Chef Meets BC Grape

I recently attended Chef Meets BC Grape at the Vancouver Convention Centre, this was a wonderful event and one of the largest annual celebrations of BC VQA wines and local food with 94 BC wineries sharing their new spring releases, delectably paired with inspired dishes from 17 top BC Chefs.

Each of the 17 restaurants, renowned for their delectable wine and food pairings, each created appetizer-sized portions of a dish using BC ingredients, paired with their selected BC VQA wine.

I tried several of the dishes around the room, these were my favourite dishes and wine pairings:

Boulevard

Chef Roger Mah

Slow Cooked Halibut

Slow Cooked Halibut

Paired with the Painted Rock Estate Winery Merlot 2014

Forage

Chef Welbert Choi (right)

Turtle Valley Bison Roll

Turtle Valley Bison Spring Roll

Paired with Time Winery Red Meritage 2016

The Acorn

Klippers Organics Late Summer Heirloom Tomato Tuille

Klippers Organics Late Summer Heirloom Tomato Tuille

Paired with Phantom Creek Estates Riesling 2017

Torafuku

Chef Sandy Weichen

Foot loose Confit spiced duck leg

Foot loose Confit spiced duck leg

Paired with Burrowing Owl Estate Winery Merlot 2016

Pidgin

Brandon Grossutti

Sautéed Local Morels and Cultivated Mushrooms

Brandon Grossutti plating his dish

Sautéed Local Morels and Cultivated Mushrooms

Paired with Ex Nihilo Vineyards Merlot 2016

Miradoro at Tinhorn Creek

Chef Jeff Van Geest

Oxtail Arancini

Oxtail Arancini

Paired with Tinhorn Creek Vineyards Merlot 2016

The official winners awarded by the judges gave Miradoro the title of winner of wine pairing; Oceanwise received the award for best dish and Pidgin was awarded People’s Choice favourite.

Chef Max Straczek

Vicky Ainley of Vino Allegro pouring Howling Bluff

Dan Schell (right) with Lake Breeze Wines

Organized by the British Columbia Wine Institute (BCWI), Chef Meets BC Grape is proud to support the BC Hospitality Foundation, the event was held at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

By: Richard Wolak

 

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