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CHRIS DAGENAIS Contributing writer

It is a brave new world of dining out there.

Last month, reports circulated of a U.S.

restaurant that was incentivizing its

patrons to leave the most critical, vitriolic

comments they could fathom on Yelp, the

crowd-sourced business review site. The

initiative proactively plummeted the venue’s

aggregated ratings through the floor. The

restaurant did it to protest what it alleged to

be Yelp’s practice of bolstering the rankings

of paid advertisers.

Earlier this year, a North Shore restaurant

found itself at the centre of a social media

frenzy over a dispute about correct change.

The purported short-change victim alleged

fraud, which spawned an angry online mob

to post hateful commentary about the

restaurant and its staff on every message

board available, often via anonymous user

profiles registered thousands of miles away.

Some of the posts even advocated violence

against the ownership.

I have said it before but I will say it again:

the restaurant business is a tough racket,

especially in light of this new age of instant,

shareable judgment.

I recently reached out to a good friend of

mine who has built a very successful career

in restaurants to see what he had to say

about the modern climate of dining and to

explain what keeps him in the game.

Chef Ben Kiely is an English expatriate with

an encyclopedic knowledge of world cuisine

who worked in some of Europe’s finest

kitchens and in many popular Vancouver

rooms before settling into a position as a

chef instructor and restaurant chef at the

esteemed Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. In

addition to 20 years in professional kitchens

and a Red Seal chef designation, Kiely’s

insatiable thirst for learning has prompted

him to obtain specialized certifications in

butchery, baking and pastry.

Chris Dagenais: Ben, why do you do what

you do?

Ben Kiely: It’s

what I love and

it’s what I know.

I feel inspired by

the potential of this

city. Vancouver’s

dining scene is still

a work-in-progress,

it’s evolving, and I

want to be part of

that evolution.

CD: In what way is

our scene evolving?

BK: We have some of the top raw

ingredients in the world; we really are

spoiled with abundance. On the other hand,

we tend to run before we walk. We are a

young city and we are still trying to find our

identity. We struggle sometimes because we

see cuisine from other cities and we rush to

put out food that looks like their food. But

the truth is, their cuisine has years more

history, years of trial and error. We need to

establish our own basics, define our own

roots instead of trying to emulate another

accomplished cuisine.

CD: What’s holding us back from doing that,

do you think?

BK: There are lots of reasons, but one

explanation might be that we make it very

difficult for independent restaurants, the

little rooms with the passionate, creative

chefs, to succeed. But we have a thriving

corporate restaurant scene, where the

food is standardized and tries to appeal to

absolutely everyone.

The food is well prepared, but it’s usually

quite safe and deliberately middle-of-the-

road. Those big corporate rooms are always

jam-packed. They are defining a style of

cuisine that is more about mass appeal than

anything else. And these are the restaurants

that are reaching the biggest audience.

See Online page 23

Discussing dining

!$"#" #'&$"%#!

Ben Kiely

A20 - North Shore News - Sunday, October 26, 2014

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In recent years, micro-breweries

have started popping up seemingly

everywhere.

One of the most recent additions to the

North Shore is Black Kettle Brewing,

which was started by a few close friends

who had been fermenting beer in their

kitchens for years as a pastime.

“I read a lot of books,” says head brewer

Phil Vandenborre about how he started

brewing as a hobby. “I talked to a lot of

brewers.”

Vandenborre was a chef when he first

started combining the rich ingredients

and then fermenting them for weeks in

his house as a hobby.

“It’s two different worlds completely, for

sure,” he says, comparing being a chef to

a brewer. “I was home-brewing while I

was cooking. It seemed like another fun

thing to get into.”

His experience as a chef, especially

exploring the right combinations of fresh

ingredients, lent itself to brewing.

“It’s about learning your system,” he says,

noting that all kitchens are different. “It’s

about learning the equipment and I think

that was one of the big challenges for

me.”

Vandenborre says the rise in popularity

of craft breweries is due to a

combination of a supportive community

of brewers, and people wanting to know

more about what they consume.

“There’s a lot more knowledge out

there about food in general, health in

general, flavours and trying new things.

And I think we’re seeing the same thing

in the craft beer industry right now

where (there are) amazing flavours out

there.”

He explains that the process begins with

grains that are seeped in hot water to

extract the sugars. Then the liquid gets

transferred into a bowl kettle where

all the flavours are added. The length

of time it spends in there depends on

the style of beer being brewed. Then

yeast is added, which eats up the sugars

and eventually creates the alcohol. This

ferments for approximately a week.

Finally, the brew gets transferred into a

different tank where it’s conditioned and

then carbonated.

“That’s really what craft brewing is,”

says Vandenborre. “Your own hand,

your own style, your own take on it.

There’s definitely a way of doing things

Head brewer started as hobbyistproperly, but you can take that and you can have your take on

different styles.”

Phil Vandenborre is the head brewer at Black

Kettle Brewing in North Vancouver. He is

also a chef and started brewing as a hobby.

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Steven Hodge didn’t know he wanted to be

a chef but wasn’t surprised when he figured

it out.

Growing up in Dundarave, he loved

cooking at home but it wasn’t a career he

considered. Instead, he graduated from

university with a bachelor of arts in business

administration, but didn’t find any jobs in that

field that appealed to him.

He was sitting on his couch watching TV

trying to figure out what to do when he

thought maybe he should be a

cook, so enrolled in culinary

school.

About a year and a half

into the culinary program,

he was reviewing a

portfolio of pastry photos

with another chef and

asked about some of the

examples in the book. The

other chef informed him that

“they don’t touch that (pastry)”

because it’s for the elite of the

chefs.

