Dine Out Vancouver Festival 2020: World Chef Exchange: Cork, Ireland at Wildebeest

Tickets

Cost: $189.52
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Our fifth annual Vancouver World Chef Exchange! We’ve reached out to our friends in the global culinary community and have invited them to Vancouver. The result? Five of the world’s culinary best join us for a series of delicious collaborations with our own city’s top talent.

Michelin star chef of Ireland's Mews Restaurant reunites with Wildebeest's Chef Ian McHale for an intimate one-night only dinner not to be missed! Chef Ahmet and Chef Ian met while working at Dublin's Michelin Star restaurant Chapter One. Both chefs place great emphasis on using local and seasonal ingredients. Prepare yourself for a culinary adventure guided by two like-minded chefs with a passion for all that local!

ABOUT CHEF IAN MCHALE
Ian McHale manages the day-to-day back-of-house operations at Wildebeest, fusing his straightforward, old-school approach with contemporary technique. A true champion of Wildebeest’s farm-to-table ethos, he takes great pride in collaborating with local farmers and butchers to run the Gastown hot spot’s innovative nose-to-tail culinary program. He relishes the gastronomical freedom he has to work with offal and other unique cuts of meat, and spearheads the restaurant’s 100-percent in-house charcuterie program.

Born and raised in Maryland, McHale first developed a passion for hospitality in 2010 while working at Mia Carolina Glyndon, a small mom-and-pop Italian restaurant in his hometown. After culinary school, he relocated across the pond to complete a 16-month stint at the acclaimed five-star Merrion Hotel in Dublin, Ireland. He later took on the role of Senior Chef De Partie at the Michelin-starred Chapter One Restaurant where he further honed his skills working in a fast-paced kitchen. His hands-on experience helped him place in the final five at the Euro-Touques Young Chef of the Year Competition, Ireland’s premier culinary contest for talented young chefs under26.

In May 2016, McHale relocated to Vancouver to take on an ambitious new challenge as Sous Chef at Wildebeest and was soon promoted to Chef De Cuisine before rising to the role of Executive Chef beginning in 2018.

ABOUT CHEF AHMET DEDE
Turkish-born Ahmet Dede is head chef at Mews Restaurant in Baltimore, a village located in West Cork, Ireland. He has worked with several top chefs in Ireland, Holland and Norway, starting his career with Ross Lewis at renowned Michelin-starred Chapter One in Dublin, where he developed an acute interest for Irish ingredients.

He spent a year at two-Michelin star Patrick Guilbaud Restaurant in Dublin, where he continued his journey through contemporary Irish cuisine rooted in French classical before moving to Amsterdam to work at two-Michelin star &Moshik. Under Israeli chef Moshik Roth, Ahmet experienced a culinary style that combines traditional European cooking with molecular gastronomy techniques.

While in Holland, Ahmet also worked at Librije, in Zwolle. Working alongside three Michelin-star chef Jonnie Boer, he developed a passion for nature as a source of inspiration, which will define his unique style in later years. Next was a short stint at ground-breaking three-Michelin star Maaemo in Oslo, where chef Esben Holmboe Bang focuses on local produce to reflect the changing seasons and the raw nature of Norway.

When he returned to Ireland, Ahmet took a position at The Greenhouse in Dublin and was part of the team which was awarded a Michelin star under chef Mickael Viljanen. In 2017 Ahmet took on his first head chef role at Mews, a seasonal destination restaurant in Baltimore, West Cork, where he was awarded a Michelin star in 2018.

At Mews, Ahmet has combined all his learnings to develop his own unique style. The tasting menu is based solely on local, seasonal ingredients from the small region of West Cork, where Ahmet has developed a very close relationship with local fishermen, farmers, growers, artisan producers and foragers from which he buys directly. His cuisine is centred on produce and dictated by availability, seasonality and nature. Each of his dishes tells a complete story, highlighting the connection between the ingredients and the landscape. Ahmet’s food is deceptively simple but reveals a careful study of complex flavours and a commitment to using the best local produce from both land and sea.
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