SpongeG
Apr 6, 2008, 10:44 PM
ouch
A chef's life after the pot boils dry
The acclaimed Feenie goes down-market
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.nationalpost.com/most_popular/423122.bin?size=404x272
Ian Lindsay, CanWest News ServiceRob Feenie prepares butternut squash ravioli in a casual dining chain's test kitchen.
VANCOUVER -Long a leading light in Canadian haute cuisine, Rob Feenie has moved downstairs, and down-market.
This is the last place gourmands might expect -- or want -- to find one of the country's most celebrated and talented chefs: in a basement test kitchen, toiling for a "casual" restaurant chain.
Best known outside Vancouver for once beating up on Masaharu Morimoto, stone-faced chef of TV's Iron Chef America, Mr. Feenie pulls some pasta from a freezer, throws it in a pot of boiling water and scowls. He seems not in the best of moods.
Understandable. His wrist hurts; Mr. Feenie broke it not too long ago, playing hockey. His beloved Canucks are missing the NHL playoffs. But these are trifles compared to the utter indignity he has just endured.
In November, following a spat with investors, Mr. Feenie walked from Lumiere, the five-star Vancouver restaurant he founded, and Feenie's, its laid-back sidekick. His abrupt departure was front-page news here and sent shock waves through the culinary community.
"I didn't want to leave," shrugs Mr. Feenie, 43. "But it was out of my control. I had turned to the wrong people for help. It was the biggest mistake of my life."
He claims he was stripped of his duties and effectively terminated by his former partners, husband and wife duo David and Manjy Sidoo. Ironically, they had come to his rescue five years ago, when payment obligations on Lumiere's new $1.2-million kitchen threatened to bring down the entire enterprise.
"I had the wool pulled over my eyes," Mr. Feenie says. Not so, counter the Sidoos, adding that Mr. Feenie quit because of some internal miscommunication, and not because they may have favoured another, younger chef they had hired.
Fast-forward to March and another stunning development. The Sidoos struck a deal with New York-based superstar chef Daniel Boulud. He takes over the former Feenie's, next to Lumiere, and is putting in its place a version of his famous contemporary franchise, DB Bistro Moderne.
It's the first Boulud-driven restaurant in Canada. Mr. Boulud is also expected to work some magic inside the Feenie-less Lumiere. Both locations are closed until menu makeovers and front of house renovations are finished, likely in late summer.
It remains to be seen whether former Lumiere regulars will return. Some Feenie loyalists have vowed never to set foot in the restaurant again. A more interesting question is whether they will follow Mr. Feenie to his new home.
The Cactus Club Cafe is a growing chain of casual restaurants, with 17 locations in B.C. and Alberta. Mr. Feenie was introduced two months ago as the chain's "food concept architect." No one saw it coming, although he had flirted with the corporate dining industry before, appearing in television commercials for Whitespot, a B.C.-based family restaurant and fast-food chain best known for a special hamburger sauce that tastes a lot like Thousand Island salad dressing.
Cactus Club Cafe does not do haute cuisine. The fare is solid, if predictable, with well-presented takes on such pub grub staples as burgers and quesadillas. There are other, more interesting items, but no match for the brilliant, challenging dishes that Mr. Feenie once presented at Lumiere: Foie Gras Torchon rolled in gingerbread powder, with date puree and orange blossom brioche; Pheasant Boudin Blanc, with leek, ricotta & lemon ravioli, chanterelle cream and yellowfoot chanterelles; caramelized white chocolate namelaka with muscavado wafer, peach sorbet, Ras al Hanout poached peaches and white chocolate corn.
Opening in 1995, with an initial investment of $500,000, Lumiere won some serious honours, including membership in the Relais Chateaux Gourmand and a five-star rating from the American Automobile Association.
But it was not for everyone. In fact, Lumiere was for very few. A typical meal for two, with wine and tip, cost $500.
Moving to the Cactus Club Cafe, suggests Mr. Feenie, will help democratize good dining. Obviously, he can't cook for everyone. He'll limit his culinary duties to the company's test kitchen, where he's already whipping up new menu choices, and he'll be at the helm when the company's new, $6.5-million flagship restaurant in downtown Vancouver opens this spring
He's not giving away any secrets. Competition in the so-called "casual fine dining" category in which Cactus Club operates is cutthroat, especially in Vancouver, where several other chains --Milestones, Browns, Earl's --already crowd the market.
Mr. Feenie does allow that customers will soon be offered organic fare. He's fiddling with the menu's meat dishes and fussing with the fish.
He's considering bringing over other signature dishes from his former digs, such as the ravioli that he's been tweaking in his new employer's test kitchen.
Mr. Feenie goes into Iron Chef mode and in 10 minutes presents butternut squash ravioli with mascarpone cheese, in a light citrus butter and topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano, deep-fried sage, grated amaretto cookie, truffle oil and extra virgin olive oil. It's very good.
The chef's mood lightens. He smiles, as if recalling when he was on top of the food scene.