“And as soon as he said that, it was a

challenge, and I love being challenged,”

recalls Hodge.

So he went into the pastry part of the

program and loved it. After graduating

from the program, he completed his

apprenticeship in California, and moved

back to Vancouver where he worked as

an executive pastry chef then later moved

with his wife to London, and worked in

some world-renowned restaurants before

returning to the North Shore. Back at home,

Hodge worked alongside well-known local

pastry chef Thomas Haas. After four years

with Haas, Hodge decided to step out on his

own and opened Temper Pastry in January.

“I had worked for a lot of chefs,

and you can always continue

learning, but I woke up and

it was time,” says Hodge

about his decision to open

his own store.

Hodge says he looked

around for a good

location, but settled on

Dundarave because he

wanted to set up shop in a

community atmosphere.

“Now I always say, ‘Work is play

time and going home is actually work for me

now,’” says Hodge. “It’s like a kid building

Lego all day long.”

Although he and his team do try to create

new products, classic pastry recipes are

always what they start with.

“There are so many chefs out there trying

to push the boundaries with new techniques

and ideas and flavours, but they all come

from basic recipes that were created for

pastries,” he explains. “You build off of a

beginning step, and the guys that laid the

path for pastry chefs now, they’re the guys

that deserve all the credit because we’ve just

built off of it.”

A lot of chefs get carried away with crazy

flavours and crazy techniques, notes Hodge.

“It’s fun and it’s awesome to say I tried it

or it’s awesome to say I ate it, (but) I think

at the end of the day people still like the

simplicity of things.”

For him, that means good flavours and good

textures. At the shop, Hodge enjoys working

with chocolate, such as creating ganaches,

but his favourite thing to do is to make

croissants.

“I love making dough. For me, I’m in my

own little area, in my own little world, and

you start thinking about things and you

relax.”

It’s not a surprise that Hodge has a sweet

tooth. “I do have a sweet tooth. I love

sweets,” he admits.

But he doesn’t make pastry at home, and his

snack of choice is a bit less high-end.

“My favourite thing to eat when I go home

is I eat ice cream with Reece’s pieces or

Smarties,” he reports with a laugh.

Owner and pastry chef Steven Hodge works in

the Temper Pastry kitchen in West Vancouver.

Chef finds passion in pastry

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A22 - North Shore News - Sunday, October 26, 2014

d i s h

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The general rule for making coffee is two

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of water. Too few coffee grounds result in over-

extracted or bitter coffee. Too many grounds

result in under-extracted coffee that does not

achieve the full flavour of the blend. Proportion

is the most common coffee-making mistake, and

the easiest mistake to correct.

GRIND

Different brewing methods require different

grinds. A grind that is too fine will trap water

and result in a bitter, unpleasant brew. A grind

that is too coarse leaves coffee weak and without

distinguishing characteristics or flavours. Over-

extracted coffee tastes much worse than under-

extracted coffee, so when in doubt as to the

brewing method, always err on the coarse side.

Coffee connoisseurs suggest that the best coffee

(thick, rich and truest to its flavour profile) is

made in a traditional coffee press. A coffee press

requires a coarse grind.

WATER

While it may not seem like an important

ingredient, coffee is 98 per cent water. The

type of water used when brewing greatly

affects the final taste. Always use clean, fresh

water that is filtered or free of impurities.

Avoid soft water or well water. Water heated

to just off the boil (195º-205º F or 90º-96º C)

does the best job of extracting the coffee’s full

range of flavours. Water that is too cool will

mute the flavour and dull the coffee’s aroma.

FRESHNESS

Coffee’s biggest enemies are oxygen and

moisture. Always store coffee in an airtight

container at room temperature. Storing

coffee in the refrigerator or freezer can

result in moisture from condensation and

is not recommended for daily use. If coffee

needs to be kept for more than two weeks

without being used, store it in the freezer in

an airtight container. Coffee should be ground

fresh each time it is made. Grinding exposes

more surface area to oxygen, releasing flavour

and freshness. Brewed coffee should always be

stored in a thermal carafe and never left on

the burner or reheated.

—information from Starbucks Coffee Company

their menus to be shaped by

opinion rather than by seasons or

ingredients.

CD: What’s the solution?

BK: One of the very best

things that could happen to

our city would be to have a

well-established, professional

restaurant guide set up shop here.

A guide with expert, qualified

reviewers who are accountable

for their words and are held to

a transparent, high standard. I

honestly think that would drive

creativity and encourage our city’s

tremendous culinary talent to

define a world-class style.

Chris Dagenais is a North Shoreresident and North Shore Newscolumnist. His regular restaurantreview column appears in theWednesday issues of the paper.

He served as a manager for severalrestaurants downtown and onthe North Shore. A self-describedwine fanatic, he earned hissommelier diploma in 2001.

from page 20

CD: How has the boom of social

media review sites affected you, if

at all?

BK: This is a tough subject for

chefs. It’s great to see so many

people so engaged in food and

dining, that’s the nice part.

The hard part is watching a really

talented chef, with his own small

business, and a family to support,

and rent to pay, getting slayed

by someone having a bad day

or someone who really didn’t

understand what the chef was

trying to do. Everyone is entitled

to an opinion, but what gets

published online sometimes can be

unduly harsh and is often posted by

someone with little to no culinary

knowledge. As much as we’d like

to think that it doesn’t affect us,

chefs absolutely are impacted by

those comments.

The biggest danger of this is that

chefs start to allow their vision to

be influenced by this commentary;

at that stage they are just playing

to the masses and allowing

Online postings often harshThe recipe for a great cup

of coffee includes four basic

fundamentals: proportion,

grind, water and freshness.

Sunday, October 26, 2014 - North Shore News - A23

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