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TASTE CANADA GLOBALLY INSPIRED. LOCALLY CRAFTED. RECIPES FROM SOME OF CANADA’S BEST NEW RESTAURANTS TASTE CANADA 1 PRESENTED BY 30 restaurants, 30 days, 1 food critic. Stay tuned for the top 10 list coming in November. CanadasBestNewRestaurants.com PHOTO: ALANNA HALE (AVENUE IN REGINA) CELEBRATE RECIPES FROM CANADA'S BEST PRESENTED BY NEW RESTAURANTS Get access to Canada’s best and most renowned restaurants from coast to coast with American Express. TABLE OF CONTENTS With dining events that push boundaries and create inventive and unforgettable dining experiences, it’s 1 Introduction just another way American Express has your back. 2 Pearl Morissette 30 restaurants, 8 Vin Mon Lapin American Express is proud to bring you a collection 10 Elena of beautiful dishes from the most esteemed new 12 St. Lawrence 30 days, restaurants in the country from Air Canada's 2018 14 Giulietta list of Canada’s Best New Restaurants. Try your hand 16 Aloette 1 food critic. at recipes that range from simple to moderately 20 Avenue challenging and use ingredients that will no doubt 22 Bündok open your eyes and elevate your taste buds. 24 Sand and Pearl Stay tuned for the 26 The Courtney Room top 10 list coming Recipe Photography: Jesse Milns in November. CanadasBestNewRestaurants.com 2018 LISTING 1. PEARL MORISSETTE, JORDAN STATION, ON 6. ALOETTE, TORONTO, ON 2. VIN MON LAPIN, MONTRÉAL, QC 7. AVENUE, REGINA, SK 3. ELENA, MONTRÉAL, QC 8. BÜNDOK, EDMONTON, AB 4. ST. LAWRENCE, VANCOUVER, BC 9. SAND AND PEARL, PICTON, ON 5. GIULIETTA, TORONTO, ON 10. THE COURTNEY ROOM, VICTORIA, BC PHOTO: ALANNA HALE (AVENUE IN REGINA) TASTE CANADA 1 RANKED 1 ST THE RESTAURANT AT PEARL MORISSETTE IN CONVERSATION WITH THE RESTAURANT AT PEARL MORISSETTE, CANADA’S BEST NEW RESTAURANT Chefs Daniel Hadida and Eric Robertson invited us to and meats are available and from there we match them their restaurant one morning as they prepped for dinner up,” Robertson says. Daniel Hadida adds: “It’s pretty service. Nestled in the middle of Ontario’s Niagara wine much an hour conversation between the two of us, region, this secluded gem is sure to delight your senses. where we both discuss and plan a dish or dishes then Look for the small clues that you are on the right track we’ll dive into breaking down what makes sense for the to the restaurant, like the statue of a red cardinal on a menu. “We’ve built more trust and more understanding street post. From there emerges the sleek modern black of each other’s perspective, so that it tends to really barn. As you look up and see the lights shining atop this flow with who’s coming up with what.” That magical great (and beautiful) structure, you also see the bustle ‘what’ is the hard part. It means coming up with the kinds of people moving, and you ask yourself is this the right of dishes that skyrocketed the restaurant to astounding place? It has to be, right? It is. acclaim in its first full year, including the number one spot on Air Canada’s list of Canada's Best New We sat down for a candid discussion about just what Restaurants for 2018. makes this place tick, what drives the culinary vision, and what makes The Restaurant at Pearl Morissette Daniel and Eric’s relationship started years ago, so unique. Our conversation started with a behind-the- within a small network of expats that were working in scenes tour of the many elements of the restaurant restaurants across Europe. Fast forward to the two that make this place a destination. We toured the chefs reconnecting in Jordan, the heart of Niagara’s immaculate kitchen and dining room, where no detail wine country, when Daniel was offered the creative has been forgotten. The farmhouse, adjacent to the freedom to construct the menu and theme of what restaurant, is filled with beautiful foraged herbs pickled is now The Restaurant at Pearl Morissette. Their and preserved veggies just waiting to be incorporated professional relationship has been credited as a into the everchanging menu. One of the benefits is the key to the restaurant’s success. proximity to the award-winning winery, Pearl Morissette. Although a shared property, the restaurant and winery They approach their collaborative dishes as expressions are different entities that share a symbiotic relationship. that live within a certain span of time. “If you ask me what’s the best dish we’ve done in the last couple of Chef Eric Robertson starts our conversation by stating weeks, never mind the last year, I have no idea. "It’s kind the importance of the producers: the farmers, the of fluid,” says Eric. “But then we’ve had a lot of variations fisherman, the