Update: Chef Marc Lepine of Atelier on Rochester Street won Ottawa’s 2015 Gold Medal Plates Monday night, notching his second successive victory at the elite competition.
Lepine won the same event in 2011, and qualified for the 2012 Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna, which he also won. Monday night he qualified for next year’s national event in Kelowna, B.C.
His winning dish, which edged out entries from nine other top Ottawa-area chefs, was smoked steelhead trout with miso-molasses glaze, cured pork belly, barley and corn porridge and corn cob broth.
Taking silver was chef Jon Svazas of Fauna on Bank Street for his emu carpaccio.
Taking bronze was chef Joe Thottungal of Coconut Lagoon on Saint Laurent Boulevard for his roasted lamb loin.
Said James Chatto of the judges’ panel: “The gold and silver medalists were incredibly close. Both chefs were at the top of their game and deserve to win but we thought one dish was just a bit better than the other. There were lots of exciting dishes this year. We’re particularly pleased to see our bronze medalist be an Indian chef presenting a different and exotic dish.”
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ORIGINAL STORY, IN WHICH I OFFERED MY RANKINGS:
It’s about 9:20 p.m. as I write, and the results of Ottawa’s 2015 Gold Medal Plates competition won’t be known for at least another 40 minutes or so.
But it’s not too soon for me to go out on a limb and offer my rankings of the evening’s dishes, served at the Shaw Centre in support of the Canadian Olympic Foundation.
As I did last year, along with hundreds of others, I made my rounds and tried all 10 dishes on offer on the Shaw Centre’s third floor.
The tenth anniversary of Gold Medal Plates was held Monday (Nov 9, 2015) night at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.
After, when I sat down to begin digesting my thoughts and food, the first thing that occurred to me was that I did not envy the event’s official judges (Anne DesBrisay, Sheila Whyte, Pam Collacott, Margaret Dickenson, Jud Simpson and Absinthe Café chef Patrick Garland, who won the event last year, as well as Gold Medal Plates culinary advisor James Chatto).
Why? Compared to last year, this year’s competition struck me as much more closely fought.
Although this year’s event included seven newcomers and three chefs who had competed previously — and done well — in previous Gold Medal Plates competitions, all the chefs brought their A-game, producing thoughtful and enjoyable dishes.
My impression is that last year, the field was more spread out, in terms of how enjoyable the dishes were and even how classical or far out they were.
Let’s put it this way — 2014 might go down as the year that well-heeled Ottawans ate duck testicles en masse. Meanwhile, it seemed to me that the more clean and classical dishes rose to the top of the pack in the estimation of the judges’ panel.
But if 2015 provided fewer radical culinary thrills, there was still no shortage of wow-worthy, delicious food.
Last year, without too much agonizing, I was able to rank the 10 entries from my least to most favourite. I’ll do the same below, although if you ask me tomorrow, I might want to switch a few of the dishes around.
10) James Bratsberg – MeNa Food Drink Passion
– James Bratsberg ( MeNa Food Drink Passion) prepares Cured fish and Squash.
Kombu-cured scallops with roasted squash, ground cherry umeboshi, pink grapefruit cells, almond squash crumble
A lot of interesting things were going on with this plate, but its main protein, as refined as it was, was perhaps too delicate a thing to savour compared to the heartier, big-flavoured stars on competing plates. The accompaniments were thought-provoking, and the squash puree that was the dish’s foundation was delicious. But I didn’t find that the combination of sour, salty, sweet and nutty flavours working together on the plate made for a serious of harmonious bites.
9) Trish Donaldson — Ace Mercado
– Trisha Donaldson (Ace Mercado) at Gold Medal Plates
Brome Lake Duck Breast, cooked sous-vide + pickled cherries + pork chicharrones + burnt sugar squash + recado de pepita
I was glad to see Donaldson stay true to the Mexican influences of her Clarence Street restaurant. I would have liked my plate more, though, if the duck had been more texturally pleasing. Unfortunately, there was another plate in the competition with better sous-vide cooked duck breast that made that comparison clear. The nicest surprise on her plate, I though, was the square of burnt sugar squash, which even if it registered as almost dessert-like, worked for me.
8. Jean-Claude Chartrand — L’Orée du Bois
– Jean-Claude Chartrand (L’Oree du Bois) cooks Braised veal cheek with a foie gras crust, with truffle espuma and brioche.
Braised veal cheek with a foie gras crust, with truffle espuma and brioche
I’m always glad to see a classic French entry at events such as these; Last year, Absinthe Café’s Garland won with a quail-two-ways dish that had similar French roots and a foie gras component, and if the judges are consistent, then perhaps Chartrand will win this year. As well-made as this dish was, the veal could have been seasoned a bit more, I thought, and the brioche was more crisp than I would have liked.
