What happens when you take a group of eight very passionate foodies and get them together for a meeting? A lot food, and a LOT of eating. That’s exactly what happened at this month’s Vancouver Foodie Tours team get together, where we met up for a bit of a cooking competition to share our favourite dishes, show off our culinary skills…and gorge on an eight course, gourmet feast!
We began late on a Sunday afternoon, arriving one by one to prep our dishes and prepare to take the title of the truest foodie of the bunch. The stakes are high when cooking for a crowd of discerning food lovers with empty tummies and insatiable appetites, and we vied for space at the chopping board and in the oven as it came down to crunch time.
The proceeding meal was eight progressive courses of culinary heaven! With everything from a crisp watermelon salad, earthy mushroom parcels, and chicken wings two ways to a sweet and savoury Gouda apple pie, we were more than set for the feast of a lifetime. And we were certainly up to the challenge of polishing off every last bite.
One of the standout dishes of the evening was Nadia’s stunning risotto, even though she cheated a bit by being a professional chef/ex Gordon Ramsay staffer. Her perfectly cooked risotto base was finished with crispy parma ham, earthy chanterelles, creamy burrata and fresh shiso. I think I can safely say we all had to stop ourselves from licking our plates! Always taking it to the next level, she also slipped in a little amouse bouche of parma ham and fresh magenta melon, and her pairing of Tinhorn Creek’s aromatic Gewurtztraminer was a perfect match for these complex flavours.
Another highlight was Manuela’s Marsala poached figs. This fortified wine hails from Sicily, and with its jammy, dried fruit flavours, it was an ideal match for the fresh mission figs. A salty blue d’auvergne and tangy sheeps milk cheese rounded out the dish, topped off with a few candied walnuts and pecans. The wine to match? Marsala of course, a 2010 vintage bottle with beautiful aromas of dried raisins, dates and vanilla.
Every dish was incredible, and in the end we decided that it would be too difficult to pick a winner. After all, we’d just enjoyed eight fantastic courses paired with eight different bottles of wine…I think it’s safe to say we were all pretty satisfied with the results.
Does your work ever have food inspired get togethers? Leave a comment below, we’d love some inspiration for our next team meeting!
– Today’s guest post was written by Laurian, our VFT Administrator!
