Tag: food

Port Moody butcher to lead Olympian effort

A Port Moody butcher is leading Canada’s team looking to win gold at the “Olympics of Meat.”

Taryn Barker, of The Little Butcher in NewPort Village, will captain six butchers and two alternates competing at the 2028 World Butchers’ Challenge.

Barker was co-captain of Butchery Team Canada that finished fifth at this year’s challenge held in Paris in March. But the placing was just 1.5 points shy of France’s gold-medal effort.

Barker said preparation for the 2028 competition is already underway, with the five members committed to the team so far heading to a chefs’ camp in Pemberton next week to process an entire cow.

“I want to start building the team relationships, getting to know each other and how we work,” Barker said.

The World Butchers’ Challenge is held every three years. It pits teams of top meat cutters from around the world to transform sides of beef and pork, as well as whole lamb and several chickens, into about 70 different value-added products. Their efforts are judged for presentation and flavour.

Barker, who participated in her first Challenge in 2022, said each competition is a learning experience.

“We’ve learned it’s a very serious competition. The teams practise with intent and they compete with intent.”

To raise their own game, Barker plans to bring her team of butchers, who come from across Canada, together several times over the next few years to determine the roles each will play on competition day, plan their cuts and presentation, and hone their communication skills.

“We have to walk as a team and talk as a team,” Barker said, adding the butchers will also work with coaches who can provide feedback and help decipher what the judges might want to see.

And now as the team’s captain, ensuring all those elements come together falls on Barker.

It’s a weighty responsibility, she said.

“There’s more pressure to make sure everyone is participating in practices and preparing at home.”

But with two stabs at the competition already under her apron, Barker said she’s up for the challenge.

“I think the more you do it, the more confident you get,” Barker said. “But you know the other teams feel the same way.”

Fundraising garden party

Barker has organized a special Butcher’s Garden Party fundraiser to support Butchery Team Canada’s preparation for 2028.

The party, to be held Sept. 14, from 7 to 10 p.m., at OpenRoad Toyota (3166 St. Johns St., Port Moody), features canapés, desserts and beverages prepared by top chefs and bakers from across British Columbia and as far away as Ontario. There will also be goody bags, a silent auction and a cornhole tournament.

Tickets are $110 and can be purchased here.


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Port Moody woman primed for Canada’s debut at butcher Olympics

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on July 17, 2022

A Port Moody woman is primed to show Canada’s butchers are a cut above the rest of the world.

Taryn Barker, of The Little Butcher in NewPort Village, is part of Butchery Canada, a team of six butchers set to represent the country at the World Butcher Challenge, Sept. 2 and 3 in Sacramento, Calif.

The competition — a kind of Olympics for some of the best butchers in the world — was supposed to happen two years ago, but it was put on ice by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s given Barker and her teammates more time to sharpen their skills and carve their creativity that will be required to transform sides of beef and pork, a whole lamb and five chickens into about 70 different flavourful and visually-enticing value-added cuts and products.

This is the first time Canada is sending a team to the international event, held every two years.

On the floor of the Golden One Centre, home to the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA), 16 teams will have three hours and 15 minutes to carve, concoct and present elaborate drool-worthy displays that include garnishes, pastries, produce and dishes, all of which have to be acquired locally or shipped beforehand.

Among other elements, their efforts will be judged on how well they represent the unique characteristics of their country’s cuisine.

Barker will be one of two “finishers” on Canada’s team, responsible for making the handiwork of the carvers look its absolute best for the judges and spectators in the stands or watching online.

She said she’s been able to use the extra prep time to mine the internet for new ideas, experiment with ingredients and presentation and forge a stronger connection with her teammates, who come from Ontario, Alberta and one other from B.C.

The team was only able to meet virtually because of travel restrictions during the early stages of the pandemic, but as those have eased, they’ve been gathering in person every month.

They brainstorm products, practice their responsibilities and refine their efficiency as any cut of meat that’s left behind means a deduction of points.

Barker said as a newcomer to the competition, Canada will be up against countries where butchery techniques and presentation have evolved decades longer. But what they may lack in experience, they hope to make up with innovation.

“Teams that have been together for a long time will have the efficiency, but I don’t know how creative they’ll be,” said Barker, who’s previously competed at individual events in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.

With the weeks counting down to the competition, Barker said Canada’s practices have been getting more intense.

And just like sports teams, each is followed by a thorough debrief to determine better ways members can work together so not a moment is wasted and everyone is able to operate at the top of their game.

“It’s down to the crunch,” Barker said, adding the team has even invited observers to its most recent practices to simulate the kind of scrutiny under pressure they’ll be facing in the arena.

In the days leading up to the competition, the team will ship a pallet of implements and accoutrements to Sacramento — many of them contributed by sponsors like Carmello Vadacchino of Cook Up — and, once they’re on site, they’ll be heading to local shops and farmers markets for the produce and other products that will be integrated into their final displays.

Barker said while the nerves and excitement are starting to build, she’s looking forward to waving Canada’s culinary flag and hopefully inspire young people to take up the trade.

“There’s cool things you can do as a butcher.”

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Port Moody ice cream maker fuelled by fitness

This story first appeared in the Tri-City News on Oct. 2, 2018

If your idea of a post-workout treat is a high-protein shake or thick fruit smoothie, you’re not Hamid Haji.

