Five Sails Chef Alex Kim is primed!
The idea of the culinary arts as a competitive event has always appealed to me. That is, of course, as long as I’m not the one who has to deliver the dish! The first ‘black box’ (link) contest I recall was back in the days when Dubrulle Culinary Institute was Vancouver’s leading (only?) private cooking school, many years before it became part of the Art Institute, now Lasalle College. At the time a young chef by the name of Rob Feenie was starting to make a name for himself.
This all came to mind when I was talking to Chef Alex Kim, the talented Executive Chef at Five Sails—and Culinary Director at Glowbal Group. Chef Kim is currently in Ottawa competing in Canada’s Great Kitchen Party Culinary Championship.
This keenly fought competition includes a black box portion, a blind wine-pairing segment, and the final gala contest. The teams come from across Canada. Based on more than a few tastes in the last while, my hunch is the Five Sails chef is a serious contender to scoop the national crown. Kim’s was the winning dish at the Vancouver Great Canadian Kitchen Party ‘heat’ back in the fall. That propelled him to this weekend’s finals.
Five Sails view in December
Five Sails: A storied room with a view
It had been a few years since I was previously at the Five Sails, tucked away above the lobby of Vancouver’s Pan Pacific Hotel. That is, until now. Over the last couple of months I’ve dined twice, by invitation. My prior visit had been on a fateful Friday—March 13th., 2020. That was when a lot of people’s worlds literally went to Hell in a hand-basket, courtesy of Covid. No doubt that’s why, right off the bat, it’s felt good to be back in this vista kissed space—still here and very much thriving.
The ‘Pan’ and I go back a long way. I remember they built Canada Place, in the lead-up to Expo 86, and I worked for Expo in the year before. (An aside: an actor friend landed a gig in the ill-fated ‘Goose & Beaver’ show at the Canada Pavilion. When the producers asked him to head east for a workshop, he came to me in a panic seeking rudimentary French lessons. He’d bent the truth somewhat on being fluently bilingual. But that’s another story.)
The Five Sails has always been a bit of an anomaly: a flagship room in a city that has ofteen spurned such destinations. Here, surely, are some of the most stunning mountain harbour views of any restaurant downtown, with cuisine to match.
On a new tack
Emad Yacoub’s Glowbal Group took over (by then closed) Five Sails in late 2019. He’d be the first to agree that the timing—right before Covid hit—couldn’t have turned out much worse. In fact, at that same Friday the 13th meal mentioned above, he told us he’d just had to process $400,000 in cancelled reservations—in one morning.
Over the last four years Glowbal has been working hard to bring the room back to its glory. Though with a very different vibe from before, the Five Sails is still, very much a fine dining destination. But today’s mood is more relaxed and better suited to our less rigid social times.
Many have been quick to proclaim the demise of fine dining, especially in the post-Covid era. But our experience suggests such predictions were premature, especially given the team Yacoub has assembled. There’s great depth on the bench, including an impressive wine program in the hands of Sarah McCauley, pictured above with Chef Kim.
First things first: you can’t have a flagship room without a chef who makes it all happen. When I tasted Alex Kim’s entry at GCKP I was blown away. Even more impressive, it was produced some 300 times. Hence, it came as no surprise to me that it won the night.
The Vancouver Island Oyster presentation is a showstopper: a Kusshi served on made an edible shell, well paired with Tinhorn Creek Blanc de Blanc. One of three items that make up A Taste of the Pacific Northwest, served at tomorrow night’s Gala, it includes a beautifully detailed sushi roll of Cortes Island scallop and Haida Gwaii sablefish, and a Korean inspired shrimp and crab mandu (dumpling).
A team effort
These contests are never solely about one person but the result of a collective endeavour. Kim says he’s spent the last three or four months practising for the Black Box by going back to basic skills. As well, he’s been ‘rehearsing’ with his team since last summer.
“I open my cookbooks from school, and I just go back to my sauces,” he says. “How do you do this? Right? What’s the proper purée? And so on. So I’ve been just focusing on that. I’ve also been spending lots of time with my sous-chef. We set the same time constraints: one hour. The chef de cuisine here picks seven ingredients, and they just towards me, go, go. I have one hour. So it’s really fun, but also very stressful!”
Chef Alex Kim (Culinary Director) is representing Five Sails (and the best of BC!) with Sous- Chef Jitin Kapoor and Sara McCauley (Corporate Wine Director).
Stay tuned!
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