Our 13th at The Chef’s Table, Kensington Riverside Inn

So 13 years ago today I met Brian on a conference trip to Toronto (at the time, I was living in Lexington, Kentucky, wrapping up a two-year postdoc), and since it was, pretty much, love at first sight, we count this date as our “anniversary.” We were married on August 8, 2003 but think of June 1, 1995 as the date it all started. To celebrate, we went to a new restaurant, The Chef’s Table at the Kensington Riverside Inn, a 19-room “boutique inn”–too small to be a “hotel” and too big to be a “bed and breakfast”–on Kensington Road just west of 10th Street NW in, of course, the Kensington neighbourhood. We had plans to see a flick at Fairy Tales (Calgary’s queer film fest, now in its 10th year and going/growing strong) at the Plaza, had heard good things about Chef’s Table, so we booked for 6:30, expecting we’d make it through a six-course tasting menu in plenty of time for the 9:30 screening.

It was one of the best meals of my life.

First, the setting is gorgeous. It’s a revamping of what had been the Inn’s “breakfast room” and a chunk of the lobby. In the lobby is a lounge:

But as we were an pretty early seating we headed straight into the resto proper, a cozy room with nine tables; by my count it could seat around 30:

The kitchen is open and amazingly spacious for such a small room:

Service was friendly, professional, prompt, knowledgeable. Perfect. They had got word that it was our anniversaire and treated us to an avant-dinner prosecco. Salut!

Okay, to the food. We started with an amuse of foie gras on buttery grilled brioche, which was rich and perfectly competent (not to mention one hell of a pricey amuse). It was nice, especially since Brian had told them about his aversion to fatty fish (eg salmon) and salmon was in fact the amuse that other diners got. I can handle salmon but am much happier with foie! I neglected to take a shot of it, but did get our first course, which was what told us that we were in line for a really special meal. It was a dungeness crab salad with heirloom tomato, microgreens and watermelon with tomato “water.” It was EXPLOSIVE and the star of this dish was tomato (not the crab, which really carried the tomato) like I’ve never tasted it:

This dish was a revelation, and we both asked for spoons to drink up every drop of the “water.” Next up: another salad (ooh! daring!) with baby purple artichoke, Pecorino Toscana, frisee and a lemon caper dressing:

Some of the chokes were a little woody but the dressing, with the Pecorino, was very good. It was however probably the one dish that I think needs rethinking, just because artichoke can be unpleasant, and the other ingredients were superb. Plain frisee with this treatment would have been delicious.

Next: Charred Pacific OCTOPUS. This was the dish that changed my life. I’ve only ever had octopus in sushi (“tako”) and it’s always been rubbery and, frankly, horrible. I’ve never had it cooked and had no idea what to expect. Well, it was tender and glorious! I have a hard time describing the texture: It’s not like any seafood I’ve had. It’s meaty and yielding but still firm. I actually think that it’s almost like asparagus, if that makes any sense (and I know it doesn’t)- just try it. Here’s this gorgeous thing:

It’s piled together with olives, fennel, and garlic in a sauce made with preserved lemon among other ingredients.

Palate cleanser next, an apricot sorbet:

… which was nice, apricot-y. After a little breather came another magnificent course, which was pan-seared pheasant breast with asparagus (white and green), MORELS (yay!) and crispy potato on the bottom. The morels were “fire morels,” and all I can say is: well played, pine beetles, well played. We were both audibly moaning with this one:

Oh oh, I forgot to mention, somewhere in there (after the second salad I think) we got “bread.” It was served with a sweet lemon butter that had been brought to our table early on and just sat there- it was tempering. I asked jokingly (but not really) why there is butter on the table and was informed that bread comes out almost as a course unto itself, and rightly so, because this was moist and sweet and deserved its own stage. A picture cannot do it justice but suffice to say that I asked for more:

OKAY. Now Chef’s Table allows diners (for the tasting menu) to add a cheese course (as well as wine pairings, of course- Brian went for those naturally), and we took them up on it; we got a blue and a brie with shallot chutney, rainforest crisps and a little pile of frisee. Lovely and light enough (we split it), but sorry no pics.

Dessert was the capper and was magnificent: ricotta mousse with poached Okanagan cherries and lemon curd (and another sauce- cherry, I think) sprinkled with fresh thyme. Sweet, tart, even a little savoury, a great end to a perfect meal:

Okay, this has been a long post so I’ll end with the happy couple!

Thanks to chef Theo Yeaman, Fraser Abbott at Hotel Arts/Kensington Riverside, and the amazing staff (I should have paid closer attention to names, sorry!) for making this evening so special.

Oh- the film was about the making of a Colt Studios gay porn feature, and it was fun and sexxxy! Exposed: The Making of a Legend and we got to meet the filmmaker too. Great night!