This week Christine and I were invited to the most wonderful Dine Out event at Yew Seafood + Bar at the Four Seasons.
This week Christine and I were invited to the most wonderful Dine Out event at at the Four Seasons. All "Yew" Need is Cheese was sponsored by the Dairy Farmers of Canada and was essentially creatively infusing a number of seafood dishes with fine Canadian cheeses. Monterey jack, cheese curds, marble cheddar, double cream camembert, mild cheddar, aged cheddar and fromage frais all made their way in - sometimes subtly and sometimes not - to the array of dishes that I'm sharing Christine's photos of below.
We started with
Cheddar Gougeres made with Bothwell Cheese Company's Marble Cheddar.
Followed by (Ned's award winning)
Organic Ocean Humpback Shrimp Chowder served with
Cheesy House Made Scones made with Bothwell Jalapeno Pepper Jack cheese.
Next, my favourite dish of the night, which will soon be appearing on the Yew menu:
Lobster Poutine (!!!) made with Golden Ears Cheesecrafters' Fresh Cheese Curds.
The choice of mains were this
Dungeness Crab & Camembert Stuffed Heritage Chicken Breast made with Poplar Grove Cheese Co's Double Cream Camabert (which is what Christine had)...
And the Roasted
Sablefish, Kale & Cheddar Pesto, Tomato Jam made with Village Cheese's Aged Cheddar (which I had)...
Dessert was
Cheesecake, Fromage Frais Ice Cream, Salted Caramel & Chocolate Cheddar Sauce made with Little Qualicum Cheeseworks Fromage Frais and Village Cheese's Aged Cheddar.
Every course was introduced by the ever-hospitable Chef Ned Bell, who promised (and delivered) "cheesy" puns throughout the night.
The dishes were all (quite obviously) wonderful, and as one of the heads of the Dairy Farmers of Canada was sitting at our table with us I learned some interesting facts about our cheeses, the most awesome being that there are no growth hormones allowed in them. At all. If you see the "" seal on products you can be assured that there are no hormones used. If it's not on the cheese products you're buying they could be made using imported milks (from the USA and overseas), which could quite possibly have come from cows pumped full of growth hormones. It's not quite as clean as all our cheeses being fully organic but it's pretty cool that across the board, regular milk (and of course cheese) in our country is better for us than our neighbours' down south.
This dinner was a one-off and won't be happening again, but that shouldn't stop you from taking a look at their Dine Out menu and considering booking a reservation.
Watch out for more looks inside in the coming months as we've partnered with them to host some of our upcoming where I sit down with interesting Vancouverites for coffee (
lunch and coffee in these upcoming ones) and then share some insight on them with you.
All photos Christine McAvoy -
Check out Yew and some other great seafood restaurants in our 2014 guide to our favourites:
