Cockrall-King - Food artisans of the Okanagan : your guide to the best locally crafted fare

OF THE

OKANAGAN

Copyright 2016 Jennifer Cockrall-King

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The information in this book is true and complete to the best of the authors knowledge at
time of press. All recommendations are made without guarantee on the part of the author.
The author disclaims any liability in connection with the use of this information.

Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77151-154-4 (epub)

Editor: Lana Okerlund
Proofreader: Claire Philipson
Maps: Eric Leinberger

Cover images:
Summerhill Landscape, courtesy of TourismKelowna.com and Summerhill Pyramid Winery, by Brian Sprout; Artisan Baker, by Miquel Llonch/Stocksy United; Cheese on a Cutting Board, by Liubov Burakova/Stocksy United; Yellow Plums, Holding Mushrooms, Cows in Field, and Honeycomb, by Jennifer Cockrall-King. courtesy of TourismKelowna.com and Tantalus Vineyards, by Brian Sprout.

All interior photos by Jennifer Cockrall-King unless otherwise noted.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Nous reconnaissons laide financire du gouvernement du Canada par lentremise du Fonds du livre du Canada et la province de la Colombie-Britannique par le Crdit dimpt pour ldition de livres.

For my husband, Michael King, who instinctively knew back in 2005 that we needed to be here. Honey, you were so right.

This book is also for all the food artisans of the Okanagan and Similkameen. The food culture of our region is being built by your daily labours and your belief in quality culinary craft. With every bite and sip, we thank you.

AS A FOOD WRITER, I travel to many of the worlds culinary hot spots and trendy wine regions both for work and for pleasure. Theres no doubt, they all have their charms, and there are invariably a few highlights. So why am I always so happy to return home to the Okanagan Valley?

For me, the Okanagan just has the complete package: lakes, mountains, vineyards, farms, and lots of breathing room within a closely knit culinary family. Chefs in the valley really do hang out with one another and support each others restaurants and initiatives. Winemakers share space and equipment collegially. Farmers, brewers, bakers, and butchers gather at each others potlucks and picnics. The community is not so big that you develop a headache trying to decide where to go for a bite to eat. And the region is not so small that you want for newness and excitement. And the food? To be blunt, whether its in my kitchen, in a restaurant, at a roadside fruit stand, or at any one of the regions crazy-good farmers markets, theres nowhere else Id rather be.

Unlike some lucky Western Canadians, I didnt really get to know the Okanagan until I was in my mid-20s. In my childhood, our family did the three kids and the dog in the back of the Ford Station Wagon trek from Edmonton. After our 12-hour trip, the lake was too cold for my parents liking, so it was our one and only visit. I was three years old at the time, so my memory of it is understandably fuzzy. I do, however, randomly recall the excitement of minigolf.

I returned to the Okanagan two decades later as an emerging food writer. In 2000, the buzz was starting to build in Kelowna. The steady, patient work of Okanagan wine pioneers and a few dedicated chefs was starting to pay off. The leap in ideology from making bulk wines to adopting the VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance) quality and origin standards triggered a shift in the culinary scene as well, which raised the bar for both chefs and farmers alike.

When I attended a major Canadian culinary conference in Kelowna in 2000, I will never forget my awe at seeing photo-perfect orchards, heavy with apples and pears. I returned again the following year on a tour hosted by Wines of British Columbia, then known as the British Columbia Wine Institute. In 2005, my husband, Mike, and I bought a house in Naramata. We didnt know it, but we had arrived just in time to watch the Okanagan wine scene explode with assertive new wineries and to enjoy Okanagan chefs unleashing their ambitions in this exciting new culinary landscape.

A few key chefs and their restaurants led the way. Already in the 1990s there was something uniquely Okanagan about the food that Kelowna-born chef Grant de Montreuil was cooking at his own De Montreuil restaurant. (He would also leave his mark on menus at the Hotel Eldorado, the Naramata Heritage Inn & Spa, Summerhill Pyramid Winery, and the Cove Lakeside Resort in West Kelowna.) Chefs Rod Butters and Audrey Surrao (who now own and operate RauDZ Regional Table and Micro Bar Bites) opened Fresco in downtown Kelowna in 2001 and launched the farm-to-table frenzy in the valley. Butters had chef Mark Filatow, now at the helm of his own Waterfront Wines, in Frescos opening brigade. Chef Bernard Casavant, already a superstar and a founding member of FarmFolk CityFolk, arrived from the West Coast and Whistler in 2006 to bring Burrowing Owl Estate Winerys Sonora Room onto the map in Osoyoos. These and other chefsmany of whom are covered in this bookspent incredible amounts of time and energy scouring the region for top-notch products. They sought out the farmers and orchardists who had already decided that the future of Okanagan cuisine depended on good land stewardship and quality, flavourful, healthy food. There was a palpable energy among the chefs, vintners, farmers, and appreciative diners.

A second wave of ambitious young chefs and food artisans arrived around 20056. They were drawn from their metropolitan locations by the quality of the products in the Okanaganwhich was better than what they could access in the big citiesand by the fact that they could afford to live in the communities where they worked. They came from the countrys top restaurant kitchens and took a risk on the Okanagans future. Im thinking of chef and now winemaker Heidi Noble of JoieFarm Winery (who in 2015 reopened her tasting room to include a menu from her wood-fired oven). Im thinking of Cameron Smith and Dana Ewart, chef-owners of Joy Road Catering, who trained under Normand Laprise of Toqu! in Montreal and Jamie Kennedy in Toronto and brought al fresco cuisine du terroir to its potential at their incredible Gods Mountain dinners above Skaha Lake. And Rhys Pender and Alishan Driediger, who opened Okanagan Grocery Artisan Breads in Kelowna (they now make wine at their Little Farm Winery in Cawston). These food artisans saw the potential and were willing to put in an incredible amount of work to realize their dreams, all the while feeding a food culture that would soon be the envy of the rest of Canada.