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