A NOTEWORTHY BUZZ: John and Nina Cassils once again fronted their eighth annual Taste the World Gala benefitting Cambodia’s Angkor Children’s Hospital. After vacationing and falling in love with Myanmar and its people, the couple has rallied others to visit through the years and created Taste the World to support the country’s need for better health care. As usual, a raucous crowd filled the Four Seasons ballroom for the fundraiser and wine and cheese grazer held in partnership with the Import Vitners and Spirits Association. Event emcees Sophie Lui and Brad Jefferson saw first-hand the need to support the humanitarian effort. Their travel stories to Southeast Asia along with others buoyed a well-heeled and generous crowd, who emptied their designer purses and wallets of $180,000 and change.
CONTAINER WORLD: Oenophiles filed into the Robert H Lee Alumni for the fifth annual Grape Debate, a marquee event of Dine Out Vancouver. Sponsored by Odlum Brown, the tipple fest once again attracted an esteemed panel of B.C. winemakers, sommeliers and industry pros debating the merits of traditional and modern vessels in the fermentation and ageing process. Although stainless steel and oak barrels have been the tried-and-true go-to containers, the emergence of concrete and clay vessels has raised industry eyebrows. Moderated by Director of Wine DJ Kearney, debaters Darryl Brooker, Christine Coletta, Sid Cross, Tony Holler, Jay Martiniuk, David Scholefield, Sandra Oldfield and Howard Soon hashed it out in front of a capacity crowd, before attendees casted their votes.
YUMMY DIM SUM: In addition to ushering in the Year of the Rooster, Western Lake Chinese Restaurant recently marked its 10th anniversary of serving delicious Chinese food and exceptional dim sum in the city. Consistently ranked as the most popular Chinese dim sum restaurant, the Victoria Drive (at 33rd Avenue) restaurant recently shared a sampling of its winning tapas-style small plates and impressive menu to media and food enthusiasts. Prepared fresh in-house daily by chef Leon Leung, a member of the Canadian dim sum chefs association with 30 years of experience, the handmade dim sum are tasty works of art. Leon’s signature steamed scallops with prawn dumplings dish was a particular standout, along with the steamed bean curd rolls wrapped with minced fish, and deep-fried sticky yam balls. Wisely, restaurant owner Candy Mah offers a dim sum guide with names, pictures and descriptions to help diners order and navigate the incredible selection of sweet and savoury dishes.
40 BELOW: 600 guests filed into the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Convention Centre for the annual roll call of B.C.’s top 40 under 40. Once again assembled by Business In Vancouver, this year’s prestigious list and Top 40 Class highlighted young business people, innovators and professionals who have demonstrated excellence in business, judgment, leadership and community contribution. Always an impressive lot, this year’s recipients included Forum for Women Entrepreneurs general manager Lisa Niemetscheck, TimberWest Forest Corp.’s chief forester Domenico Iannidinardo and Central Park Business Centre general manager Philip Heming who, at age 29, was this year’s youngest upstart among the talented, ambitious and accomplished field, one-third of whom hailed from UBC. CBC’s Andrew Chang and Johanna Wagstaffe hosted the awards ceremony and dinner party.
