Eat! Vancouver Festival
Photo Courtesy of Eat! Vancouver Festival
Between April 28 and May 3, chefs from across Canada will assemble in Vancouver for a series of one-of-a-kind dinners. A delicious new offering from the annual Eat! Vancouver festival (the actual fest begins on April 26), these events will pair top toques from Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and other Canadian cities with many of Vancouver’s best-known chefs for 11 unique sessions.
Toronto Chef Susur Lee, Photo Courtesy of Metropolitan Hotels
Among the highlights: Toronto celebrity chef Susur Lee (Luckee, Lee, and Bent restaurants) will cook with Vancouver sushi legend Hidekazu Tojo at Tojo’s Restaurant on May 1; Toronto restaurateur Mark McEwan, who runs the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star One Restaurant in The Hazelton Hotel, as well as North 44 and Bymark, will join chef-owner Pino Posteraro for a dinner on May 3 at Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill in Yaletown; and two of Canada’s most glamorous dessert divas, Food Network star Anna Olson and Vancouver’s Jackie Kai Ellis of the Paris-inspired Beaucoup Bakery & Cafe, will unite for a baking lesson and meal on May 2.
Three illustrious female chefs — Connie DeSousa and Jessica Pelland of Calgary’s Charbar and Vancouver’s Andrea Carlson — match up at Carlson’s locavore eatery, Burdock and Co., on April 28. Asian food fans will want to book seats at Maenam on April 29, when Nick Liu, of Toronto’s trendy DaiLo, will pair with chef-owner Angus An. Also on April 29, a Top Chef Canada matchup will team up Carl Heinrich of Toronto’s Richmond Station with Trevor Bird of Vancouver’s Fable Kitchen.
Another delectable highlight on April 28 will feature chef Jérémie Bastien of Montreal’s Leméac, with JC Poirier at Ask For Luigi; Michael Caballo and Tobey Nemeth of Edulis in Toronto with Joël Watanabe at Bao Bei; and Jesse Grasso, of Toronto’s The Black Hoof, with Wesley Young at Wildebeest. On April 29, Andrew Winfield, from Calgary’s River Café, will share a kitchen with Chris Whittaker at Forage, while Nick Nutting, from highly lauded newcomer Wolf in the Fog in Tofino, BC, will join Lucais Syme at Cinara.
For tickets to these chef dinners (some were already sold out at press time) or for information on the foodie festival’s other cooking workshops, bartending competition and gala dinner celebrating Canadian food and wine, check the Eat! Vancouver website.
