Where do chefs take their inspirations from for creating holiday meals and treats? The Gazette asked a St. Albert cook, a baker and a caterer to spill the beans.
The cook
Pickled fish has always been a favourite of Tony Krause's. He grew up with the dish, popular in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Now he serves it to his guests at Privada Wine & Tapas.
But tapping into traditional recipes is not only a passion for the professional cook. It also helps to spice up the menu, he says.
"We are just trying to use things that are traditional and things that other people aren't doing, forgotten techniques," he says.
For his new year's dish, Krause is recreating the last dinner served in the Titanic's first-class restaurant. The 11-course feast came to him by chance, while researching recipes online.
He has wanted to cook the dishes for nearly four years but the opportunity only now presented itself, he says.
Part of the dinner consists of a heavy pheasant breast while another dish is a filet mignon, with seared fois gras, truffles, cognac and scalloped potatoes. Krause decided to put a spin on the meal though, now serving potato chips instead.
"We will make it a little easier to eat," he laughs. "An 11-course meal is a lot of food."
Other traditions kept alive at the restaurant are different ways of pickling and salting fruit, to be served later in the year as a garnish for desserts. They also ferment a lot of fruit and vegetable that are ripe in the summer, which then lasts them long into the winter, he says.
But some inspirations simply come from what's trending in food right now, such as Scandinavian dishes, he admits. Here's where the pickled fish is fitting.
"It's a little bit of everything," he says. "Most of my inspirations come from working at a lot of different restaurants. As a cook or a chef, you have to know how to make a lot of different styles."
The baker
Europeans like lemon juice in their cookies. So why wouldn't Canadians?
When Martin Hooimeyer arrived in Canada he brought the taste of Netherland's lemon-spiced cookies with him. The family business, Grandin Bakery, has since recreated traditional Dutch recipes every Christmas, says daughter-in-law Michelle Hooimeyer.
"The recipes come from everywhere. Some of them come from Holland and some of them, they have been fine-tuned over the years," she says.
Some Dutch favourites include gingerbread cookies and two different kinds of shortbread sold at the store, one dipped in chocolate and one with a cherry in the middle.
Hooimeyer says the family has baked a crispier version of the shortbread for years, but her husband Marcel and his brother Bruce came up with a softer version that "just melts in the mouth."
The bakery also sells Krentebrood, a traditional Dutch Christmas bread (similar to German Stollen) made of raisins and currant. The bread is available on custom-order throughout the year and they sell it in the store on Christmas, she says.
But the bakery also integrates more modern tastes into their selection, such as sugar cookies with icing or butter tarts.
"A good portion of our recipes are still very traditional and Martin, he started baking when he was 15," she says. "He's in his 70s now so he's been doing it for a long time."
The caterer
Brie tartlets with cranberry chutney, sweet potato cakes with black bean salsa, spicy pumpkin hummus… Sylvia Mickaniuk just makes up recipes on the spot, based on her sense of taste, smell and years of experience in the kitchen.
The owner of Up-Town Catering also sells hors d'oeuvres that are more traditional and less adventurous, such as mini pulled pork sliders or salami and gouda platters. But why not try something new once in a while, she says.
Growing up, Mickaniuk tasted many foods from different nationalities, including Dutch and German dishes. To this day, she likes to incorporate those influences into her cooking.
If it works, she puts it on the menu. If it doesn't, she changes the recipe or it goes to the garbage, she laughs.
"There are set menus on my website. But I also like making up something different because people like different things," she says. "It's a passion and a love and it's fun."
