Win Tickets to Tastes of CCFCC Canada

There is some exciting business going down today, if you're on your toes. Cassandra Anderton of Good Life Vancouver is offering interested foodies the chance to attend the highly anticipated, and sure to be incredible, Tastes of CCFCC Canada held this June. Respond to her tweet @goodlifevan with your favourite Canadian food and beverage pairing to be entered to win two coveted tickets to the event.

Event Info:

$140.00 value

Saturday June 12, 2011
5:00 - 10:00 pm

Renaissance Hotel Harbourside,
1130 West Hastings Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 3T3

http://tastesccfcc-eorg.eventbrite.com/

Montgomery Lau representing BC for title of Canada Chef of the Year

Montgomery Lau has come a long way from shopping in the local fresh foods markets in Hong Kong with his mother to representing BC and contending for the title of Canada’s Chef of the Year at this year’s National Chefs’ Conference.

Lau grew up in Hong Kong, where weekly dim sum outings made up a huge part of his childhood memories. The appreciation for food was a regular part of his life. He still remembers the live fish and chickens from the local produce markets he used to visit with his mother.

Lau later moved to Vancouver and grew up around the diversity that the city has to offer. This exposed him to foods from around the world. He started cooking at home, where his interest in the culinary arts peaked. You could often find him hanging out in the family kitchen.

Montgomery decided to turn his passion into a career and enrolled at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. This led him to working under Chef Jean Yves Benoit at his first culinary job at French restaurant L’Emotion. He then did six years at the Diva at the Met, working with some of the best chefs in the city. He worked every station at the hotel and eventually worked his way up to Sous Chef.

Lau joined the opening team for the Market by Jean George at the Shangri-La Hotel after completing his apprenticeship. While preparing for the Winter Olympics of 2010, Executive Chef Hamid Salimian recruited him for the opening of the new Westin Wall Centre at the Vancouver Airport.

Today, Lau is an Executive Sous Chef at the Apron restaurant at the Westin Wall Centre hotel. His restaurant has adopted the philosophy to use sustainable and local produce. They often push the boundary on modern cooking techniques.

Montgomery Lau’s success and passion for quality food and contemporary cooking has led him to winning the Roasted black box competition two years in a row. This year, he earned the prestigious title of BC Chef of the Year.

Lau will be taking his well-earned title to the next level by competing for the title of Canada Chef of the Year at this year’s National Chefs’ Conference in his hometown Vancouver.

To find out how you can watch Lau represent BC at the competition, visit www.ccfcc2011.ca or the Facebook fanpage 2011 National Chefs’ Conference.

Meet Some New Team Members!

We've had a number of new members added to the CCFCC 2011 National Conference Team in recent weeks, here are two of them: 

Eva Zhu is a Marketing and Communications graduate from Simon Fraser University with experience in the communications field. She will be working alongside the Contents Manager to manage social media and produce content for publicity.    





 

Camille Woloch is the awards manager for the CCFCC 2011 National Conference. She is excited and honored to be taking part in the conference. Her responsibility will be “to organize the competition so that everyone present will know all about our competing chefs, so we can all celebrate in one another's past and present victories as chefs and foodies alike!”        

Welcome to the team Mandy, Eva, and Camille! We all look forward to working with you.

Wes Erikson and Aero Trading Co.: CCFCC 2011 Sponsors

Wes Erikson’s family has been in the commercial fishing industry for a long time, four generations to be exact. Today, he has an active career as both fisherman and chef.

Wes has been involved in fisheries advisory processes for more than two decades, and cooking for longer than that. Growing up cooking on his father’s boat, and later training under renowned chefs, Wes realized his passion for food and food preparation early in life.

Today, Wes gets the best of both worlds. He has owned and operated seafood restaurants for the past 15 years, and been able to supply much of the seafood he serves from his own fishing boat and from local fishermen who share his commitment to quality.

At the CCFCC 2011 National Conference this year, Wes will be donating halibut on behalf of the BC Halibut Fishery with the help of Aero Trading Co., a processing company that will handle the halibut. We look forward to what he brings to the table!

Pacific Provider Salmon: CCFCC 2011 Sponsor

The Pacific Provider is a 43-foot fishing boat, owned and operated by a North Vancouver fishing family and their staff. Between late spring and early fall each year, the Pacific Provider travels through the cold, clean waters around the Queen Charlotte Islands in search of the best catch, using only the most sustainable fishing methods.

Pacific Provider is Ocean Wise Certified, and devoted to small scale production of only the highest quality products. Sustainable fishing means trolling with a barbless hook and line designed specifically for Coho Salmon, eliminating the risk of endangering other fish, birds, and marine mammals. The trolling method also eliminates the risk of damaging the ocean floor. Pacific Provider’s fish are processed at sea: gutted, cleaned and flash frozen in a glaze of clean ocean water to ensure that the fish will remain at the peak of freshness until they arrive on consumers’ tables.

The result of Pacific Provider’s careful attention to detail is some of the best salmon out there—BC Coho Salmon that is rich, full-flavoured, firm, and lower in saturated fat and cholesterol than many other varieties of salmon.

The CCFCC would like to thank Pacific Provider for sharing their product at the National Conference in Vancouver this year!

BC Tree Fruits: CCFCC 2011 Sponsor

BC’s Okanagan Valley boasts some of the best tree-fruit growing conditions found anywhere in the world, and hence some of the most amazing apples, pears, cherries, apricots, peaches, prune plums and nectarines available to consumers.

BC Tree Fruits is a part of the Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative, owned by more than 800 local grower families and dedicated to local, natural, and sustainable farming. They have been arranging for the promotion, packing, and transportation of their members’ produce since the good ol’ days back in 1936.

The history of orchards in the Okanagan Valley goes back nearly a century and a half, but the innovations employed by growers with BC Tree Fruits are cutting edge. The result is perfectly ripened, perfectly healthy fruit. Like their motto says, BC Tree Fruits are “way more than delicious.”

The BC Tree Fruits website provides a handy collection of harvest charts detailing when their products are in season, so you’ll be sure to have only the freshest and most amazing fruit on your table. Next time you’re at the produce market, be sure to check out BC Tree Fruits’ Ambrosia apple, a discovered in BC variety.

The CCFCC is grateful to BC Tree Fruits for providing BC brand apples, delicious and nutritious, at the 2011 National Conference this June!

Cioffi’s Meat Market and Deli: CCFCC 2011 Sponsor

From their (almost neighbouring) locations at 4156 and 4142 East Hastings Street in Burnaby, Cioffi’s has been serving up local and European goods of incomparable quality since they first opened their doors more than two decades ago.

Plan a trip to their deli, and you won’t be disappointed with their generous and fresh selection of cheeses, deli meats, olives, antipasti, dried and fresh pasta, and aisles of grocery products. For those on the run, Cioffi’s also offers a number of finger-licking Italian meals to go.

Two stores over at their meat market, savvy shoppers will be impressed by an extensive collection of meats cut fresh to order and 15 different kinds of homemade sausage.

Cioffi’s Meat Market and Deli offers great products, great prices, and a level of customer service you rarely see these days. Drop bye some time and you won’t be disappointed.

Cioffi’s motto is Mangia Bene, Vive Bene, “Eat Well, Live Well,” and we couldn’t agree more with the sentiment.