The following guest post is the first in a series of "Meet a Gold Medal Plates Competing Chef" interviews you will see on foodiePrints and our partnered blogs for Gold Medal Plates Ottawa. It comes from one of our favourite food bloggers Rachelle of Rachelle Eats Food.

And without further ado...

Last week I paired up with Ottawa-based food bloggers Shari from Whisk: A food blog, and Don and Jen from foodiePrints to see what we could do to get everyone talking about the Gold Medal Plates event set for November 16th. Being the ultimate celebration of Canadian Excellence in cuisine and wine, not to mention athletic achievement (net proceeds from Gold Medal Plates are given to the Canadian Olympic Foundation), it seemed like a natural fit - and of course, a very exciting one. Our goal is to feature one of the competing chefs, or any other interesting fact about the event, on every Friday leading up to the event. Here is our first one.


Chef Marc Lepine of Atelier

You know how some people are just so nice you want to scream out to the world about them? That's how I felt today after meeting Chef Marc Lepine from Atelier restaurant. This soft spoken, modest and genuinely friendly man made this first-time interviewer feel at ease. I imagine working for him must be the same. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

What's your philosophy when it comes to food and your restaurant?
"I'm not much of a philosopher. I don't take it that seriously I guess. But if I had to answer that, I guess I'd like to not take myself too seriously and not have our diners take the restaurant too seriously. I like using high quality ingredients but having fun with it."

What inspires you? How do you come up with ideas for the dishes that you create?
"We get asked that a lot and I think they're all random things. It's always something different. I have a 5-year-old daughter and, sometimes I'll be at home on my day off playing and an idea will strike for a dish. I get inspirations from that - just from something she's playing with...Sometimes from other chefs, going out and eating and just the slightest thing that someone has done... It can be a movie, we've had dishes based around movies... Seasons definitely, like the produce that's coming out - the amazing cherries that we had this year. That's the easiest inspiration, you get that and your dish makes itself..."

I know your menu changes often. With the current one you have right now, what's your favourite dish on the menu and
why?
"Probably the tomato salad. It's something we call Tomatrix Revolution. Visually I love it and there's something going on there that really appeals to me. I think because it feels really seasonal and being tomato season it just brings me outside. That's corny but I really like that, and because of how intricate it is and I don't think it's something you could find in many restaurants."

"I also like a dish called Subterranean Homesick Alien that we have on at the moment. Which is the name of a Radiohead song, but it's a dessert based on star anise and cherries. I like the visual, the artistic side of plating something."


Tomatrix plating

What's the ingredient you can't live without? (other than basics)
"I don't think I have one honestly. Whatever the ingredient is we use it. I guess part of the larger philosophy of this style of cooking is that there's no ingredient that has superior culinary value over another ingredient. I mean, you can take any ingredient and turn it into something quite amazing if it's treated right."

"We could never have a menu that doesn't have a minimum amount of fish and meat on it because Ottawa wouldn't go for that... if we had no restrictions we could do a menu that had no meat on it or minimal meat and still be as happy with it just because whatever the season, the ingredients that are coming in are all amazing."

Is there anything you won't eat?
"McDonald's or Burger King. I don't eat foie gras... (but) there's nothing I don't eat because I don't like the taste, I just choose not to eat certain things."

Guilty pleasure?
"Potato chips."

What was your most memorable meal and why?
"Hands down it would be the 24-course dinner at Alinea in Chicago. It was very inspiring. It made my head spin. Overwhelming in an enjoyable kind of way. To this day I still think about some of the things that went on."

What would your last meal be?
"Big bowl of grapefruit. Simple. I would love it - grapefruit is one of my favourite things to eat."

If you could travel to just one place in the world for food, where would you go and why?
"Spain. Because I haven't been there yet and there's so many amazing restaurants that I'd like to try there. Particularly Roca."

Describe your perfect Sunday.
"Spending time with my kids. That's pretty perfect. And a nice dinner out that night would be good. With or without the kids."

If you've never been to Atelier, it's definitely one of those places you must add to your go-to list. The entire experience is like no other. I was there earlier this year and had an amazing time. I'm so looking forward to my next visit!



