City Food Magazine - Interview with a Visiting Winemaker

AN INTERVIEW WITH JANE FERRARI
WINEMAKER,
YALUMBA WINERY, AUSTRALIA

Winemakers from all over the world are in town this week, and while they enjoy socializing as much as the next fellow (or gal), this is an exceptionally hard working visit for most of them. All day long, plus most of the evenings, they are on stage to pour their wines while fielding endless questions from wine lovers at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival’s many seminars and winemaker’s dinners, not to mention the up to ten-deep lineups that adhere to the front of their tables during the general tasting sessions.

Perhaps the most lively and popular of these annual visitors is Jane Ferrari from Australia’s Barossa Valley. Once a full time winemaker and now the travelling spokesperson for the Yalumba Winery, Ferrari, with her outgoing personality, and wry, if sometimes salty sense of humour, never fails to educate and entertain as she expounds on the wines she is so justifiably proud of.

Ask her anything about Yalumba’s prestigious line up of bottles and she will be happy to oblige. But we caught up with Jane on her way to a dinner (featuring wines of Australia's Barossa Valley) at Burnaby's Hart House Restaurant and managed to extract her opinions on the Wine Festival, Australian beer, the sex appeal of Canadian men, dieting and America’s great classic diners. Plus, we learned a few secret facts about Jane herself. ...

CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in PEOPLE/winemakers

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DINE AND DASH

A new addition to the Marpole area will be the Flo Tea Room, a new Asian restaurant at 7994 Granville (and 64th) that will offer Taiwanese and Hong Kong style food with a modern flair. The Flo Tea is still finalizing their menu but hope to be open by mid-April. When the phone is installed the number will be 604-266-155 and the website will be www.flotearoom.com. The Manager is Harmony Cheung.

Sushil Saini has been hard at work helping to plan an ambitious International Food Think Tank to take place at the University of Victoria later this spring. The following is from the official release.

The Agriculture Food and Human Value Society (AFHVS) and Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) will be arriving in Victoria for their prestigious 20th anniversary conference from May 29th to June 3, 2007.

“We are bringing a community of exceptional food scholars to a community of exceptional food advocates, food artisans, and food lovers�? says conference organizer Sushil Saini – a local food writer and food advocate now pursuing a doctorate in Sustainable Gastronomy at UVic. “Our job as organizers is to create as many opportunities as possible for these communities to meet and inspire each other,�? she adds.

The conference will feature four days of oral presentations, workshops and panels bringing together international scholars and local leaders covering all areas of food, culture, and society. Members of the public are welcome to register and attend conference sessions. A food film series and a speaker’s night on Food and Climate Change are among a series of free public events being offered. Ticketed events include a Sustainable Gastronomy Tasting Series and an interactive 12 course Grand Banquet at the Maritime Museum featuring the culinary stylings of Island Chef Collaborative president David Mincey of Camilles Fine West Coast Dining. Local organic foods will be featured alongside indigenous wild-crafted foods not available in stores or farmers markets.

The conference and related events will kick-off Sustainable Food Systems education at UVic. Offerings will range from one-off interest courses of culinary and cultural interest to courses designed for current and future policy makers, farmers and food industry professionals. “Creating opportunities to educate and inspire seems a fitting legacy for this conference,�? says Saini.

More details can be found on the conference website at www.brainfood.uvic.ca

Attention party crashers: Looks like So.Cial at Le Magasin have planned their opening bash party for April 4th, with hours given as "7 p.m. to late". Which gives everyone almost enough time to suck in some wind and recover from the Wine Festival.

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WINE FESTIVAL CHOICE

TRY THIS ONE

Everyday throughout the month of March, the Wine Diva will choose a wine that you shouldn't pass by without tasting when you visit the upcoming Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.

Today's pick - a Double Feature:

A Wine to Go Sideways For.

Also .... A Shark with a Velvet Bite!

Filed in DRINK/Best of the Wine Fest

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IN THE EASTER BASKET

If you have to do it, do it with finesse. French ear biting.

Filed in DAILY NEWS/Easter Specials

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TODAY'S PRESS RELEASES

Kettle Valley Winemakers Dinner at Aurora Bistro.

CMC Sake Welcomes Edchigo Denemon to the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival.

Bringing the WSET to Wine Country

A New Place to Stay in the South Okanagan.

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FETCHED BY THE MEDIA DOG
(From today's NEWSSTAND)

THE LOCAL INK - Try What the Experts will be Drinking.

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival has begun and these local wine writers chime in with their personal lists on what to search out in the tasting rooms:

Anthony Gismondi for the Vancouver Sun
Tim Pawsey for the Vancouver Courier
Jurgen Gothe for the Georgia Straight
Daenna van Mulligen for CityFood Online

also:

Fiona Morrow on Bistrot Bistro
Mia Stainsby on Bistrot Bistro
Andrew Morrison on Prima Taste
Angela Murrills on Jules
Jurgen Gothe on Herder Pinot Gris
Tara Lee on South African food
Deanna Lancaster on DDDN Pizza
and The Chowtimers on BA in-flight dining and digital photography

Find all of the above filed in MEDIA/On the Newsstands this Week

THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Silver accessories for your condiment jars? Your HP sauce never looked so swanky.

It had to happen didn't it? The complete idiot proof concept for wine and food matching.

Sure the trendy restaurants are now adding in-house charcuteries to their floor plans but can the trendy grocery stores be far behind? Stories bouncing back from the 1,200 guest party given to celebrate the opening of Whole Food's new 71,000 square foot store in Manhattan's Bowery district report an in-house meat smoking room, a meat-aging locker, a cheese "relaxation" room, a pomme frites bar, Italian gelateri and a bbq/chili station. Makes that grocery deli in your own neighbourhood seem pretty antique doesn't it?

Heat author, Bill Buford, takes on the subject of Chef Gordon Ramsay and his failed attempt to take Manhattan in a 12 page New Yorker article entitled The Taming of the Chef.

The San Francisco Chronicle has published an article on how bloggers have turned the discipline of food reviewing into a "free for all for amateurs."

Is this the new Anthony Bourdain? Gothamist.com interviews Jeff Henderson, the Las Vegas chef whose crime-to-kitchen story Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, from Cocaine to Foie Gras, is currently on the New York Times Bestseller list and soon to be made into a movie.

The old Anthony Bourdain rants about the arrangements for the upcoming James Beard Awards. Everyone else rants too. Eh, what was that bit again about Tony's mucha younger, hottie, Italian girlfriend who is about to give birth to his baby?

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WHO'S GOT IT - OUR BUZZ METER For MARCH 29, 2007
(The most requested information on the site as measured by Google keyword counter)

PEOPLE:

1) Jeremy Roncoroni (Hotelier)
2) Sean Cousins (Chef)
3) Karen Gin (Chef)
4) Malcolm Parry (Media)
5) Cate Simpson (Publicist)

PLACES:

1) So.Cial at Le Magazine (Restaurant/charcuterie), Vancouver
2) Prima Taste (Restaurant), Vancouver
3) Dubrulle -Arts Institute, (Trade School), Vancouver
4) Lucky Diner (Restaurant), Vancouver
5) CinCin, (Restaurant), Vancouver

THINGS:

1) bakery for auto immune disorders
2) sakamai rice
3) candy butterflies
4) Cornucopia
5) Stump Jump wine

MOST INEXPLICABLE CONNECTION:

pan dancing robots

NUMBER OF COUNTRIES LOOKING IN: 88 NEWEST FLAG: Palestinian Territory

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