I don’t think I’ve stopped to take more than two breaths after the Thanksgiving weekend. Teaching my class in freelance travel writing at UBC is keeping me quite busy, and this is what we call the ‘silly season’ in broadcasting. Everyone is coming through Vancouver to promote their latest cookbook or TV cooking show, there are more and more dinner invitations…and I know you don’t feel sorry for me, but it can get a little tiring trying to keep up the pace.
Last week I was one of the few journalists in Vancouver to be granted a one-on-one interview with Jamie Oliver, the Naked Chef, visiting the city to promote his new show, Jamie’s Kitchen. He’s taken a bunch of jobless 16 to 24-year-olds in London and trained them to run his new not-for-profit restaurant. Their selection and progress unfolds over the next few weeks on the Food Network. I’ve seen the first episode and while I’m generally not a fan of reality TV, this one really works. Jamie set himself a tough task, and he thought he would find a good group from the hundreds who applied, it was hard to find even 30 kids that knew which end of a knife to use. One hilarious scene shows Jamie talking with one of his potential employees who cut the tips off the asparagus he was about to cook instead of the stalks. Jamie’s Kitchen debuts on the Food Network on Sunday, November 2nd.
I was the last person to interview Jamie before he headed back to London. He had been away for two weeks, and was exhausted, as well as missing his wife and two young children. Still, he perked up when I started asking him about the show and the restaurant. He took a lot of risk to do this, most of the project has been financed from his own resources. At one point he had to put up his house as a loan guarantee, ‘and I didn’t really tell Jools (his wife) what that really meant right away.’
Jamie was also my last interview before returning to the Cowichan Valley for a little R+R. On Friday we went for what was supposed to be a brisk hike around the shores of Spectacle Lake near the summit of the Malahat. It turned into a mushroom hunt, as my fiancé Dana goes crazy for edible wild mushrooms this time of year. The only problem is, we’re still learning how to identify the ones that ARE safe to eat. We know chanterelles quite well, and a couple of others, but the chanterelles seem to be scarce this year, and some of the other edible mushrooms have been eaten by creatures large and small before we got to them! (many of them were wormy) The most important thing to remember when it comes to mushrooms you find is, don’t eat them unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure they are edible. We always consult our friend Bill Jones, who is a mycologist (mushroom expert) along with being a great chef. Check out the photos from our walk/hunt. Even if you don’t want to go mushroom hunting, they are neat to look at, and it’s a great time of year to get into the outdoors, now that we’ve had a bit of a break from the torrential rains. I’d love to hear about your own mushroom hunts. Just scroll to the bottom of this page and enter a comment.
To see the photos for this entry please visit the gallery here >>
Hi Don,
This reminds me of when I went mushroom hunting with Bill Jones, the mycologist you mention. He told me that “Every mushroom is edible…once!” The other cool thing about walking through the forest with Bill is that he knows about so many other items that are edible. Things that look like twigs or stems turn out to be flavourful little treats of nature. Out East, here, it’s worth checking out Forbes Wild Foods. They have a great selection of dried wild mushrooms – the dried kind don’t get the credit they deserve, in my opinion.
Happy Hunting,
cj
Prior to about 72hrs ago, I had 75 pounds of perfect CHANTERELLES. The freeze is here…BUT, maybe with a warm rain, we will get some more. Drop by….Hey! How did that certified organic extra virgin olive oil work out???…You must try my “all new” MINT PESTO!!!