Facebook Page: Gold Medal Plates Ottawa

To purchase tickets for Gold Medal Plates, contact Sue Holloway (contact information below) or click here.

Particulars:
Gold Medal Plates Ottawa
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:00 pm
National Arts Centre
53 Elgin Street

Sue Holloway
818 Nesbitt Place
(613)274-3107 phone
(613)274-0851 fax
hollowayjoy@rogers.com

foodiePrints receives a number of common requests for information from restaurants recommendations to places to source hard-to-find ingredients (usually ethnic foods). We also get requests to recommended food bloggers (usually local ones) to invite to events.

Today, I need to extend thanks to fellow Ottawa food blogger Jodi Lariviere (@simplyfresh) of Simply Fresh (and recently Vegging for Two). It was she I asked advice from about a controversy involving a local food event called Feast of Fields. Privy to information on what was going on, I told her I did not want to write about it. She took the initiative to demonstrate how a conflict that can evoke strong emotions could be discussed.

The conflict involves local producers (farmers and fine food shops/caterers), a not-for-profit organization (the Ottawa chapter of the Canadian Organic Growers), and sponsorship from Loblaws. The Ottawa Magazine's new blog, City Bites, may have "broken" the story, quoting the owners and operators of two fine food shops, Red Apron and The Piggy Market. But, Jodi gave us, the consumer, a voice.

I recommend you read her blog post on the subject of Loblaws sponsoring Feast of Fields and participants walking away.

Here are my thoughts from a comment I added to Jodi's post:

This is one blog post I did not want to write.

Loblaws' sponsoring Feast of Fields has evoked some powerful emotions from local producers, vendors, chefs, and restaurateurs.

Many retailers and producers who staunchly support organic, local, or a combination of the two feel participating in an event sponsored by Loblaws betrays their food philosophies.

Loblaws hasn't really shown any interest in changing their supply chains to truly support local farmers, let alone local and organic ones. Ever wander down the organic aisle at a Loblaws or Superstore? The herbs aren't even from Canada.

Loblaws is very interested in amending its image as it has been struggling to remain profitable. It has even re-arranged its produce sections to resemble more farmer's market displays.

Yes Loblaws should be taken to task for having no substance behind its marketing efforts. The question is, does the confrontation need to take place at Feast of Fields…

COG has been transparent in informing people Loblaws is sponsoring. It, however, has not been clear about Loblaws supplying produce. It has not been clear about whether or not Loblaws will be using the event to gauge Ottawa's interest in local organic produce. It has not explained Loblaws' intentions.

Loyal readers know I volunteered at last year's Feast of Fields. foodiePrints promoted the event with a ticket giveaway. foodiePrints covered the event itself.

Loyal readers know how I feel about Galen Weston. Suffice it to say, I have a list of his stores' produce and products I want to throw at him.

This year, Feast of Fields has become rather political. Unfortunately, there are too many assumptions on either side of the conflict and not enough meaningful communication.

What I hope will still occur is local farmers and chefs work together to show great food can be made from great ingredients.

Does Loblaws sponsoring $5000 have to preclude this happening? Don't we already know what Galen Weston, standing in a farmer's field, really means?

As food bloggers, concentrating on cooking and eating in one city, we are well aware we limited potential interest in our blog posts to one locale. While we gladly contribute to the entropy that is food thought on the world wide web, we know our impact is minimal.

In foodiePrints' short lifetime, we have managed to cultivate a wonderful readership and friends and following on several social networks. But, do we have influence? We receive few comments. We get the odd mention (thank-you Chef Blackie). We are invited to the odd dinner (thank-you Chef Hay). But, we are often asked, since we are food bloggers, do we write for Mark Warbuton's (@warby) Ottawa Foodies, an online community of food enthusiasts. I've an account on Ottawa Foodies. foodiePrints is standalone.

Imagine our surprise when an e-mail from one of the well-respected judges of an upcoming culinary competition shows up in our inbox. The judge is a published food writer, one who is read on the world stage. The e-mail mentions reading and enjoying one of our blog posts.

