What is your favorite item on your menu?
Rabbit 3 -ways; Braised Hind Leg, Confit Foreleg & Pork Belly Stuffed Loin on Wild mushroom smashed potatoes with Roasted Carrots

What is the one Taste of Nova Scotia product that you can’t live without?
Propeller Root Beer

What is your favorite kitchen “tool” or gadget? 
Nice pair of tongs

What is the best thing about being a chef ?
The best thing about being a chef is for one, the food itself, using quality ingredients & mastering technique, making dishes that make your customers say “wow”, and secondly, the fast-paced life of the kitchen, having a brigade behind you putting out great food and loving doing it.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Kraft Dinner Spirals

Aside from your own restaurant, what other Taste restaurant to you frequent?
Chive’s Bistro

What is your ultimate comfort food?
Pork Ribs and mashed potatoes

Why do you, or why is it important to support local?
It is important to support local food because it supports local farmers, we are giving back to whats near to us. Keeping things fresh and seasonal and highlighting the great aspects of Nova Scotia’s sustainable agriculture

Have you cooked for any celebrities?
Worked for Chef Michael Lyon at The Wood Steakhouse in Canmore, Alberta

SOLD OUT
Sip ‘n Shuck your way through one of the best food events in Nova Scotia. Taste our local aquaculture products prepared in standard, not so standard, and unimaginably delicious ways – paired with our award-winning Nova Scotia wines. Get ready to treat your taste buds to a Nova Scotia kitchen party.

Learn how to shuck an oyster, get wine pairing tips from a sommelier and enjoy live entertainment!

Date: Friday, January 27, 2012
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Location: Delta Halifax, Baronet Ballroom
Cost: $40+HST/ticket
For more information and to buy tickets: Call the Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia (AANS) at (902)422-6234 or aans@eastlink.ca.

Presented by: AANS, Delta Barrington & Halifax, Discovermussels.com, Nova Scotia department of Fisheries and Aquaculture and Wines of Nova Scotia

An Exclusive Dining Experience: Governors Pub & Eatery in Sydney, Cape Breton, will be hosting a wine club event on Saturday, January 28.

Discover how wine-pairing enhances your dining experience and understand how different foods and flavours can bring out the best in a wine – and your food. The evening will include a five-course dinner prepared by executive chef Ardon Mofford and Nova Scotia wines from Domaine de Grand Pre and Jost Vineyards presented by Harvest Wines sommelier Jonathan Wilson. Click here for reservation information and the menu.

The 2012 festival marks the fifth annual  Nova Scotia Winter Icewine Festival. Between February 2-12, celebrate Nova Scotia’s internationally award-winning Icewines. Sample Icewine paired with local cuisine, learn how Icewine is made, try your hand at pruning or book a Winter Icewine Experience Getaway. Nova Scotia winemakers and some of the province’s finest chefs come together to celebrate their passion for local food and wine during the Winter Icewine Festival.

With over 40 events taking place over 10 days – there is something for everyone!

Visit www.nsicewinefestival.ca to learn more.

What is your favourite item on your menu?
Always something that features Nova Scotia Pork. It is so versatile and underrated.

What is the best thing about being a chef?
The lifestyle.  Each day allows a new experience.  Never a set routine.

What is the one Taste of Nova Scotia product that you can’t live without?
Smeltzer’s Honey…..I use it everywhere.

Why is it important to support local businesses?
I grew up in rural New Brunswick and we always were mostly self-supported. The freshness and quality differs greatly from imported products from foreign countries.  Also the environmental impact of trucking and shipping comes into question.  Bottom line, support your local communities!

What is your guilty pleasure?
I’m a sucker for a good ‘ol steamed hot dog.  Anything from the “secondary cuts”, the unmentionable bits….sweetbreads, fois gras, tripe, etc.

What is your favourite kitchen “tool” or gadget?
My sous chef(s)

What is your ultimate comfort food?
Turkey Tetrazzini with leftovers….my mother in law’s dish that I adopted….Thanks Elaine!

What is a piece of advice you have for home chefs?
Don’t over complicate meals.  Keep it simple

What is the best meal you have ever had?
Classic steak tartar and pommes frites at L’Express in Montreal.   

