Dish oct 26 sun 2014

North Vancouver craft brewery has chef as head brewer page 21 a

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October 2014

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Pastry passion

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Local chef ďŹ nds his niche

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A20 - North Shore News - Sunday, October 26, 2014

d i s h

Discussing dining CHRIS DAGENAIS Contributing writer

It is a brave new world of dining out there.

Last month, reports circulated of a U.S. restaurant that was incentivizing its patrons to leave the most critical, vitriolic comments they could fathom on Yelp, the crowd-sourced business review site. The initiative proactively plummeted the venue’s aggregated ratings through the floor. The restaurant did it to protest what it alleged to be Yelp’s practice of bolstering the rankings of paid advertisers.

Earlier this year, a North Shore restaurant found itself at the centre of a social media frenzy over a dispute about correct change.

The purported short-change victim alleged fraud, which spawned an angry online mob to post hateful commentary about the restaurant and its staff on every message board available, often via anonymous user profiles registered thousands of miles away.

Some of the posts even advocated violence against the ownership.

in restaurants to see what he had to say about the modern climate of dining and to explain what keeps him in the game.

Chef Ben Kiely is an English expatriate with an encyclopedic knowledge of world cuisine who worked in some of Europe’s finest kitchens and in many popular Vancouver rooms before settling into a position as a chef instructor and restaurant chef at the esteemed Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. In addition to 20 years in professional kitchens and a Red Seal chef designation, Kiely’s insatiable thirst for learning has prompted him to obtain specialized certifications in butchery, baking and pastry.

Chris Dagenais: Ben, why do you do what you do?

I have said it before but I will say it again: the restaurant business is a tough racket, especially in light of this new age of instant, shareable judgment.

Ben Kiely: It’s what I love and it’s what I know.

I feel inspired by the potential of this city. Vancouver’s dining scene is still a work-in-progress, it’s evolving, and I want to be part of that evolution.

I recently reached out to a good friend of mine who has built a very successful career

CD: In what way is our scene evolving?

Ben Kiely

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BK: We have some of the top raw ingredients in the world; we really are spoiled with abundance. On the other hand, we tend to run before we walk. We are a young city and we are still trying to find our identity. We struggle sometimes because we see cuisine from other cities and we rush to put out food that looks like their food. But the truth is, their cuisine has years more history, years of trial and error. We need to establish our own basics, define our own roots instead of trying to emulate another accomplished cuisine.

CD: What’s holding us back from doing that, do you think?

BK: There are lots of reasons, but one

explanation might be that we make it very difficult for independent restaurants, the little rooms with the passionate, creative chefs, to succeed. But we have a thriving corporate restaurant scene, where the food is standardized and tries to appeal to absolutely everyone.

The food is well prepared, but it’s usually quite safe and deliberately middle-of-theroad. Those big corporate rooms are always jam-packed. They are defining a style of cuisine that is more about mass appeal than anything else. And these are the restaurants that are reaching the biggest audience.

See Online page 23

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Sunday, October 26, 2014 - North Shore News - A21

d i s h

Head brewer started as hobbyist STEFANIA SECCIA sseccia@nsnews.com

In recent years, micro-breweries have started popping up seemingly everywhere.

One of the most recent additions to the North Shore is Black Kettle Brewing, which was started by a few close friends who had been fermenting beer in their kitchens for years as a pastime.

“I read a lot of books,” says head brewer Phil Vandenborre about how he started brewing as a hobby. “I talked to a lot of brewers.”

Vandenborre was a chef when he first started combining the rich ingredients and then fermenting them for weeks in his house as a hobby.

“It’s two different worlds completely, for sure,” he says, comparing being a chef to a brewer. “I was home-brewing while I was cooking. It seemed like another fun thing to get into.”

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Phil Vandenborre is the head brewer at Black Kettle Brewing in North Vancouver. He is also a chef and started brewing as a hobby.

His experience as a chef, especially exploring the right combinations of fresh ingredients, lent itself to brewing.

“It’s about learning your system,” he says, noting that all kitchens are different. “It’s about learning the equipment and I think

e h t n o s n o i t a c 2 lo

that was one of the big challenges for me.”

properly, but you can take that and you can have your take on different styles.”

Vandenborre says the rise in popularity of craft breweries is due to a combination of a supportive community of brewers, and people wanting to know more about what they consume.

“There’s a lot more knowledge out there about food in general, health in general, flavours and trying new things.

And I think we’re seeing the same thing in the craft beer industry right now where (there are) amazing flavours out there.”

He explains that the process begins with grains that are seeped in hot water to extract the sugars. Then the liquid gets transferred into a bowl kettle where all the flavours are added. The length of time it spends in there depends on the style of beer being brewed. Then yeast is added, which eats up the sugars and eventually creates the alcohol. This ferments for approximately a week.

Finally, the brew gets transferred into a different tank where it’s conditioned and then carbonated.

“That’s really what craft brewing is,” says Vandenborre. “Your own hand, your own style, your own take on it.

There’s definitely a way of doing things

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A22 - North Shore News - Sunday, October 26, 2014

d i s h

Chef finds passion in pastry ROSALIND DUANE rduane@nsnews.com

Steven Hodge didn’t know he wanted to be a chef but wasn’t surprised when he figured it out.

Growing up in Dundarave, he loved cooking at home but it wasn’t a career he considered. Instead, he graduated from university with a bachelor of arts in business administration, but didn’t find any jobs in that field that appealed to him.

He was sitting on his couch watching TV trying to figure out what to do when he thought maybe he should be a cook, so enrolled in culinary school.