Incredulous, I contacted several people to determine the authenticity of the e-mail. Surely, it must be a practical joke. "From one food blogger to another", would we participate in promoting what was described as the "most important culinary competition in Canada?"

It wasn't. We turned out to be one of three Ottawa blogs contacted. The other two are written by friends, Shari (@whisk_food_blog) of Whisk: A Food Blog and Rachelle of Rachelle Eats Food.

The competition, Gold Medal Plates

The competitors, teams lead by the following local chefs:
Ben Baird – The Urban Pear
Ross & Simon Fraser – Fraser Café
Caroline Ishii – Zen Kitchen
Charlotte Langley – Whalesbone Oyster House
Marc Lepine – Atelier
Steve Mitton – Murray Street Kitchen
Michael Moffatt – Beckta Dining and Wine and Play Food and Wine
Charles Part – Les Fougères
Michael Potters – Harvest
Rene Rodriguez – Navarra

The judges,
Anne Desbrisay
Pam Collacott
Margaret Dickenson
Chris Knight
Chef Judson Simpson
Chef Matthew Carmichael (last year's winner)
James Chatto

Our loyal readers already know we rarely participate in or promote events that do not support a cause. This is no exception. Gold Medal Plates was founded in 2003 and has since raised more than $4.1 million for the Canadian Olympic Foundation to support Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

Ottawa will be one of 8 Canadian cities holding Gold Medal Plates competitions. Winners will head to Kelowna, British Columbia for the Canadian Culinary Championships.

In 2009, Chef Matthew Carmichael, of E18hteen (18 York Street) and Social Restaurant and Lounge (537 Sussex Drive), took Bronze at the Canadian Culinary Championships.

Clearly, our city has culinary talent. Since Gold medal Plates aims to celebrate food and wine and feature the best chefs and wines in Canada, you can expect related blog posts on Fridays, leading up to the competition (Tuesday, November 16, 2010). These posts will be collaborations with Shari and Rachelle as we work to showcase why our restaurants and chefs have what it takes to compete.

And yes, Jenn and I will be attending Gold Medal Plates this year. There, we hope to gather some photos and stories to share that reinforce the fact Ottawa is becoming quite the culinary destination.

Tickets to the event are $300 CAD. Between the food and wine that will be served and the opportunity to support Canadian athletes, it is money well spent.



Facebook Page: Gold Medal Plates Ottawa

To purchase tickets for Gold Medal Plates, contact Sue Holloway (contact information below) or click here.

Particulars:
Gold Medal Plates Ottawa
Tuesday, November 16, 2010 6:00 pm
National Arts Centre
53 Elgin Street

Sue Holloway
818 Nesbitt Place
(613)274-3107 phone
(613)274-0851 fax
hollowayjoy@rogers.com

How do you turn poutine into $1266 to fight cancer?

You find a great cause. In this case, Isabelle Rivard's (@spoonsie) Give to Live challenge (isaonabike.com) to cycle from Vancouver, BC to Austin, TX (a 4300 km trek) and raise $10,000 for cancer causes.

Izzy Rivard
Proceeds from this event went to The Lance Armstrong Foundation, Craig's Cause for Pancreatic Cancer, and The Canadian Cancer Society.

You find seven generous restaurants who make specialized takes on the dish that normally tops crispy fries with squeaky cheddar cheese curds and a veloute-style gravy.

You contact culinary tour guide Paola St. George (@cestboncooking) who is also the marketing manager behind C'est Bon Cooking.

Chef Andrée Riffou and Paola St. George of C'est Bon Cooking

You sign up 35 poutine enthusiasts to join you in a tour of Ottawa's ByWard Market, including Mark Warburton (founder of Ottawa Foodies), Kaitlin (Ottawa food blogger behind Heartful Mouthful), and Jodi (Ottawa food blogger behind Simply Fresh).

Mark Warburton and Paola St. George

You split the group in two and take everyone on a 2 km walking tour of downtown Ottawa.

The result,

@foodiePrints (Jul 17, 09:40 PM)
@EqualOppKitchen ...7 very generous restaurants. 37 happy p0utine enthusiasts. 2 km of walking tour. $1266 raised to fight cancer!