7. Jordan Holley — El Camino
– Jordan Holley (El Camino) cooks “Fowl Play.” at the tenth anniversary of Gold Medal Plates
“Fowl Play”
This was the event’s richest indulgence by quite a stretch, the event’s go-big-or-go-home, bad-boy dish, you could say, with a crisp chicken skin cracker slathered with pate and sausage. I’m not saying that I didn’t finish Holley’s entry handily, but perhaps it did not need to be as big as it was. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I expect the judges will confer greater rewards on more sophisticated and less hedonistic dishes.
6. Jonathan Korecki – restaurant E18hteen
– Jonathan Korecki (restaurant e18hteen) at Gold Medal Plates
Whole lamb, preserved tomatoes, pantry peaches
This was the event’s most rustic entry, which nonetheless displayed a high degree of craft, plus an admirable waste-not, want-not approach. Lamb shoulder had been cooked in a confit and appeared in the pasta, the lamb leg had been fashioned into sausage and lamb loin was cured. I would have liked the sausage component if the saltiness had been dialled back a notch.
5. Joe Thottungal – Coconut Lagoon
– Joe Thottungal (Coconut Lagoon) at the 10th anniversary of Gold Medal Plates was held Monday
Roasted Lamb in a Banana Leaf, Yucca coconut mash and beans thoran, mango
The Keralan chef from the Saint-Laurent Boulevard restaurant was a bit of an outlier in this year’s event, someone who hasn’t come through the ranks of Ottawa finer kitchens like most of the other competitors. Kudos to him, though. As our new prime minister says, it is 2015. Thottungal’s roasted lamb was a succulent and potently flavoured triumph, and its vibrant accompaniments were once-removed refinements of the items that can found at the steam tables of Coconut Lagoon’s Sunday buffet brunches.
4. John Morris – le café at the National Arts Centre
– John Morris (le cafe at the National Arts Centre) at Gold Medal Plates
Fish and fowl – citrus-cured and bruleed halibut and juniper sous-vide duck breast
From the chef who finished third last year, this dish was impeccably made and boasted forthright, approachable flavours and finesse. The fish and fowl were spot-on, and both were made better with crunchy components – a coriander brittle for the fish and duck skin for the duck – while the sea asparagus tied the dish together.
3. Jon Svazas – Fauna
– Joe Svazas (fauna) at Gold Medal Plates
Quebec emu carpaccio with fermented plum, white soy and miso emulsion, pickled matsutake mushrooms, matsutake crackers, cured egg yolk, walnuts and caviar
In my review of Svazas’ Bank Street restaurant last year, I wrote that one of his raw-meat dishes, a bison tartare if memory serves, was Gold Medal Plates-worthy. With its fermented plum, white soy and miso emulsion, pickled matsutake mushrooms, cured egg yolk, walnuts and caviar, this entry packed the same kind of taste-bud-jangling complexity that distinguished the best dishes at Fauna. I did wonder though if there was a bit too much of the carpaccio’s crunchy component, and if it was asking a lot of the emu to stand up to such intense co-stars with every bite without being upstaged.
A word before I list my two favourite dishes: What they had in common was that they made think as well as savour, were intriguing as well as delicious.
2. Marc Lepine – Atelier
Marc Lepine, chef-owner of Atelier at Gold Medal Plates
Smoked steelhead trout with miso-molasses glaze, cured pork belly, barley and corn porridge, corn cob broth
The only entry to be eaten with a spoon from a bowl, this mish-mash of humble but ennobled ingredients really worked for me. It made sweet and savoury (and for that matter, smokey) play together better than any other dish in the competition. I confess that one reason why I’m giving the nod to the remaining dish is that Lepine won not just Gold Medal Plates Ottawa several years ago, but also the Canadian Culinary Competition in Kelowna that followed. I’d be surprised if the judges proper gave him another shot at gold.
1.Tim Stock – play food and wine
-Tim Stock (play food and wine) at Gold Medal Plates
Lamb escabeche, Szechuan peppercorn and white balsamic jelly, rose-scented honey, mascarpone parsnip puree, forbidden rice chip, braised cinnamon cap mushrooms
To be honest, I wasn’t blown away by this dish at first glance. But when I began eating, I realized that I had underestimated it because of its minimalism. Stock has squeezed every component for maximum impact. Sizable and novel flavour combinations abounded on this plate. Perhaps the lamb on this plate, while undoubtedly interesting, could have been more sensational, but I still feel that this is the dish that I would want to eat tomorrow and the day after to plumb its mysteries.
phum@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/peterhum
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