A Maple Ridge chef will be showcasing his culinary talents at a prestigious food and wine festival in Whistler.
Chef Trevor Randle, head of the culinary program at Maple Ridge Secondary School, will be representing BC Agriculture in the Classroom and featuring local agriculture at one of the chef series events.
" Typically at these, the chef demonstrates a four course menu and serves each course to the audience. While each course is being served, a local wine expert will pair each course with a wine and talk about it," explained Randle.
This year, he added, because of the work and influence of BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation executive director Pat Tonne, he will also be featuring a local farmer who will be talking about each dish, where the food came from and how it was raised or grown.
"This will allow me to engage with the local community of foodies in attendance and share my passion for food, local agriculture and the entire vibrant culinary culture," he said.
Cornucopia is Whistler’s annual 11 day food and wine festival where industry chefs, and wine and spirit leaders are featured over the course of 70 different events.
Randle attended the event last year and saw one of the chef demonstrations with a full room of food enthusiasts and people who were very interested in learning not just about the culinary aspects of the food, but about who grows and raises their food, where it comes from, and how it is produced.
He pitched the idea to Tonne, who loved the idea, coordinated with the event planners of Cornucopia and made it happen.
Then he designed a fun menu that anyone could make at home to highlight many local ingredients from local farms.
Randle will be making: a BC fall harvest soup with toasted local hazelnuts; roasted beet salad with kale, shaved Brussels sprouts, dried cranberries, and whipped goat cheese; hoisin braised BC chuck flat, potato puree, sesame roasted broccoli and parsnip chips; with a coconut pancetta with BC strawberry and lime coulis with lime shortbread for dessert.
Randle said that anything he is able to do in partnership with the BC Agriculture in the Classroom, is always a pleasure for him and always exciting. The foundation, he said, does so much work, year after year, to bring agricultural education to students from kindergarten all the way to Grade 12.
"Helping to share their successes, their work and their programs is truly a remarkable honour," said Randle.
Being invited to such a prestigious event showcasing such important topics such as BC agriculture is exciting and an honour, said Randle.
"There are hundreds of chefs in our province who could easily be featured, but to be one of the few highlights is exciting and a true honour," he noted, especially having this platform to showcase the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation, the provincial culinary arts programs, and local agriculture on such a grand stage is invaluable.
Cornucopia runs from Nov. 7 - 17.
