Canada’s Great Kitchen Party 2019 Toronto
Our gold medal was awarded by a unanimous decision and an almost unheard-of margin of 10 percentage points to last year’s bronze medallist, Keith Pears of the Delta Hotel.
He called his dish “West Meets East,” a reference to his roots on Canada’s west coast. That was the source for his principal ingredient, gorgeous albacore tuna, cut into tiny drums, rubbed with miso and dashi and very briefly seared. Nestled between the pieces of tuna was a finely chopped salad of sunchoke, leek and caramelized Granny Smith apple, scented with parsley, thyme and chive. A rich leek foam was spooned onto the plate, garnished with tiny red petals of pickled pearl onion. Local honey from beehives in Riverdale brought a subtle sweetness to a yuzu oil, its unique citrus flavour echoing the Japanese flavours of the miso and dashi. Crispy chips made of sunchoke and, more unusually, sunchoke skin provided textural contrast and a sprinkle of powdered sunchoke finished the dish. The flavours were intense but perfectly harmonious and the wine match was flawless – the rich, complex, wild-fermented Reserve du Domaine 2017 Chardonnay from Domaine Queylus in Niagara.
