We are going global again! We've reached out to our friends in the culinary community and have invited them to Vancouver. Five of the world's culinary best will be in our city for a series of delicious collaborations with some of our own city's top talent
Date/Time: Feb 1 2017, 6:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Vancouver, Timber RestaurantCost: $187.00
Find tickets: here
Season two of the wildly successful Vancouver World Chef Exchange closes with an exceptional meeting between two long-time friends.
FIRE + WHISKY
Chef Chris Whittaker, Vancouver's champion of local food, welcomes Chef Ryan McIlwraith - of Bellota in San Francisco- to Timber. Spanish and Canadian flavours meet over wood fired coal in this epic collaboration dinner.
This multi-course social dining feast will feel like a homestead gathering. Food served family-style paired with whisky based cocktails. The long-standing friendship between these two culinary masters will translate through to each element of the dinner, and is true to the authenticity of this program. Meet with these two great Chefs as they cook with fire featuring the best food from local producers.
The Vancouver World Chef Exchange is a project initiated and produced by Tourism Vancouver, and sponsored by Air Canada and the Westin Bayshore hotel. The exchange shares Vancouver's culinary story with the world, and brings the world's great restaurant cities closer together by sharing ideas, experiences and talents through collaborative dining experiences.
About Chef Chris Whittaker
Chef Chris Whittaker's philosophy is simple: respect our land and water. Use local suppliers: small farms and wild food. Nose-to-tail cooking. On premises baking and preserving. Use all resources wisely and - in the end - waste nothing. From being the driving force behind the uber-sustainable Forage and his newly opened (November 2015) Timber - to his unpretentious, adventurous food, Whittaker is one of Vancouver's most interesting and passionate chefs and a proud member of the prestigious Chefs' Table Society.
Whittaker is an active partner and supporter of the Environmental Farm Plan, Ocean Wise, Eat Wild, Farm Folk/City Folk and numerous other tireless organizations all equally committed to promoting the sustainability of our food systems. This focus on local is integral to the Metro Vancouver food economy, from farmers to consumers, and everything in between.
The path to sustainability has been an easy one for Whittaker as conservation and the use of local products is how he lives. Bee-keeping at home, preserving fruit and vegetables to have a "canless" kitchen for Forage, Timber and their catering arm, Forage Catering, and working with small lot farmers throughout the year proves Chris takes this philosophy very seriously. He is a sought after speaker within the hospitality and food service industry as well as being a keynote speaker at events such as Metro Vancouver's Food System Policy conference. Whittaker is also a passionate hunter and fisher.
Forage and Chef Chris Whittaker have been recognized for their outstanding efforts by both Vancouver Magazine Green Award and Where Magazine Green Table Network Award. Most recently Whittaker was inducted in the BC Restaurant & Food Service Association Hall of Fame. In 2016, Chef Whittaker was named one of western Canada's Foodies of the Year by Western Living Magazine.
About Chef Ryan McIlwraith
Ryan McIlwraith is known for robust Spanish dishes cooked with finesse.
Raised along the coastal waters of Vancouver, British Columbia, Ryan got his start in the restaurant industry at 19 and, shortly after, went to culinary school on Vancouver Island. He gained an understanding of French cooking technique and sushi at Vancouver's well-known Blue Water Café. By age 25 he moved to New York as the opening sous chef at Gordon Ramsay's namesake restaurant at The London NYC. To deepen his understanding of the art and discipline of cooking, the young chef staged at cosmopolitan restaurants such as Jean-Georges (Jean-Georges Vongerichten's flagship in New York) and Eleven Madison Park (under Daniel Humm). Ryan made globally inspired small plates at Fleur by Hubert Keller in Las Vegas, before moving on to Bottega Napa Valley to cook alongside famed chef and restaurateur Michael Chiarello. Ryan rose through Bottega's ranks to lead the Italian ristorante as chef de cuisine, then culinary director. In 2013 he relocated to San Francisco to open Coqueta, Chiarello's Spanish tapas bar and restaurant.
As chef de cuisine at Coqueta, Ryan guided the restaurant to a Bib Gourmand in the San Francisco edition of the Michelin Guide, 3.5 stars from the San Francisco Chronicle, and a James Beard Foundation Award nomination for Best New Restaurant.
Ryan has always been drawn to the style of eating in Spain - its shared plates, bold flavors and variety of cuisines. Stateside, he's inspired by Jose Andres (with whom Ryan staged at his Washington, DC-based restaurants) and Seamus Mullen (of Tertulia in New York City, where Ryan also staged). Calling also upon his R&D trips to Spain, Ryan has created a menu at Bellota that shows a deep appreciation for Spanish culinary traditions and also reimagines recipes.
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