About a year and a half into the culinary program, he was reviewing a portfolio of pastry photos with another chef and asked about some of the examples in the book. The other chef informed him that “they don’t touch that (pastry)” because it’s for the elite of the chefs.

“And as soon as he said that, it was a challenge, and I love being challenged,” recalls Hodge.

So he went into the pastry part of the program and loved it. After graduating from the program, he completed his apprenticeship in California, and moved back to Vancouver where he worked as an executive pastry chef then later moved with his wife to London, and worked in some world-renowned restaurants before returning to the North Shore. Back at home, Hodge worked alongside well-known local pastry chef Thomas Haas. After four years with Haas, Hodge decided to step out on his own and opened Temper Pastry in January.

“I had worked for a lot of chefs, and you can always continue learning, but I woke up and it was time,” says Hodge about his decision to open his own store.

Hodge says he looked around for a good location, but settled on Dundarave because he wanted to set up shop in a community atmosphere.

“Now I always say, ‘Work is play time and going home is actually work for me now,’” says Hodge. “It’s like a kid building Lego all day long.”

Although he and his team do try to create

new products, classic pastry recipes are always what they start with.

“There are so many chefs out there trying to push the boundaries with new techniques and ideas and flavours, but they all come from basic recipes that were created for pastries,” he explains. “You build off of a beginning step, and the guys that laid the path for pastry chefs now, they’re the guys that deserve all the credit because we’ve just built off of it.”

A lot of chefs get carried away with crazy flavours and crazy techniques, notes Hodge.

“It’s fun and it’s awesome to say I tried it or it’s awesome to say I ate it, (but) I think at the end of the day people still like the simplicity of things.”

For him, that means good flavours and good textures. At the shop, Hodge enjoys working with chocolate, such as creating ganaches, but his favourite thing to do is to make croissants.

“I love making dough. For me, I’m in my own little area, in my own little world, and you start thinking about things and you relax.”

It’s not a surprise that Hodge has a sweet tooth. “I do have a sweet tooth. I love sweets,” he admits.

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Owner and pastry chef Steven Hodge works in the Temper Pastry kitchen in West Vancouver.

But he doesn’t make pastry at home, and his snack of choice is a bit less high-end.

“My favourite thing to eat when I go home is I eat ice cream with Reece’s pieces or Smarties,” he reports with a laugh.

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Sunday, October 26, 2014 - North Shore News - A23

d i s h The recipe for a great cup of coffee includes four basic fundamentals: proportion, grind, water and freshness.

WATER

PROPORTION The general rule for making coffee is two tablespoons of ground coffee for each six ounces of water. Too few coffee grounds result in overextracted or bitter coffee. Too many grounds result in under-extracted coffee that does not achieve the full flavour of the blend. Proportion is the most common coffee-making mistake, and the easiest mistake to correct.

GRIND Different brewing methods require different grinds. A grind that is too fine will trap water and result in a bitter, unpleasant brew. A grind that is too coarse leaves coffee weak and without distinguishing characteristics or flavours. Overextracted coffee tastes much worse than underextracted coffee, so when in doubt as to the brewing method, always err on the coarse side.

Coffee connoisseurs suggest that the best coffee (thick, rich and truest to its flavour profile) is made in a traditional coffee press. A coffee press requires a coarse grind.

While it may not seem like an important ingredient, coffee is 98 per cent water. The type of water used when brewing greatly affects the final taste. Always use clean, fresh water that is filtered or free of impurities.

Avoid soft water or well water. Water heated to just off the boil (195º-205º F or 90º-96º C) does the best job of extracting the coffee’s full range of flavours. Water that is too cool will mute the flavour and dull the coffee’s aroma.

FRESHNESS Coffee’s biggest enemies are oxygen and moisture. Always store coffee in an airtight container at room temperature. Storing coffee in the refrigerator or freezer can result in moisture from condensation and is not recommended for daily use. If coffee needs to be kept for more than two weeks without being used, store it in the freezer in an airtight container. Coffee should be ground fresh each time it is made. Grinding exposes more surface area to oxygen, releasing flavour and freshness. Brewed coffee should always be stored in a thermal carafe and never left on the burner or reheated.

—information from Starbucks Coffee Company

Online postings often harsh from page 20

their menus to be shaped by opinion rather than by seasons or ingredients.

CD: How has the boom of social media review sites affected you, if at all?

CD: What’s the solution?

BK: This is a tough subject for chefs. It’s great to see so many people so engaged in food and dining, that’s the nice part.

BK: One of the very best things that could happen to our city would be to have a well-established, professional restaurant guide set up shop here.

A guide with expert, qualified reviewers who are accountable for their words and are held to a transparent, high standard. I honestly think that would drive creativity and encourage our city’s tremendous culinary talent to define a world-class style.

The hard part is watching a really talented chef, with his own small business, and a family to support, and rent to pay, getting slayed by someone having a bad day or someone who really didn’t understand what the chef was trying to do. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but what gets published online sometimes can be unduly harsh and is often posted by someone with little to no culinary knowledge. As much as we’d like to think that it doesn’t affect us, chefs absolutely are impacted by those comments.

Chris Dagenais is a North Shore resident and North Shore News columnist. His regular restaurant review column appears in the Wednesday issues of the paper.

The biggest danger of this is that chefs start to allow their vision to be influenced by this commentary; at that stage they are just playing to the masses and allowing

He served as a manager for several restaurants downtown and on the North Shore. A self-described wine fanatic, he earned his sommelier diploma in 2001.

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