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Champion of the sunchoke and the salsify

Executive chef Vincent Stufano likes to cook and cooks what he likes — as much as possible

In this age of chef as celebrity, it’s refreshing to cross paths with one who has climbed to the top of the kitchen and has no illusions about why he’s there. The Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s executive chef Vincent Stufano didn’t choose his profession because of the limelight, but because of the limes and the lamb and the crones and everything else he loves to cook with. And Vincent loves to cook, more explicitly to cook food for people to eat – as opposed to, say, cooking for food stylists at glossy magazines or for TV cameras.

If you were part of Cornucopia’s Chef’s Trip to the Farm session, you would have experienced Vincent’s work at its finest. Sunchokes and crones and salsify from Jordan Sturdy’s North Arm Farm spoke for themselves alongside the likes of pine mushrooms and veal and rabbit – in all, a multi-course celebration of fall.

He would have told you how he buys thousands of pounds of pumpkins from North Arm – the pumpkins the bears don’t get first – and you would have oohed and aahed over such details. But you likely wouldn’t have known that the same weekend, Vincent was also ensuring that 700 delegates attending the Liberal convention at the Fairmont were well and properly fed, as well as co-ordinating the Gold Medal Plate Dinner, a.k.a. Olympic fundraiser that same weekend.

So here’s a short sampling from a self-styled cook, who’s been at it for 30 years and hasn’t burnt out yet, who supervises some 80 chefs at the Chateau, and who would rather cook a roast at home and be with his family than explore the latest dining hot spot.

GB: Be a philosopher for a minute – what’s your approach to food?

VS: I don’t think it’s anything earth shattering. For me it’s making sure you work with a quality product all the time. And it’s very important to understand the product – because I see this so often – they have all this beautiful, expensive stuff but they don’t know how to put it together. It’s either overcooked or poorly seasoned, you know what I mean? So you don’t enjoy it much. To me it’s important to really understand what I work with, to have a strong knowledge of the food.

I read a lot, and I always preach that to my apprentices, to keep reading and learning. Just being on the job daily is fine because that gives you the motor skills and the techniques and all that. But the knowing why, the why, why, why – why am I doing it this way? Why do we get this product this time of year? Why are different kinds of salmon prepared different ways? Knowing your foundation is incredibly important.

GB: You said you love using the types of vegetables Jordan is now growing on his farm – parsnips, salsify, crones, sunchokes – because they’re so flavourful and you can offer guests something different. I think there are lots of elements, like these forgotten vegetables, that are wonderful and seldom appear on menus.

VS: So many menus seem like cookie cutter menus – there’s the chicken, there’s the rack of lamb. Maybe chefs don’t venture out because they think we, the public, won’t like it. But we can be poorly informed, as in, we don’t like beets because the only way mom served them was boiled. So where do you draw the line and lead us, the public, in learning to appreciate food off the beaten path?

I never look at it as an education – I dropped that concept long ago. To me, I look at it as I cook what I like. But I will not put five courses of beets on the menu. I just won’t do that. This is not a stand-alone restaurant, this is not my restaurant, this is a hotel so I have to cater to a broad audience. So obviously I’m going to have my steak and salmon. A lot of tourists come to B.C. and expect salmon. Rack of lamb is a signature dish. I can cook lamb probably 50 different ways, but rack of lamb is something people love to have.

I would love to do a little composition with lamb, but you know what? I do it. For example, at my winemaker’s dinner I had a suckling pig prepared three different ways.

GB: But do you get to do it enough?

VS: Oh, I could do it more, but if I put pigs’ trotters on my menu it will not sell. You have to be very cautious of things like that. If you place on your menu sweetbreads and pigs’ trotters and too many of these things, then you’re not going to attract the public. It’s just that way, unfortunately. You have to have a balance.

And it’s a hotel, so you have to please a wide range. You come with your family and your child wants a grilled cheese sandwich. And what’s wrong with that? So make a good grilled cheese sandwich. But when I design a winemaker’s dinner and things like that, I design it around things I enjoy preparing. The benefit to the guests is that I cook what I truly want to cook. And that’s really going to stand out.

But even with the Wildflower menu or the Portobello menu, the stuff we put on, we enjoy putting them on. We don’t go, oh god, let’s put this on because we have to, you know?

GB: Why do you love your work so much?

VS: It’s not repetitious. You keep coming back and there are always new challenges. It always keeps you sharp. Of course it’s very creative, but as well, you have to be a visionary – you have to look ahead to stay in front of the other guy all the time – you have to be a businessman, you have to listen to your staff and help them. It’s a lot of things.

GB: Are any of your children interested in cooking?

VS: I hope not. It’s an insane job!

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who loves the smell of parsnips.