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Truffle Puree Appetizer - C. Phaisalakani

Easy Appie #4: Gruyère With Truffle Purée

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Like nothing you’ve tasted before, this decadent truffle infused hors d’oeuvre is made under 10 minutes.

Truffle Puree Appetizer - C. PhaisalakaniENTERTAIN SMART | When she isn’t busy shooting portraits or working as Frugalbits’s photo editor and chief photographer, Casey Phaisalakani loves to eat and then blog about it on fingerlickineats.com. Phaisalakani grew up in Hong Kong, a city rich in culinary diversions, in a family jazzed about eating good food. Her mother, a keen amateur cook who enjoys entertaining, first whipped up this appetizer—a dead easy three-ingredient affair made of truffle purée and gruyère on toasty bread—as an amuse bouche to enjoy before a soup course at a formal diner she was hosting. It proved so popular her family now serves it as an hors d’oeuvre at cocktail parties or for tea time. Read more

Chef John Bishop’s Top Shops & Nosheries

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Celebrated Chef John Bishop shares his favourite shops and nosheries (and what to order) on Vancouver’s Westside.

Regional, seasonal cuisine made with fresh, organic, local ingredients is common- place at many restaurants in Vancouver today, but this notion was revolutionary in Vancouver in 1985 when John Bishop opened the casually elegant restaurant that bears his name on 4th Avenue.

Consistently listed among restaurant guidebooks as one of the city’s top fine dining eateries, award-winning Bishop’s seasonal menus continue to reflect Chef Bishop’s original commitment to sustainable ingredients and the growers who produce them, a dedication also affirmed in his now-classic 2002 documentary, Deconstructing Supper, that investigates food safety in the age of GMOs (genetically modified foods) and industrial agriculture.

This past year, John Bishop received the first-ever Governor Generals’ award for culinary arts, plus a coveted Edna. The Edna, a Canadian Culinary Book Award, is a lifetime achievement prize given to someone who has contributed significantly to the promotion of regional cuisine In Canada.

John Bishop’s 5 free, cheap or worth it things to see, do or buy in Vancouver Read more

Easy Appie #3: Herb & Pepper Goat Cheese

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Stellar food stylist/writer Béatrice Peltre makes goat cheese look amazing.

ENTERTAIN SMART | Some things are so stunningly beautiful that you just want to eat them up—like the arresting food photographs taken by Béatrice Peltre, a French expat who lives in Boston and writes, styles and shoots a food column for the Boston Globe. Peltre also shares her adventures in cooking and eating on her seriously addictive blog, La Tartine Gourmande, which has been (among its many well-deserved accolades) recognized as the best special interest food blog of 2010 by Saveur magazine. Read more

Big City Bar Nuts - Clinton Hussey

Easy Appie #2: Lesley Stowe’s Big City Bar Nuts

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Before treating the world to her signature Raincoast Crisps, Vancouver chef Lesley Stowe served this sinfully simple—and quick—appetizer to her catering clients.

Big City Bar Nuts - Clinton HusseyENTERTAIN SMART | Long before Lesley Stowe began producing Raincoast Crisps, the one-of-a-kind, gourmet cracker-alternative she manufactures locally and distributes throughout North America, she owned and operated the most celebrated catering and specialty food emporium in Vancouver. From her charming (now closed) shop off Burrard Street, she and her team offered prepared dishes and imported food products from around the world and treated Vancouverites to a taste of delicacies previously unavailable in the city.

Known for her inventive mix of ingredients (to which Raincoast Crisps are a testament), Stowe says that Big City Bar Nuts were a favourite on her catering menu. “There are quite a few sweet and salty things out there, but our recipe added something on the savoury side. It’s the hint of rosemary that makes them stand out.”

This nut mixture, made in under 10 minutes, was a show-stopper then—and now! Read more

Tikka Masala - C. Phaisalakani

One Of These Masalas Is Not Like The Others . . .

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Which of these masalas has chef Glenys Morgan planning a Bollywood night: Patak’s, The Curry Queen or Asian Home Gourmet?

Tikka Masala - C. Phaisalakani Read more

Alda Pereira

Shop With Alda Pereira, Designer Of The Year

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Frugalbits goes shopping with Alda Pereira, western Canada’s 2010 interior designer of the year.

Alda PereiraAlready considered one of Canada’s top interior designers with many awards and plenty of ink in glossy publications to her credit, Alda Pereira added another feather to her cap last month when a jury of her peers recognized her as Western Living magazine’s 2010 interior designer of the year.

While her private residential projects and multi-unit development interiors are always a delight to the eye, Pereira is no “shrinking wallflower looking to please multitudes,” commented Western Living editor Anicka Quin, who appreciates Pereira’s “knack for pairing the unusual with the well tailored.”

We love Pereira’s talent too—and her personality, which despite her early and prolonged success, is refreshingly unaffected. Pereira admits she loves to shop “Unabashedly. Period,” she says, “especially window-shopping. Did I mention that it’s free?” Here she shares a few of her favourite haunts. Read more

Lacy Cheddar Crisps

Easy Appie #1: Pamela Anderson’s Yummy Cheddar Crisps

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With fall parties on the horizon, here’s Pamela Anderson’s slam-dunk one-ingredient appetizer made in less than 10 minutes. Flat.

Lacy Cheddar CrispsENTERTAIN SMART | Fall is easily the appie (est) time of the year. With house parties and holiday mixers to attend and/or throw, who isn’t on the lookout for easy hors d’oeuvres for hostess gifts or to serve to guests? My rule for homemade appetizers is that they need to be seriously tasty, gorgeous to look at and made in 10 minutes or less. Pamela Anderson’s (not that Pamela Anderson) lacy cheddar crisps will not disappoint. Read more

Dijon style mustards

One Of These Mustards Is Not Like The Others

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Which of these Dijons cuts the mustard with chef Glenys Morgan: French’s, President’s Choice or Western Family?

Dijon style mustards Read more

Robert Belcham, Executive Chef, Refuel Restuarant, Vancouver, B.C.

Chef Robert Belcham Dines, Shops, Splashes

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Dine out, walk, shop and splash with uber chef Robert Belcham of the illustrious Campagnolo and refuel restaurants.

Robert Belcham, Executive Chef, Refuel Restuarant, Vancouver, B.C.Spending the frigid Saturday afternoons of his childhood in Edmonton and Peace River eating fresh-from-the-oven cookies and watching PBS cooking programs, chef Robert Belcham was interested in cooking from a young age.

Starting out as a line cook at Rebar, an innovative vegetarian restaurant in Victoria, followed by as stint at The Aerie Resort on Vancouver Island, Robert eventually received a call from star chef Thomas Keller, offering him a chef de partie position at his famous Yountville restaurant, The French Laundry. He then became a private chef in the Silicon Valley, where, he says, “I became much more aware of what the guests feel, what they want and what they need. I know I’m a better chef because of it.” Read more

Cookbook: Cooking at Home with a Four Star Chef

It’s Hip To Cook Retro With Vintage Cookbooks

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It’s fashionable to cook retro right now, and to do it using old recipes from outdated cookbooks.

 

Cookbook: Cooking at Home with a Four Star ChefFOOD FOR THOUGHT Blame it on Julie & Julia (both the book and the movie) if you want to, but it’s fashionable to cook retro right now. Who could have guessed that when New Yorker Julie Powell spent 365 days in the early oughties cooking every dish from Julia Child’s 1961 classic, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking (volume one), that both her book and Child’s classic would reach the top ranks of The New York Times bestsellers list—and that curious cooks across North America would take a new interest in making old dishes from recipes found in outdated cookbooks? Read more