Chef Archives - Foodology

In British Columbia

The Phamily Table: 8 Course Private Dinner Experience

July 22, 2018

The Phamily Table just celebrated their 1 year anniversary in business and invited us for a special 8 course dinner to experience what a private dinner would be like. I was excited because I have been following Brandon and his team’s work through Instagram and his Vietnamese-inspired dishes are remarkable and unique.

Brandon Pham

Chef and Owner Brandon Pham gets a lot of his inspiration from his mother and he combined his training at Vancouver Community College. He then completed his apprenticeship under his mentor Chef Hamid Salimian at the Westin Wall Centre and then at Diva at the Met. It doesn’t stop there, he then worked at luxury hotels before making his way over to Copenhagen to stage at Michelin star restaurants.Returning to Vancouver, he worked at a few more notable restaurants and hotels until he ultimately decided to create The Phamily Table.

2018 Richmond Night Market

On the weekends, you can find The Phamily Table at the Richmond Night Market for their braised pork belly. What makes this dish unique is that they smoke it in front of you so when you open the containers, a bunch of smoke escapes.

8 Course Phamily Dinner

The menu looks pretty darn amazing!

Fermented plum cocktail

The dinner started with a fermented plum cocktail to kick off the start of the meal.

Amuse Bouche

To start off the dinner, they created a amuse bouche to start off our palates for the night.

This 2 bite amuse bouche has pickled daikon, pickled ginger, octopus, herbs, an amazing vinaigrette, and even more freshly picked herbs. The presentation was really nice and was a good way to start the meal.

Squash and Chili

This unassuming dish is made of squash and covered in their own gochujang sauce, puffed rice, koji and purslane.

Tofu + Anchovy

The next dish is a lot lighter and is made of silky tofu, and topped with an anchovy, garlic, and shallot mixture. Then it has a doenjang broth. So good and well balanced. One of my favourite dishes of the night.

Mushroom + Sea snail

This dish was so magical and it has mushrooms, sea snails, herb stems, mustard and watercress. It was so good and a foragers dream. They use mushrooms that aren’t typical so it was good to see and taste the variety. Easily my favourite dish of the evening.

Smoked Sablefish

This delicious package is made of smoked banana leaf stuffed with sablefish and veggies. It is accompanied with a black bean sauce. The sablefish was very moist.

Chicken + Corn

This dish has a chicken meatball, roasted corn, chicken heart, lemongrass and lime. A very unique dish and I was surprised it went with lemongrass so well.

Also, that quail egg was perfectly cooked so it was still gooey in the centre.

Pork + Kimchi

The braised pork belly is served on top of kimchi and a fermented tomato and its juices. Then it is topped with onion flowers. A goodc combination of flavours but it was a bit salty for me.

Coconut and Ginger Pudding

This was the first dessert of the evening and it has a coconut and ginger pudding with honey, Szechuan peppercorn and crumbled cashews. I liked the different textures at play.

Cassava Cake

The cassava cake is paired with sweetened red bean and a pandan tapioca. Very delicious and not too sweet.

Mignardise

These were the last 2 bites to end off the evening with their “fruit roll up” and dehydrated beet. I was so stuffed at this point. This 8 course meal was realistically a 10 course meal.

Final Thoughts

This dinner lasted just under 3 hours and was a delight to taste such unique dishes with the Vietnamese and Korean influences. If you’re looking for private dinner at your place, The Phamily Table team are very experienced to create a dinner you wont’ forget.

Website:
http://www.thephamilytable.com/

In Chef

Showcase Restaurant Bar: West Coast Cuisine in Downtown Vancouver

April 4, 2016

Showcase Restaurant and Bar is located inside the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Vancouver. It is on the main floor of the hotel to the left of the lobby. They are a casual dining restaurant serving delicious West Coast Cuisine.

They also have a huge bar, which is great for hanging out with coworkers if you work around this area.

I won a complimentary dinner for 8 at an event and decided to come here with a few friends and the whole family. I’ve never dined here before, so it was a good experience to be able to see what they can produce for their guests. When I think about dining out, I don’t go to a lot of hotel restaurants and I have this impression where its expensive.

They have a private room for large groups.

