here it's Mount Baldy. Mount Baldy reminds me a lot of Cypress in Vancouver, where it's not big but it's got great terrain, great feel to it, trees, great powder and they're closed three days a week so powder Fridays! And it's really local, it's got a local feel to it. Other than that all the big mountains are awesome. I've lived in Whistler for three years, and going out to Kicking Horse and Revelstoke is great too.
7. What is soul food to you?
Hmm, that's easy to answer and hard to answer. It's obviously approachable, it's not expensive, it's doesn't have precious ingredients in it and by that I mean expensive like truffles. It's one-pot dishes, it's pizzas, it's food that doesn't exclude people.
Like OkSUPPERCLUB on Facebook and help support a group of like minded food artisans whose primary goal is to encourage the growth of a strong and local food culture in Okanagan Valley.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/OkSUPPERCLUB/149993985111046?sk=info
