By Chef’s Alliance member Oliver Kienast of Wild Mountain Food & Drink
This September, my friend and fellow Chef’s Alliance member Brad Holmes of Olo and I put on a harvest lunch to share the bounty of the fall with our fellow Slow Food members and friends. We chose to do it at Ragley Farm in East Sooke, which is run by Josie Hill who had been a Terra Madre delegate in 2004 and supplies our restaurants with a lot of organic fruits, vegetables and herbs throughout the year. We chose to do a family-style fall lunch, with the chefs harvesting the vegetables that morning and cooking almost everything in the wood-fired oven. This was one of those Slow Food / Slow Wine events in which all the dots were connected; everyone appreciating the richness of the day and each other’s company.
In the kitchen, the atmosphere was relaxed and jovial (chefs love cooking with fire) and the market room in the barn was decorated and converted into the dining space with 2 long tables. I loved the way the barn was buzzing with excited hunger and that feeling of elation when we sit at a long table with family, neighbours and new friends. It was great that the Ragley farmers sat down and ate, as well as the couple from Terra Nossa Farm that had raised the organic chickens served that afternoon. It was a real fall feast, full of passion and enjoyment, and a great way to share the Chef’s Alliance.
Will Reiher took more amazing photos, which you can see here.
Menu:
- Terrine and Cured Meats with Pickles
- Red Fife Bread with Cultured Butter
- Radicchio, Endive & Escarole Salad with a fig leaf vinaigrette
- Hakurei Turnip & Apple Salad, Pac & Sui Choi, Kale Seaweed, Cashew
- Garganelli Pasta, Garlic, Onion, Peppers, Tomato, Arugula, Nostrella
- Fire Roasted Squash, Carrots, Potatoes, Beets
- Fire Roasted Terra Nossa Chicken with Herb Sauce
- Tree Island Yogurt with Wild Mountain Honey
- Fire Roasted Fox Glove Farm Pears
… with appreciation to our farmers at Ragley in East Sooke, Terra Nossa in Mill Bay and Fox Glove on Saltspring Island, as well as Fol Epi Bakery, Unsworth Vineyards, Tod Creek Cider, Nichol Vineyard, Synchromesh Winery & Marionette Winery, and our bookkeeper for raising our pigs!