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On the shelves with the Chip King

Rootables' Neal Harkins lets us root through his fridge
food_glenda1

The cool thing about Neal Harkins' fridge is that there's nary a potato or root veggie, nor a tin of molasses or trace of fast-food leftovers to be found.

This from the guy who's guilty of getting us hooked on his handmade, truffle-oiled Rootables Chips; who's helped hundreds of Whistler school kids build gingerbread houses; and who thinks nothing of serving thousands for dinner. (I thought he might need to warm up some fast food to feed himself and his family after expending all that time and energy.)

At Whistler Conference Centre, where he works as executive chef, Neal has a giant fridge — actually the biggest one at Whistler. Sit-down dinner for 1,000? No problem. Stand-up dinner for 2,000? Still no problem. His training as a banquet chef and his years working for hotel chains makes him master of the ultimate dinner party.

His biggest sit-down food service in one day was for 4,000-plus for Mothers' Day at the Banff Springs Hotel. His biggest overall food service over consecutive days: 260,000 people fed over nine days at the two-kilometre-long Dallas Convention Center during Super Bowl 45.

I can't imagine cooking dinner for more than 20. So what's Neal's secret for feeding thousands and keeping it together? "Just git 'er done," he says, mimicking comedian, Larry the Cable Guy, with a laugh.

But it's the home fridge Neal shares with his wife, Candice, whom you might know as one of Whistler's bylaw enforcement officers, and their kids, Kodie, 15, Hailey, 13, and Noah, 11, that we are really interested in.

It's a stainless steel, double-doored Samsung in the newly remodelled kitchen and eating area that's part of a giant great room. This is where the Harkins spend most of their time. It spans the whole back of the executive-style, 1980s split-level they rent, which backs onto a park-like forest in North Vancouver. All you see out the long expanse of kitchen windows are trees.

Neal is originally from Toronto and Candice, Nanaimo. The family moved to North Van after nine years in Whistler so the kids could be close to the sports and teams they're part of. And, yes, Neal and Candice commute to Whistler, an hour-and-20-minute drive,

Candice does cook — she's the weekend warrior, says Neal, known for her spaghetti and meat sauce, a yummy Asian-style soup and a good pot roast — but otherwise it's Neal who makes dinner. Hailey likes to bake with her dad, and Kodie can pull off a perfect crème brûlée he's been perfecting since the seventh grade when he had to make a French dish for French class, so the contents of the fridge are a family affair.

But first Neal wants to explain why their fridge is not that full.

"Now that we live down here, we have all these stores close to us," he says. "Living in Whistler, we used to drive down and spend, like, $400 and truck it all back up there because you get more for your money, right? But living down here we go shopping every two or three days and just keep buying the veggies and the fruit fresh." Stores of choice: Whole Foods and Superstore.

On the top shelf, the first thing we find is a two-litre bottle of Coke, half-empty. Then there's a dozen eggs, a jar of mayonnaise, half a tub of guacamole from Superstore, a President's Choice lentil hummus (good with naan bread), some Greek-style yogurts for the kids' lunches, and a litre of bacon and clam chowder left over from dinner Neal made the night before.

He dices up bacon to make his roux with bacon fat and butter. Then he throws in diced onions, celery and a little bit of leek (basically a mirepoix for vegetable stock, sans carrots). Add enough clam nectar to make your chowder, a bit of Worcestershire sauce, thyme and a little heavy cream, lots of baby clams, and you've got it made.

Next shelf has naan bread, bagels, and unsalted butter mostly for the banana bread and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies Neal and Hailey like to make together. (Of course, the boys love to eat them.) There's also a jar of homemade plum jam from Sandra Epplett at Spring Creek Community School in Whistler, a gift of thanks for helping young students each make their own gingerbread houses, something Neal's done every Christmas since his own kids went to school there.

"One year I made 130 gingerbread houses!" he says.

On the next shelf is some almond milk, oranges, California strawberries, a jar of pickled beets from the farmers' market (his chips are currency at the market for all kinds of goodies) and red curry paste for chick pea curries.

"We're trying to eat more vegetarian," says Neal, "to get used to getting protein from plant sources. I tell my kids you eat live, you feel alive."

Now we're into the produce drawers. On the left is the "green" drawer: celery, kale, snow peas, broccoli, fresh green beans and cilantro. In the right-hand one is a bag of onions, organic carrots the kids love for their flavour, a bag of lemons they like to eat like oranges in their lunches, Bosc pears and some B.C. organic ambrosia apples.

Like most of our fridges, the doors are Condiment City. On the right-hand one is fresh garlic and ginger for stir fries, an assortment of Kraft salad dressings and barbecue sauce, mayo-mustard, milk and some cheddar cheese.

The other one contains French's mustard, Heinz ketchup, organic maple syrup, a bottle of grenadine to make their own Shirley Temples, hoisin sauce (use it like an Asian barbecue sauce), and from the market, some vegan pâtés and Little Qualicum cheeses for a fondue for the kids. The last thing: a box of baking soda as odor-eater.

As for those dangerously addictive chips, Neal has been bagging some on his kitchen counter. When they're ready to roll, you can get your fix at Vancouver's Winter Farmers' Market, Olives Market in Function Junction, North Shore Winter Club and at farmers' markets from Whistler to Steveston when they get going this summer.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning journalist who bets you can't eat just one Rootable.