Any other info you would like to share about cooking?
For those out there entertaining the thought of becoming a chef, please walk into the industry and view it as a lifestyle and not as a job. There is a whole world out there to see and everywhere in this world needs cooks…..Get out there and experience it for yourself.

For more information about how you can volunteer with Feed Nova Scotia click here.

Domaine de Grand Pré winemaker, Jürg Stutz, has created a special edition red wine from the Cabernet Foch grape. Every detail of this wine is carefully crafted to produce a distinctive full-bodied red wine experience.

Don’t miss your chance to add this wine to your collection. The Cabernet Foch has excellent cellaring potential and also shows great character now after 11 months in oak barrels. It will sell for $34.50.

Swiss grape breeder Valentin Blattner created this new variety by crossing the world renowned Cabernet Sauvignon with the winter hardy and disease resistant Maréchal Foch. This new grape variety has been grown in Nova Scotia since 2004 and appears very promising for our grape growing region. It ripens around the same time as Maréchal Foch and produces small, loose clusters.

Food pairing
This full-bodied red wine is a perfect accompaniment to grilled meats and spicy pasta dishes

Release dates at select locations

Corks were popping in Nova Scotia when L’Acadie Vineyards heard the news that their pride and joy Prestige Brut was the only entry from North America to win a medal in the 9th international competition of the world’s best sparkling wines. Effervescents du Monde® was held from November 16 to 18 at the Lycée Le Castel Culinary School in Dijon, France.

More than 550 sparkling wines from twenty four countries were evaluated by a panel of 100 judges. Rigorous selection of the panel of expert judges was based on experience, diversity of backgrounds, professionalism, determination of their sensorial profile, and training in tasting methodology.

This international acclaim for L’Acadie Vineyards’ 2007 Prestige Brut adds to the glowing reviews and a total of seven awards, which include a Gold Medal and Top Scoring Sparkling at the 2010 Canadian Wine Awards. Prestige Brut is available at selected NSLC outlets, fine wine retailers, Wolfville Farmers’ Market, and directly from the Winery.

Le Caveau Restaurant at Domaine de Grand Pre Winery has been named one of the top 20 World’s Best Winery Restaurants by Wine Acess Magazine. It is the only Nova Scotia restaurant and one of six Canadian wineries to be recognized. The top 20 list features winery restaurants from around the world including Australia, Chile, Italy, South Africa and Spain.

“It means not only is the Nova Scotia wine industry getting to a point where it’s getting recognition across the country and North America for the product it’s producing, but the food that we’re producing in Nova Scotia is being recognized on that level, too,” said Jason Lynch, executive chef at Le Caveau. “I’ll just keep doing what I’ve been doing in Nova Scotia for years, showcasing all the products that we have around us. It’s the quality of the products that’s shaped where Nova Scotia cuisine has gone in the past few years.”*

Check out what they have on the menu that put Le Caveau in the top 20.

*quote is from Chronicle Herald article

Chef: Earlene Busch
Restaurant: Chanterelle Country Inn, Baddeck

What is your favourite item on your menu?
Neil’s Harbour halibut

What is the best thing about being a chef and/or owning your own restaurant?
Gratification from guests who appreciate the flavours of locally-sourced food and wine.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Sunflower seeds

What is the one Taste of Nova Scotia product that you can’t live without?
Jost Icewine

Aside from your own restaurant, what other Taste restaurant to you frequent?
Chives, Fid Resto, Stories at the Halliburton

What is your ultimate comfort food?
Steak

Why do you, or why is it important to support local?
Flavour, authenticity, and reduction of food miles.

What is a piece of advice you have for home chefs?  
Find and use as much local ingredients as you can find.

What is the best meal you have ever had?
My mother’s fried chicken served out of the trunk of a car in the middle of a wheat field, surrounded
by the harvesting crew.

Have you cooked for any celebrities?
The Honourable Mayann Francis

Any other info you would like to share?  
My observation is that one of the best kept secrets is the amazing quality and variety of food items found in Nova Scotia. Why is lamb imported from New Zealand, apples from Chile, garlic from China, for openers.