"That is a Feenie-esque dish," he says. Then he adds a line that only an old master of haute cuisine could muster: "I still have influence in my mouth feel."
http://www.nationalpost.com/most_popular/story.html?id=423121
A chef's life after the pot boils dry
The acclaimed Feenie goes down-market
http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d/www.nationalpost.com/most_popular/423122.bin?size=404x272
Ian Lindsay, CanWest News ServiceRob Feenie prepares butternut squash ravioli in a casual dining chain's test kitchen.
VANCOUVER -Long a leading light in Canadian haute cuisine, Rob Feenie has moved downstairs, and down-market.
This is the last place gourmands might expect -- or want -- to find one of the country's most celebrated and talented chefs: in a basement test kitchen, toiling for a "casual" restaurant chain.
Best known outside Vancouver for once beating up on Masaharu Morimoto, stone-faced chef of TV's Iron Chef America, Mr. Feenie pulls some pasta from a freezer, throws it in a pot of boiling water and scowls. He seems not in the best of moods.
Understandable. His wrist hurts; Mr. Feenie broke it not too long ago, playing hockey. His beloved Canucks are missing the NHL playoffs. But these are trifles compared to the utter indignity he has just endured.
In November, following a spat with investors, Mr. Feenie walked from Lumiere, the five-star Vancouver restaurant he founded, and Feenie's, its laid-back sidekick. His abrupt departure was front-page news here and sent shock waves through the culinary community.
"I didn't want to leave," shrugs Mr. Feenie, 43. "But it was out of my control. I had turned to the wrong people for help. It was the biggest mistake of my life."
He claims he was stripped of his duties and effectively terminated by his former partners, husband and wife duo David and Manjy Sidoo. Ironically, they had come to his rescue five years ago, when payment obligations on Lumiere's new $1.2-million kitchen threatened to bring down the entire enterprise.
"I had the wool pulled over my eyes," Mr. Feenie says. Not so, counter the Sidoos, adding that Mr. Feenie quit because of some internal miscommunication, and not because they may have favoured another, younger chef they had hired.
Fast-forward to March and another stunning development. The Sidoos struck a deal with New York-based superstar chef Daniel Boulud. He takes over the former Feenie's, next to Lumiere, and is putting in its place a version of his famous contemporary franchise, DB Bistro Moderne.
It's the first Boulud-driven restaurant in Canada. Mr. Boulud is also expected to work some magic inside the Feenie-less Lumiere. Both locations are closed until menu makeovers and front of house renovations are finished, likely in late summer.
It remains to be seen whether former Lumiere regulars will return. Some Feenie loyalists have vowed never to set foot in the restaurant again. A more interesting question is whether they will follow Mr. Feenie to his new home.
The Cactus Club Cafe is a growing chain of casual restaurants, with 17 locations in B.C. and Alberta. Mr. Feenie was introduced two months ago as the chain's "food concept architect." No one saw it coming, although he had flirted with the corporate dining industry before, appearing in television commercials for Whitespot, a B.C.-based family restaurant and fast-food chain best known for a special hamburger sauce that tastes a lot like Thousand Island salad dressing.
Cactus Club Cafe does not do haute cuisine. The fare is solid, if predictable, with well-presented takes on such pub grub staples as burgers and quesadillas. There are other, more interesting items, but no match for the brilliant, challenging dishes that Mr. Feenie once presented at Lumiere: Foie Gras Torchon rolled in gingerbread powder, with date puree and orange blossom brioche; Pheasant Boudin Blanc, with leek, ricotta & lemon ravioli, chanterelle cream and yellowfoot chanterelles; caramelized white chocolate namelaka with muscavado wafer, peach sorbet, Ras al Hanout poached peaches and white chocolate corn.
Opening in 1995, with an initial investment of $500,000, Lumiere won some serious honours, including membership in the Relais Chateaux Gourmand and a five-star rating from the American Automobile Association.
But it was not for everyone. In fact, Lumiere was for very few. A typical meal for two, with wine and tip, cost $500.
Moving to the Cactus Club Cafe, suggests Mr. Feenie, will help democratize good dining. Obviously, he can't cook for everyone. He'll limit his culinary duties to the company's test kitchen, where he's already whipping up new menu choices, and he'll be at the helm when the company's new, $6.5-million flagship restaurant in downtown Vancouver opens this spring
He's not giving away any secrets. Competition in the so-called "casual fine dining" category in which Cactus Club operates is cutthroat, especially in Vancouver, where several other chains --Milestones, Browns, Earl's --already crowd the market.
Mr. Feenie does allow that customers will soon be offered organic fare. He's fiddling with the menu's meat dishes and fussing with the fish.
He's considering bringing over other signature dishes from his former digs, such as the ravioli that he's been tweaking in his new employer's test kitchen.
Mr. Feenie goes into Iron Chef mode and in 10 minutes presents butternut squash ravioli with mascarpone cheese, in a light citrus butter and topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano, deep-fried sage, grated amaretto cookie, truffle oil and extra virgin olive oil. It's very good.
The chef's mood lightens. He smiles, as if recalling when he was on top of the food scene.
"That is a Feenie-esque dish," he says. Then he adds a line that only an old master of haute cuisine could muster: "I still have influence in my mouth feel."
http://www.nationalpost.com/most_popular/story.html?id=423121