Poutine crawls are not unheard of. Earlier this year, Toronto food bloggers organized one. Theirs was not a fundraiser, just poutine enthusiasts, trying the various takes on poutine their city has to offer. The dish that has been long derided, often referred as "fat lumber jack food", has slowly colonized the city.

With the help of friends, the bloggers behind the Endless Simmer blog organized a "Tour de Poutine" in New York City. In total, they visited 7 eateries and sampled 7 takes on poutine. As Rebecca Marx of the Village Voice blog wrote about the poutine crawl, it revealed Brooklyn to be an unlikely poutine paradise. The most interesting to me was the one that came from a lunch counter in the Essex Street Market, Shopsin's. Dubbed the "Last Supper Poutine", it was topped not with cheese curds, but three poached eggs.

Well, Ottawa neighbours Quebec, the province that gave poutine birth. This is a city that knows good poutine. Here's what our ByWard Market produces.

The Courtyard Restaurant (21 George Street)

Chef Michael Hay's take on Poutine

Hand Cut Shoe String Fries, topped with Duck Confit, St-Albert Curds, and smashed Foie Gras Torchon
Jenn and I unfortunately did not get the opportunity to try Chef Hay's poutine. Sous Chef Arleigh Martin assembled the poutine to order. According to one of Chef Hay's earlier tweets, the sauce involved "French fry consomme." The torchon looked like it was frozen with liquid nitrogen and "smashed."

Zak's (16 ByWard Market Square)

Breakfast Poutine
Home fries, cheese curds, hollandaise, and paprika.

More after the jump...

A total of 4 opportunities to enter the draw for the pair of tickets to the Give to Live Poutine Crawl (July 17, 2010) have been spoken for. One remains.

Again, here is how the raffle works:

• Everyday, we will post a picture of poutine from an Ottawa restaurant, not necessarily one that will be included in the poutine crawl.
• We will leave hints. We may even be careless enough to leave links to websites or Facebook pages.
• The first person to comment on the post, correctly identifying the eatery where the poutine comes from, will be entered into a draw for the pair of tickets.
• Each day, a different first correct commenter will be chosen.
• If someone submits multiple guesses, the first one submitted will be considered.
• The winner of the tickets will be chosen using random.org Friday afternoon.

Here is the 5th and last opportunity.

Mystery Poutine

This poutine comes in one size: generous! It is a specialty poutine you will find no where else, a Caribbean jerk chicken poutine ($7.99). It is wonderfully savoury. The fries are crisp. There is boned dark meat chicken. The gravy is distinctly jerk.

According to wikipedia.net, jerk is a style of cooking in which meats, traditional pork or chicken, are dry rubbed or wet marinated in a spice mixture. Jerk originated in Jamaica, but can be found in other parts of the world like the Caribbean where it intermingled with indigenous cuisine, creating some regional specialization. The principal ingredients of jerk seasoning include scotch bonnet peppers, allspice and thyme. Other ingredients can include cloves, cinnamon, scallions, nutmeg, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper.

The Caribbean eatery that makes and serves jerk chicken poutine was originally located at 1018 Merivale Road. It relocated further down Dalhousie (401) in a smaller location. More recently, it moved to its current digs at 409 Dalhousie Street. It so happens Ottawa's location of Smoke's Poutinerie opened next door.

Hailing from Grenada, the eatery's Chef, Lennox Antoine, is well known in the city for serving authentic Caribbean fare, including great roti.

Menu
In fact, the A-Channel had him prepare and talk about his chicken, jerk chicken and goat roti on the A Morning show.


Inside the restaurant casual dining room, there are but a handful of tables.

Dining Room
On the weekends, the restaurant is known to overflow with patrons.

Beside its cash and till, you will find freshly made fruit juices and Jamaican patties.

Tropical Fruit Juices

Jamaican patties
Above the Jamaican patties, a great manifesto about what it means to be West Indian.

Name the Caribbean eatery and be entered in the draw for a pair of Poutine Crawl Tickets.

Good luck!

Particulars:
Island Flava
409 Dalhousie Street
(613) 321-4198
Open Weekdays 11:30am-9pm; Sat 11:30am-4am; Sun 12pm-6pm