Renovations are complete at Les Deux Gros and owner Pascal Tiphine is opening up the restaurant near Twin Lakes seven days a week.
Les Deux Gros, one of Whistler’s few stand-alone restuarants, has never looked better, with new carpeting, curtains, fresh paint and upgraded fireplace.
A few adjustments to the menu are also in the works.
Kidd in the kitchen at Araxi’s
Araxi’s has a new executive chef.
Scott Kidd comes to the restaurant on Village Square after working in some of Vancouver’s best kitchens over the last 14 years, including Le Gavroche, Bishop’s, The William Tell and Lola’s.
Born in Hamilton, Ont. Kidd started his formal culinary training at the Cordon Bleu school in Sussex, England. After studying and working in south-east England he returned to B.C., which has been the family home since 1977, and worked in Victoria, including at the Sooke Harbour House where he began exploring West Coast cuisine.
Kidd has been instrumental in redesigning the menu at Araxi’s since previous chef James Walt left to take over the kitchen in one of owner Jack Evrensel’s Vancouver restaurants. The new menu continues to emphasize local and regional flavours from the ocean and farms.
Oops
A story last week stated that the Whistler Farmers’ Market opens July 17, when in fact it opened June 17. The market, organized by Lovena Harvey, goes each Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., through to Oct. 7 in the Upper Village, between the Chateau Whistler and the Glacier Lodge.
Canada, eh
Chapaman’s Ice Cream, a Markdale, Ont. family owned company, has come up with a special ice cream in time for Canada Day.
Chapman’s is now selling 2-litre cartons of vanilla ice cream with a Canadian maple leaf in side. The bold red maple leaf is revealed when you take a warm knife and cut vertically into the ice cream. It’s called Canadian Vanilla, Eh.
"What would a birthday party be without ice cream?" asks owner Penny Chapman. "Serve it proudly on Canada Day or anytime you want a slice of fun."
Have another
Utah’s population may be 70 per cent Mormon, but don’t think the people of Park City don’t have a sense of humour.
A brew pub in the town which will be hosting several Olympic events next February offers several brews, including Not Official 2002 Pale Ale and Polygamy Porter. The slogan for Polygamy Porter is "Why have just one?"
New plant vaccine may offer safe alternative to GM foods
According to a Australian Scientists, the key to battling most plant viruses and diseases can be found with the plant itself, rather than by splicing genes from other species.
They believe that vaccinated foods will be more acceptable to the public than genetically modified foods, which many scientists and critics believe could pose health risks to consumers, or environmental risks to ecosystems.
If it is effective, the researchers believe that vaccinations could increase major crop yields by up to 30 per cent, and prevent billions of dollars in crop damages.
The process works like a vaccine for humans, boosting the plants own natural defence mechanisms so that it can fight its own battles. The scientists take a strand of harmless RNA from a plant virus and injects it into the RNA of a healthy plant. The plant recognizes the RNA as foreign, and defends itself. In doing so, the crop gains immunity to the entire virus that the RNA was taken from.
The team has already successfully immunize potatoes against the potato leaf roll virus, and to protect wheat, barley, and oat crops from the barley yellow dwarf virus.
Immunized crops could be available within the next three to five years.
