Chef Caroline Ishii’s vegan flavours fare well at Gold Medal Plates
Chef Caroline Ishii proudly wears her silver medal at Zen Kitchen. NOURISH // GENNA BUCK
BY GENNA BUCK
Caroline Ishii will have to wait at least one more year to see her gold medal dream come true.
For the second year running, Ishii narrowly missed the top honour last night at Gold Medal Plates, the most important event of the year for Ottawa’s haute cuisine scene.
Marc Lepine won gold at the regional competition, held annually at the National Arts Centre to support the Canadian Olympic Foundation. Lepine, owner and executive chef of Ottawa’s Atelier restaurant, will move on to the Canadian Culinary Championships in Kelowna, B.C.
Gold Medal Plates was a lavish affair. Attendees at the sold-out event included federal politicians Justin Trudeau and Lisa Raitt, who took in musical entertainment from Blue Rodeo star Jim Cuddy and a keynote speech from Olympic figure skater Joannie Rochette.
And then there was the culinary showdown. Ottawa’s top 10 chefs had an hour and a half to prepare 450 servings of the most creative, unforgettable dishes they could fit onto a six-inch plate. They could be called to the judges’ table at any time to present their creations and accompanying drinks.
“There’s so much pressure to have every component spot-on. Can you do it? Can you make it? What are the judges going to think? It’s exciting, and also it’s exhausting,” said Ishii.
Ishii said she was proud and surprised that her team placed second again. She had only nice things to say about the winner, although their approaches to food could hardly be more different.
Ishii describes her cooking style as local fare with global influences. Both at competitions and at Zen Kitchen, the vegan fine-dining restaurant she owns with her husband, she focuses on foods that are local, organic, and processed as little as possible.
Lapine, on the other hand, is a student of molecular gastronomy. He uses food science to create innovative dishes that a home cook couldn’t dream of recreating. His dish last night featured aerated potato and was hidden under sheet of dehydrated celery root.
“He deserved to win,” said Ishii. “All the chefs I saw had beautiful plates.”
“It’s a matter of a small margin of points,” she said. “I was honoured just to be invited.”
Last year, Ishii was the first female chef invited to Ottawa’s Gold Medal Plates in its seven-year history.
Something else sets her apart. Ishii was also the first vegan chef to compete at Gold Medal Plates in all of Canada. While her opponents served dishes like seared scallops with bacon powder and lamb with tenderloin sausage, Ishii presented a medley inspired by her late mother’s home cooking and the comfort foods she ate while growing up in Japan.
Her plate included a Gyoza, or dumpling, stuffed with local mushrooms and served alongside Japanese curry sauce and an eggplant lollipop.
“I didn’t find that anybody was offering this kind of food,” said Ishii. “‘I said, ‘I’m going to be the one that cooks this.’”
Be it a complex or simple dish, Ishii’s philosophy is the same. “Different flavour profiles, different colours,” she said. “We eat with our eyes. It has to look as good as it tastes.”
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