2011 Cipes Blanc de Franc, BC VQA

Produced by Summerhill Pyramid Winery, this incredibly unique traditional method sparkling is made from 100% Cabernet Franc. In 2011, their Cabernet Franc grapes were in peak condition to be made into a sparkling wine. Aged en tirage for 3 years, this wine provides notes of eccles cakes, currants, dried raspberries and blueberries, finishing dry and well balanced.

A good way to start the meal.

Shirley Temple was my sister’s drink as she is still underage. Instead of all that wine, she had this non-alcoholic drink with grenadine syrup, ginger ale, and orange juice. I would have so many of these when I was younger. A fun way to still be fun and fancy but without the alcohol. I like how the grenadine syrup is dizzled on the side of the glass, so it looks like blood.

Chef Kenny Kyle brought out his creation – “Canned Tuna on the Beach“.

The cans were places in a wooden box full of rocks and shells. Inside the can, there is seared albacore tuna, maple macerated berries, pear & peashoot salad with a smoked sea foam.

This really hit the spot! Very creative way of placing the tuna in the cans. The smoke sea foam was minimal, but has a loads of smoky flavour.

The next dish was the Roasted Beet Salad. Chef Kyle Kenny and Sous Chef Westley Feist came out and prepared the dish right in front of us. The beets were crusted in salt and put into the oven.

Roasted beet salad with goat cheese mousse, cocoa nibs, and herbs. It looks like a simple dish, but the taste of those roasted beets were so good. Some people at the table that didn’t take a liking to usual beets, love this dish. The bit of goat cheese paired well.

Next was the fun Potato soup with a parmesan puff and chili cream. I love creative dishes where the diners get to participate in putting together their meal. It’s interactive and entertaining.

We whacked the puff open and poured the soup all over it. At first, I didn’t think a potato soup could be so interesting.

2005 Meursault Chartron et Trebuchet, French White Burgundy

This wine was definitely an interesting choice to pair with the appetizers. It started off well, but the aftertaste was like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. It was very cheesy and pungent. It wasn’t to my liking so I went with something else.

Bread Service came with golden ears grass fed cultured butter with black garlic. The pieces of baguette were piping hot and so good. The butter containers reminded me of the Beauty and the Beast where they store the mystical rose…but in this case…delicious butter. We enjoyed it so much that we asked for it to-go so they don’t waste any of it.

Seared duck breast, panzanella salad, grilled sourdough, and basil puree. The duck was very flavourful and it was rendered well, so it wasn’t too fatty.

Short Ribs and wild mushroom fazzoletti, shaved parmesan, and arugula salad on top. The richness of the pasta and short ribs balanced with the arugula salad. That short rib was very tender.

Arctic Char with chorizo vinaigrette, and potato gnocchi. was the lighter entree of the evening.

2013 Burrowing Owl Syrah, BC VQA

All the entrees paired with this. It was very smooth, full bodied with a fruit finish.

Up next was dessert! They incorporated a bit of science into this dish was freezing the Vietnamese coffee mousse in liquid nitrogen.

Liquid nitrogen frozen Vietnamese coffee with warm milk sauce, and cake bits.

The dessert was splattered all over the platter. It’s not about the look, but it was the taste and texture that impressed us. You have the icy coldness of the Vietnamese coffee, then the crumble, but you can start hearing and feeling the pop rocks. Very multi sensory.

We shared each platter among 4 others. I wanted to eat it all, but sharing is caring.

2013 Stone boat, Verglas, BC VQA

We ended with this. Sweet with hints of honey, fruits and citrus. I liked it since its not as sweet as some other ice wines out there.

The dinner was great to see what the restaurant can offer guests as well as the innovative skills of the people who work at Showcase and the Marriott. Chef Kyle Kenny and Sous Chef Westley Feist really took took us through a well prepared meal with a lot of different techniques. Assistant Restaurant & Bar Manager – Kal put together some great wines.

Everyone at the table was impressed and left with a lasting impression. Since I won a contest and was invited, it’s definitely not a normal dining experience here. They do private dining for small to large groups with a custom menu, so if you want something similar, give them a shout.

I’ll definitely be back in the future for a normal dining experience.

We Rate Showcase:

Address:
1122 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.showcaserestaurant.com/

In Chef

Chef’s Table: Chef Thomas Heinrich

May 5, 2013

Chef Thomas Heinrich is the executive chef of the Hyatt Regency Vancouver. He comes from the land down under – Australia, working at several high-end restaurants before making his way to New York. It’s great that his culinary journey has led him here to Vancouver.