foragers. These producers are the most of the small tart that’s been on the menu for the last important part of the restaurant, as the ever-evolving little while. It started as a cheese tart, then it was a season of ingredients change, our menu matches that potato tart and now it is something else. The flavours are cadence. “We know a week in advance what produce completely different, we execute it completely different, TASTE CANADA 3 Photo: Lorne Bridgman Lorne Photo: everything is completely different except for the fact in the ethos that is the restaurant. She is the estaurant’s that it’s a crispy thing that you can pick up and savour forager and source of local inspiration that helps shape in your mouth. I guess there’s an element of evolution and season the dishes on the everchanging menu. to that, certainly. We think about the way things play Foraged ingredients have major influences on the out in a menu.” dishes, and there is something of an eye opener for everyone who looks down on their plate to discover With respect to their ingredients, the chefs don’t stick a little unfamiliar, yet locally procured morsel. to a hyper-local philosophy. “It’s about working with the best ingredients Canada has to Once you get hooked by the foraging offer. Let’s encourage people who bug, Eric suggests, you start to see are authentically trying to achieve the possibilities everywhere. Take “It’s about working with the best possible things and let’s pine, for example. Daniel notes: “You the best ingredients encourage them by working with can make a pine tea and that’s pretty Canada has to offer. their product. That’s our mentality.” simple, but there’s also chamomile Let’s encourage people and pineapple weed, and all sorts who are authentically “Within the Canadian spectrum, of mustards, which grows all over trying to achieve the though, because I think it’s important the place. I would suggest, however, best possible things to have a sense of place. We’re not that people educate themselves and let’s encourage standing on the roof screaming that [before foraging] and then make a them by working with everyone should only be buying decision about how they’d like to their product. That’s produce from their local farmer, move forward.” our mentality.” because we buy stuff from Tillsonburg, British Columbia or Norfolk county, “The point is, there are things all where Eric’s family’s from. Great around us. And once you gain an farmers have a passion about what understanding, it’s like seeing they’re doing. Great producers have a passion through the matrix,” Daniel says. Using less mainstream about what they’re doing. We’re happy to use ingredients makes their dishes unique and cemented their products” states Daniel. in the place from which they come. However, this also makes these dishes less attainable for the home Back in the richly bio-diverse Niagara Peninsula, the chef. This is something Daniel and Eric are wonderfully chefs rely on the skills of Deirdre Fraser, a key element unapologetic about. Their dishes are based in a process, painstakingly so. Some specially preserved ingredients take months to come to fruition. To recreate any of the dishes at home wouldn’t really be possible. As unattainable as some of their dishes appear, guests are encouraged to come in and put their trust in the chefs’ hands. For the diner, the journey may have started en route to Jordan, but it’s only beginning once you walk up the minimalist staircase of that big black beautifully designed barn. The ideology at The Restaurant at Pearl Morissette is thought-provoking; food needn’t be intimidating. “We’re extremely warm to people and we provide a really open perspective. Basically, let us know what we can do for you; let us know how we can help you out, We’d be very excited to have you here as a guest. Also, as a non- gratuity restaurant, we’re lucky to have a staff that’s really supportive and contributes to a really positive culture. I think that’s an immensely important thing,” QUICK TIP ON PICKLING CUCUMBERS says Daniel. (OR ANY VEGETABLE) The Restaurant at Pearl Morissette In a mason jar, add mini cucumbers, three parts 3953 Jordan Rd, Jordan Station, ON water, two parts vinegar, and one part sugar. pearlmorissette.com/therestaurant “It’s just a nice sweet pickle for use right away. While the liquid is warm, pour it over anything that excites you, any sort of vegetable.” Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes, then serve. TASTE CANADA 5 DON’T MAKE WAVES WITHOUT IT. Travel wherever, whenever, however you want. Another way that American Express has your back.

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