F & V, That's What's Good For Me

Last night, chefs from a number of local restaurants and hotels around Greater Vancouver took on one of the best challenges of all: how to work more fruits and vegetables into the diet you and I eat on an every day basis. Research from the BC Cancer Society indicates 50 percent of cancers are preventable through diet and exercise, not to mention all of the heart healthy benefits of proper nutrition.

The Healthy Chef competition involved working at least three fruits or vegetables into an entree and then a dessert, with the grading encompassing creativity, colour, and texture.

The various teams presented items like onions stuffed with minced musk ox, halibut filets in saffron-scented bouillabaisse made on a working stone campfire, beautifully carved giant garnishes, quail eggs on pork tenderloin above a rainbow of fanned out vegetables, and leek wrapped lamb above carrot 'noodles.' Desserts were beautifully crafted little nibbles incorporating a wealth of different fuits and vegetables.

Guests also got to play around with all of the food on offer, opening up individual envelopes at their seats to see from which of the eleven stations they would get an entree, and then a different choice for their dessert.

From the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, I got a mushroom-smoked sockeye salmon filet, topped with basil-flecked yogurt. There was also some crunchy kale, diced beets, and roast squash under walnuts. Lovely on the plate and on the palate as well, and a strong reminder that it doesn't have to be the same old boring steamed vegetables night after night.

Prizes were handed out under different categories, with another prize for recipes created using California strawberries (a slightly odd sponsor by geography, considering it was an event also sponsored by the BC Produce Marketing Association, but I suppose these days you takes who you can gets.)

You can find a list of the winning chefs here: bcmpa.wordpress.com, but I suppose all of the 450 attendees were the real winners, each taking home a seven pound cardboard box stuffed with fruits and veggies. It's the best swag bag I've ever seen for turning the premise of an event for potential action.

Courtesy of the Sheraton Wall Centre, here's a simple way to make veggie or fruit chips.

Make a 50% simple syrup out of honey or sugar and water (two cups of the former, one of the latter)

Cut the fruit or vegetable into paper thin portions, and soak overnight in the simple syrup.

Lay the chips out on a parchment lined baking pan.

Bake in an 125F oven until crisp. Enjoy!