I first met him via Twitter to check out Vaneat’s Art of Taste dining package at Mosaic. What I loved about his style is that he uses amazing ingredients that are in season and I was impressed by the presentation. Of course the taste was amazing, but it was the first time in a few years that I really enjoyed fine dining. A lot of places in town were disappointing, but I love eating here. In the past month, I’ve dined in the hotel at least 5 times. I never knew the Hyatt would have such amazing food. Twice for the #ArtofTaste, once for a company function , once at Grain Tasting Bar, and another time for a chefs tabled prepared by the Chef and his team.

Chef prepared a 10-course meal showcasing 10 unique themes – Oyster, Horseradish, peas, Artichokes, Bacon, Pasta, Foraged, Strawberries and Chocolate. He invited a handful of bloggers to the kitchen and created a meal we wouldn’t forget.

He teased us on Twitter to give us a sneak peek at what was to come. Every time the tweets came, I salivated. All the dishes prepared aren’t on the hotel’s menu, the Chef’s Table is where Chef can create whatever he wants.

What was so cool about this experience is a dining table smack dab in the middle of the kitchen. We could watch every step of preparation happening in the kitchen as we stared at what dishes were going to come out.

Around the table were amazing bloggers from Vancouver – Alvin (Foodimagery), Dee (Gastrofork), Grace (GraceCheung604), Janice (Good Eat), Kevin & Billy (Vaneats), Sean (Sean’s Adventures in FlavorTown), and Sherman (Sherman’s Food Adventures). A great bunch of people I admire and of course we love food. You can image there were lots of cameras on the table.

Oysters

Fresh oysters with pickled onions and micro greens in an escabeche foam served in a cute tin with giant tweezers.

On the table were potted plants, we thought this was part of the decorations, but little did we know, it would be our next dish.

This is an avocado & buttermilk mousse topped by pumpernickel bread crumbs with wild celery and baby carrots. This dish was inspired his trip to the famous Noma Restaurant in Denmark.

Horseradish

Argentinian Red Shrimp with raw Wagyu Beef, wasabi chips, wasabi foam and freshly grated wasabi atop a kalamansi gel. It’s a cross between Japanese and Spanish influence.

Peas

Peas prepared with different techniques skinless pea ravioli (via spherification), isomalt encapsulated pea oil and pea powder served atop black garlic puree.

Artichoke

Seared Halibut with artichoke relish, confit and puree that was sandwiched in a coconut and squid ink macaron. Also a ring of the dried halibut skin. Most people would think the protein in the main focal point of the dish, but in this case, it is the artichoke.

Bacon

Bacon-wrapped Skuna Bay salmon with citrus caviar, bacon disks, bacon relish and bacon fat powder atop a fava bean puree.

Pasta

Duck Confit Ravioli atop stinging nettle puree and crispy leaves was served with apple-brined duck and a Maple vanilla gastrique.

Foraged

Australian Lamb Tenderloin with fiddlehead ferns, pickled ramps and morels with black truffle.

Strawberries

Fresh green strawberries macerated in honey, strawberry chips and a pistachio-strawberry glass with cardamom ice cream. As well as a strawberry and vanilla streusel.

Chocolate

This is made of dehydrated chocolate, a 30 second chocolate cake and a chocolate fondant bar atop streusel with blood orange reduction and white chocolate ice cream. Grand Marnier fluid gel.

This amazing meal was put together by Chef Thomas Heinrich and his awesome team. You won’t find these items on their regular menu, but I wrote it to showcase his amazing talents. Sometimes its easy to forget what happens behind the scenes during your meals. We have amazing chefs in Vancouver that shouldn’t be overlooked. With the Chefs Table, we were able to see Chef’s range of skills sets that were not confined to the menus of the hotel.

One person we can’t forget is Mosaic’s chef-apprentice Tyson Gee. He helped create this amazing meal and is an alumnus of the Vancouver Community College culinary arts program. Tyson was also part of a team that prepared meals for Prince William and Kate Middleton when they were in Ottawa. He definitely has a bright future ahead.

At the end of the day, we all had fun and left crazy full. Thanks Alvin for this picture and Sherman for typing out the menu descriptions. If you get a chance to dine at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver, you will know who’s creating the dishes behind the scenes.