Executive Chef Michael Miller of The Harvest Golf Club in British Columbia, Canada, has put a new twist on the farm-to-table dining craze, according to Okanaga Life magazine.
Executive Chef Michael Miller has found the median between out-and-out pub food and a higher-level cuisine worthy of being served on white linen in The Harvest Golf Club’s restaurant, The Harvest Grille, said author Bruce Kemp. He succeeds with a little help from the resources of the club’s own farming efforts in British Columbia, Canada.
“I have to be careful,” Miller said, “I can lose whole days out on the fairway without ever picking up a club.” The danger lies in the fact that the fairways of the championship course, located in the town of Kelowna, are separated by orchards, Okanaga Life reported.
“We use our own fruit here in the kitchen for desserts, compotes and preserves,” he added. “There are apple, cherry, apricot, nectarine and peach trees that we harvest as well as the produce we can take out of our vineyards where we grow four acres of Ehrenfelser, one acre of Pinot Noir, two-and-a-half acres of Chardonnay, and two acres of table grapes.”
What he and his staff don’t use from the vineyard is sold to Grey Monk Winery for bottling under their label, Okanaga Life reported.
During the on-site interview with Kemp, Chef Michael prepared a house specialty: mahi-mahi encrusted with pumpkin seed and pesto, plated with a root vegetable risotto and enhanced with Anjou pear salsa, Okanaga Life reported.
“We have fruit coolers right on site so we always have a steady supply right through to Christmas.” While the course is open until Halloween, the restaurant continues to host functions until Christmas, then everyone in the kitchen gets a break until spring.
After seasoning the mahi-mahi, Miller prepped the risotto. “You have to babysit the risotto or it gets away from you,” he explained. Starting with a vegetable stock made with shallots and garlic, he cooked the arborio rice to which he added chopped golden beets, parsnips, zucchini, rainbow carrots and apples are already chopped. The herbs he uses come from the club’s kitchen garden where they also grow grape tomatoes and edible flowers like nasturtiums.
“Personally I try to cook a rustic style of fare,” Miller told Okanaga Life. “We’ve got all of this around us so it’s great to incorporate the regional flavours into our menu. I guess I’ve really been influenced by the Mediterranean region, especially Provence.”
Ladling stock into the rice, he talked about some of his seasonal dishes like coffee-anise rack of lamb and scallop and prawn pasta, Okanaga Life reported.
“It’s funny because we sit somewhere between the pub and high-end dining rooms,” he said. “I lean more toward high-end food. Just because you played 18 holes doesn’t mean you’re too worn out to enjoy good food.”
Michael moved with his family from Orillia, Ontario, to the Okanagan when he was 14 and almost immediately began flipping burgers after school at PJ’s All Star Café. Later, he did apprenticeships with Chef Reinhard Foerderer and Chef Bernard Casavant at Manteo Resort in Kelowna. The 40-year-old chef has been with The Harvest Grille for four years and its top chef for the past two.
“Now that I’m the executive chef,” Miller said, “I like being responsible for the execution of our service and love the excitement of making the final call on plates before they’re served to our customers.”
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