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Northern Delight
Welcome to Canada’s new culinary capital.
Preparing to host the winter’s biggest sporting extravaganza can stir up a mighty hunger. Lucky for Vancouver, a sudden influx of celebrity chefs is pushing the city into the culinary spotlight (to the chagrin of Canada’s first city, Toronto). New York chef Daniel Boulud recently unveiled plans to open his second DB Bistro Moderne in Vancouver, while, not to be outdone, superchef Jean-Georges Vongerichten has also now entered the fray: the next outpost of his global empire of Thai-French eateries is set to open in the new Shangri-La Hotel in January. And as the pair of French Manhattanites battle for supremacy, Gordon Ramsay — originally considered a lock for the Shangri-La spot — now looks primed to sneak into the kitchen at Holt Renfrew’s forthcoming restaurant, opening next spring.
Canucks and visitors who are unfazed by star power might instead follow their conscience in Canada’s third city, which also happens to be the nation’s healthiest: Vancouver ranks sustainable eating a top priority, and hotels are now listening. With its veritable monopoly on the area (and a sixth hotel in the works), Fairmont is taking the lead. Despite its unlikely location, Globe@YVR at the Fairmont Vancouver Airport recently became the first hotel restaurant to earn a nod from aquatic conservationists Ocean Wise for a full menu of sustainable fish (a hot-button issue with Northwest salmon now on amber alert).
Across town, the Fairmont Waterfront boasts one of Vancouver’s first green roofs (pictured), where chefs now gather seasonal produce — for the plates at Heron’s Restaurant, three floors below. And even the most militant localvore would approve of the eats that Waterfront doesn’t grow: globorati recently got to spend a day with restaurant head (and Iron Chef victor) Wayne Harris, who routinely gathers asparagus, rhubarb and French sorrel at nearby family-operated Hazelmere Organics. Enlightened or just common sense? Perhaps both, when you consider that one of the hotel’s rivals has started to actively encourage its guests to burn more gasoline.