He heads for the freezer to scoop himself some ice cream.

In fact, the karate sensei and yoga instructor who runs Pro-Fit Boot Camp in Port Moody with his wife, Kelly Pearce, loves the frozen desert so much he embarked on a mission to make his own.

Fitness and indulgence don’t have to be mutually exclusive, said Haji, who has been part of the city’s fitness scene for 20 years.

“You limit yourself but you don’t have to cut yourself off,” he said. “Limitation makes the rewards sweeter.”

Two years ago, Haji set out to make the best ice cream he could. He and Pearce toured artisanal ice cream shops around the Lower Mainland, sampling their wares, chatting with staff and customers, trying to deconstruct their secrets. Then the couple would put their findings and intuition to work in their kitchen and share the results with clients at their gym.

“They were our guinea pigs,” Pearce said.

Armed with their feedback, they’d head back on the road to source local, natural ingredients and return to the kitchen to experiment with new flavours and conquer new challenges, like concocting a vegan ice cream that doesn’t skimp on creaminess despite its lack of, well, cream.

At some point, Haji’s quest outgrew their counter and freezer space at home, so he and Pearce decided to convert a storage area at the back of their St. Johns Street gym into a white-tiled, stainless steel ice cream factory. Several weeks ago, they christened it Vashti Rose, after their eight-year-old daughter, and started offering the frozen fruits of their labour to the public, one or two scoops at a time.

For now, the ice cream shop is only open on weekends as health regulations don’t allow Haji and Pearce to operate it at the same time people are sweating their workout in the adjoining gym. But kids are free to burn off some of their ice cream-fuelled energy on the matted floor while their parents savour a scoop of salted caramel or cookies and cream at the expansive white countertop.

Haji said he and Pearce have developed more than 100 flavours but they put only 11 of them in rotation at a time. And they’re open to requests, which have already included toasted marshmallow, mint flake and even saffron.

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New Coquitlam hub makes condo shopping a tasty experience

This story was originally scheduled to appear in the Tri-City News

Dinner and a new home?

That unlikely combination for an afternoon or evening out will soon become possible as the developers of a major new project that will eventually comprise 9 towers, including a 27-storey office and hotel building, at the southeaster corner of the Lougheed and Barnet highways launch a new sales centre that includes a restaurant and coffee shop.

The TriCity Pavilion, at 2968 Christmas Way, will feature a sales gallery for Tri-City Central, a new mixed-use development project by Langley-based Marcon and QuadReal Property Group, along with Gigi’s by Ask For Luigi, a high-end Italian restaurant featuring fresh pasta, pizza, Italian wines and cocktails, as well as a new Nemesis coffee shop.

This is Marcon’s third multi-faceted pop-up sales centre and community hub.

In 2022 the developer opened Outpost at 3001 St. Johns St. In Port Moody. It’s sales centre in a strip mall’s parking lot has marketed several projects since, while the adjacent coffee shop offers offers a selection of hot and cold beverages, including craft beers, sandwiches and snacks, as well as showcase space for local products like olive oils from Olive the Best in NewPort Village.

In January, the new Surrey Pavilion featuring a Nemesis coffee shop, opened in the City Centre area.

Marcon’s executive vice-president, Nic Paolella, said the pavilion concept offers a taste of what’s to come in emerging neighbourhoods.

“It’s a living expression of the community we’re building,” he said in a news release.

SUBMITTED
Some of the baked goods that will be available at the Nemesis café in the new TriCity Pavilion in Coquitlam.

Nemesis’ 50-seat Coquitlam location will be its fifth since first opening in Vancouver’s Gastown in 2017.
Founder and CEO, Jess Reno, said it’s an opportunity for the company to bring its “coffee creating culture” to a new, growing city.

“The Tri-Cities is one of Metro Vancouver’s fastest growing regions, and we look forward to working with Marcon once again to bring a new community hub to life with TriCity Pavilion.”

Gigi’s by Ask For Luigi is the first venture in the Metro Vancouver area east of Boundary Road for the Kitchen Table hospitality group that also operates Italian restaurants like Bacaro, Carlino, Di Beppe, as well as Gionvanie Caffé with two locations in Vancouver and another in Toronto, two Mercato di Luigi Italian grocers, and Motoretta gelateria.

SUBMITTED
The interior of the new Gigi’s by Ask For Luigi Italian restaurant that will be part of the TriCity Pavilion and pop-up sales centre in the new TriCity Central project at the southeastern corner of Lougheed and Barnet highways.

Its menu will be designed by culinary director, Chanthy Yen, a former winner on the TV reality show Top Chef Canada, along with head chef Lloyd Taganahan.

“We’re bringing the same heart and hospitality that our Vancouver restaurants are known for to the Tri-Cities,” said Kitchen Table co-founder, Jennifer Rossi.

When Tri-City Central is completed in 10-15 years, it will feature more than 4,000 new condo and rental homes, a park, retail, office and cultural spaces, a childcare facility and possibly a 150-room hotel and conference centre. It will be linked to the nearby Coquitlam Central transit hub by a new pedestrian/cyclist overpass. The project was approved by Coquitlam council in September, 2022.

The TriCity Pavilion is expected to open later this spring, with the sales centre to follow at a later date.

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