Les Dame d’Escoffier, BC Chapter is pleased to announce that Dame Meeru Dhalwala, cookbook author and co-owner of Vij’s and Rangoli restaurants in Vancouver, will be holding a cooking class at Northwest Culinary Academy on May 14, 2012.

Meeru will be cooking and teaching from her Vij’s at Home–Relax, Honey cookbook. Participants will be charmed by her easy style and inspired by stories and anecdotes about the ingredients and recipes and her love of food as they learn to make Curried Deviled Eggs, Paneer (Indian cheese), and Pinto Bean Curry and Rice.

Funds raised from the class will go directly to the Les Dames d’Escoffier’s annual scholarship for women in food, beverage, and hospitality.

Date: Monday May 14, 2012

Time: 6:15 pm to 10 pm

Cost: $99 + HST

Bring: Chef’s Knife, Paring Knife, Apron, Tea Towels, kitchen appropriate footwear

Register: Call 604.876.7653. Payment is due at registration and can be made by phone with VISA or MasterCard, or in person by Cash, Debit or Cheque.

Harvest Community Foods is now open for business!

Mina Hideshima, NWCAV Professional One Year Culinary and Pastry/Bread making Fall 2011 graduate, is the chef responsible for executing the daily menu designed by herself and Trevor Bird, a chef competiing on this year’s Top Chef Canada.

Mina describes her menu as simple, focusing on quality ingredients and simple, comforting dishes that taste great. They have a daily soup, an evening braise, two sandwiches, one chicken, one veggie and two salads, a leafy and a grainy. Their feature item is an open faced, braised organic  chicken steamed bun.

They also have a grocery wall featuring local, organic (where possible) goods. Basics like milk from Birchwood Dairy, eggs, butter, bread (a bread affair) and produce as well as dry goods like rice, oats and other grains. A few specialty items, Beta 5 chocolates (owned by Adam Chandler who is also a NWCAV grad), local honey and Basil Olive Oil.

Congratulations to Mina!

Left to right - Trevor Bird (Chef), Mina Hideshima (Chef), Stephanie Schneider (Local Foods Buyer), Michael Leung (Owner)

In this 2-day comprehensive class you will process your own whole Salmon, Sole and Lobster as follows:

Salmon:

• Tartar (Saturday lunch appetizer)
• Gravelax
• Salmon Paté
• Salmon Coulibiac in pastry
• Salmon Roulade

Sole:

• Crown of Sole (Friday dinner main course)
• Ceviche (Friday dinner appetizer)
• Quenelles (Saturday lunch main course)

Lobster:

• Lobster Bisque
• Lobster Terrine with Smoked Salmon
• Lobster Oil

Skills and techniques you will learn include:

• Lobster Processing
• Roulade
• Gravelax
• Ceviche
• Salmon Pate
• Quenelles
• Flavoured Oil
• Bisque
• Fileting, Skinning 4 filet Fish
• Fileting, Skinning & Removing Pin Bones of 2 Filet Fish

You will take home (bring containers):

• Gravelax (cured Salmon)
• Salmon Roulade
• Salmon Pate
• Lobster Terrine
• Salmon Coulibiac in pastry
• Lobster Oil

Dates: Friday April 27 & Saturday April 28

Time: Friday 615pm – 9/10pm & Saturday 9am – 3/4pm

Cost: $330 + HST (includes lunch, dinner, wine & above fish products to take home)

Bring: Boning Knife, Chef’s Knife, Paring Knife, Apron, Tea Towels, Nonslip shoes, Pastry Scraper, containers

Register: Call 604.876.7653. Payment is due at registration and can be made by phone with VISA or MasterCard, or in person by Cash, Debit or Cheque.

Are you an ASPIRING CHEF?

Do you have the passion? Want to take it to the next level?  Come show us what you’ve got at our

6th ANNUAL HIGH SCHOOL BLACK BOX COMPETITION

Sunday, June 24th 2012 11:00 am – 12:30 pm

2 – $3000 scholarships toward our One Year Professional Culinary & Pastry Bread Making program will be awarded per heat of 12 competitors.

Be judged by the top industry chefs in Vancouver!
Space is limited – Book your stove by June 17 Call 604 876-7653

Competition open to Grade 12, ACE IT Students and high school graduates under 21.

“Open Black Box” means you will be given a list of the primary ingredients ahead of time so that you may plan your dish.  All ingredients supplied by NWCAV. There is no fee to enter this competition.
Established in 2003, NWCAV is an accredited institution by PCTIA.  Our Programs are now certified by I.T.A. for levels 1 and 2 of the cook’s training program.

All of our professional programs are taught by inspiring certified Chef Instructors. Classes are fine dining and 90%+ hands-on.

Anya Keefe, a One Year Professional Culinary and Pastry/Bread Making graduate in July 2006, hosted a Fund raiser at the Legacy Liquor store in  Olympic village (Manitoba and 1st) on March 9.

Anya is training for the annual Enbridge ride to Conquer Cancer, a grueling two day (approximately 135 km per day) bicycle ride between Vancouver and Seattle, to raise money and awareness for the BC Cancer Foundation. If you would like to support the cause, you can donate at http://www.conquercancer.ca/site/TR/Events/Vancouver2012?px=2725532&pg=personal&fr_id=1413.

The fundraiser was a beer and food pairing event, taking place at the Legacy Liquor store. Six microbrewery beers from both Vancouver and Seattle were paired with 6 tapas from Chef Alessandro Vianello of Street Meet.

Alessandro is also a NWCAV graduate (same class as Anya), who just opened a brand new Vancouver Food Truck called Street Meet. Street Meet serves a Mediterranean faire and his truck will be at different locations around the city. You can find the daily location of Street Meet by following him on twitter – @StreetMeetTruck.

Two great success stories that we are very proud to support.

Anya is quite involved in many Culinary events. She is also in charge of a huge volunteer kitchen operation at the Folk music fest that takes place every July on Jericho Beach. This year, the Folk Festival will be held on July 13, 14 and 15. If anyone is interested in volunteering to cook 10,000+ meals over the course of the weekend, they can get in touch with Anya at anyakeefe@shaw.ca. The more well-trained cooks, the better!

Congratulations and Good Luck to both Anya and Alessandro with their achievements and endeavors!

From left to right: Harriet (Alessandro’s wife), Anya, Alessandro

Chef Tim and his team of Pastry students won 3rd place in the Vancouver Wine Festival’s Vintners Brunch this past Sunday.

The Vintners brunch takes you on a tour of some of the city’s top restaurants; each restaurant is given a wine to pair with a food item that they create.   Each tasting station features one dish matched specifically to one wine.

Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver’s selected wine was a  white sparkling Agentinian wine – Deseado to be paired with a dessert.

With this in mind, Chef Tim and team, paired the wine  and came up with a play on the classic dessert, Peach Melba.  The dessert was a;

Blackberry Peach Melba bar – mascarpone peach cheesecake, blackberry mousse with a lemon verbena foam and basil gel and meringue kisses. As Chef Tim says, “the key to pairing dessert with wine, is to ensure the wine is always sweeter than the dessert.”

Big congratulations to Chef Tim and the 2012 Winter Pastry Students!

Left to right: Chef Warren, Courtenay Kohlhauser, Ginette Legal, David Abe, Heather Campbell, Leila Farley, Aram Cha, Allison Fontaine, Morgan Notman, Robert Lee, Jamie Loxton, Chef Tim, Nicole Herriman, Chef Curtis

Join Chef Christophe and learn the techniques to make the 4 S’s and free yourself from recipes!

Learn to make good wholesome food for you and your family.  By learning how to make your own stocks you can transform them into nutritious Soups, Stews and Sauces.

Take your sauce making to another level by learning to make a demi glace and classics like béarnaise/hollandaise sauce as well as beurre blanc.

Discover how you can prepare several dishes based on stocks and have them on hand for the week.  These nutritious dishes will give you control over the ingredients you put on your plate.  These dishes are meant to please the foodies and all members of the family with simple wholesome ingredients.

Based on these 3 stocks you will prepare the following:

Chicken Stock/Broth

o   Chicken Pot Pie (to take home)

o   Purée or Cream soup (your choice), we’ll show you both techniques. (to take home)

Vegetable Stock

o   Corn Chowder (Friday dinner with wine)

o   East Indian Lentil Stew (to take home)

Brown Veal Stock

o   Hungarian Goulash stew (to take home)

o  Demi Glace (to take home)

-  Poivrade Sauce  (to take home)      -  Bearnaise sauce with steak and salad (Saturday lunch)

-  Morel Sauce (to take home)              -  Beurre blanc (to take home)

Dates: Friday April 6 & Saturday April 7

Time: Friday 615pm – 9/10pm & Saturday 9am – 3/4pm

Cost: $265 + HST (Friday dinner and Saturday lunch with wines included)

Bring: Chef’s Knife, Paring Knife, Apron, Tea Towels, Nonslip shoes, containers

Register: Call 604.876.7653. Payment is due at registration and can be made by phone with VISA or MasterCard, or in person by Cash, Debit or Cheque.

This one-day class will focus on decorating ideas with the little one in mind. Students will create an adorable “baby-under-a-blanket,” tulle baby shoes, mini-baby toys and various decorations. All of the designs and ideas can be used on cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and petit-fours. During the class, Chef Nicholas will show in demonstration other baby decorations including cradles, time permitting.This great class if full of great ideas! Don’t miss it!

Date: Monday May 21
Time: 9:00 am – 5:30 pm
Cost: $195 + HST

Everyone loves the garden flowers of summer, with their big, bold and bright colors! In this exciting two-day class students will create in gumpaste the dramatic Sunflower, Hydrangea, Peony, Lily, and Small Cosmos. Buds and leaves will also be made for the flowers.

Date: Sat May 19 & Sun May 20
Time: 9:00 am – 5:30 pm
Cost: $395 + HST

Registration deadline is MAY 1, 2012

Yesterday was a very intense and exciting day at the school. It was the Winter 2012 Culinary students first, of many, Restaurant Day. The students had to prep and execute a full course menu, following guidelines of time and presentation. As expected, the mise en place time was well used. Students performed well in a quiet and efficient way. The actual service is a work in progress. The instructors were pleased to see that the intensity and care and professionalism were part of the execution. This is an important stepping stone for our students, who most of them will be working in a hotel and/or restaurant and will have to perform as such.

This week is week 6 for our Professional Culinary students. It is also the highly anticipated pork butchery and charcuterie week. The students arrived Monday morning, carving knifes in hand, anxiously waiting to get started on their pork backsides. The students, in groups of four, broke down half a pork and are in the process of producing bacon, sausages, pate, meat pies and making lard and gelatin. This week will conclude on Friday, with a display of charcuterie items, not only from pork, but from duck, hen and salmon.