What makes a dinner worth $350?
When it’s 8 courses, comes with expert wine and cocktail pairings, and is built on history!
This is the latest Hawksworth collaborative dinner with Monarque from Montreal. This dinner was extra poignant and meaningful, considering that both chefs have known each other for years, and together lived in Vancouver for a period in time.
Jérémie Bastien and Chef David Hawksworth are friends and together they told stories of their shared history, coming up in the Vancouver food scene. This is with Bastien at Lumiere and Hawksworth at West, once upon a time. Both competing to be the best restaurant in Vancouver’s then burgeoning food scene.
As a part of Hawksworth’s 15th anniversary, this exclusive dinner brought together the precision of classic French technique and the creativity of contemporary Canadian cuisine. This was 9 courses for $350 per person. It showcased the season’s finest, locally sourced ingredients, highlighting the distinctive culinary styles of both restaurants. And each course was paired with a wine that was hand-selected by Hawksworth’s award-winning sommelier team. This too was included in the price of the experience. Non-alcoholic beverage pairings were also available, but no modifications to the food menu.
This was meant to be a communal dining experience and we came as a group of 4, to be able to perfectly share it all, starting with snacks for the table.
This was gruyère gougères, cheese filled cream puffs that were best eaten warm and toasty with their centres still soft and melty. This and the tuna tartare bite below were made by Monarque.
We were also welcomed with a glass of sparkling wine. It was light and fresh like champagne. Not toasty, but fruity with crisp apple notes.
Served as a trio, the tuna tartare with foie gras custard and ponzu tapioca was like a cupcake with a great crispy shell encasing a creamy centre. It was a fresh and light bite to start. Especially as I missed the richness of foie gras and the umami of ponzu listed.
The next two small bites on the plate were from Hawksworth. The bbq chorizo bao bun with slow cooked egg. I wished that the yolk was runny, but the bite was spicy and flavourful, I would recommend eating this one last. As their rich flavour outshined the next plant-based small bite.
This was spinach croustade, vegetable tartare, and truffle. The least memorable, but a lovely palate refresher between the seafood and meat bite.
This came alongside the Hawksworth bread service with fresh baked buckwheat sourdough and a mushroom parfait with butter. The earthy mushroom gave this a fall feeling.
All this was served with a cocktail. The Midnight Fjord was a mix of tanqueray gin, woods chiaro, cucumber, and carpano bianco vermouth. It was a lovely take on a white negroni, but I felt it was too much for the gentle bites above. I would have liked this drink alone to start, and to have sparkling above here as a warm up.
Our first course was from Monarque. Jardins du monarque tomato, smoked herring, basil, crouton, and fourme d’ambert. This featured vegetables grown from Monarque‘s garden in Montreal and then flown over to BC for this meal today. Their garden houses over 40 different types of organic vegetable, enough that their restaurant doesn’t need to buy veggies elsewhere, as they grow enough to serve the entire restaurant.
This was a beautiful dish, perfectly highlighting the freshness and quality of the vegetable for a subtle bite prepared with great balance. The stand out was the smoked herring that had a smokey quality to it, it reminded me of bacon and this dish as a whole: a BLT.
This was paired with nu henriot. brut souverain. reims. champagne. France. This was light and effervescent, further cleansing the palate in a magnum bottle.
In an alternating fashion, our next course came from Hawksworth. This was hibachi grilled maitake mushroom, geoduck, sweet corn velouté. Another lovely dish, focusing on mushrooms foraged by Chef Hawksworth and once again speaking to the land that either Chef lives on and is inspired by. I just wish I could have tasted or made out the texture of the geoduck, as an ingredient that you don’t often see in such plated meals. Although the mushrooms were clearly the star of this dish.
This we had with 23 domaine jean-philippe fichet. chardonnay. hautes-côtes de beaune . bourgogne. France. Its high acidity helped to temper the meatiness of the dish.
For our third course from Monarque we had cod ‘en croûte’ with smoked trout, spinach, mushroom, and caviar beurre. This was a creative take on a Wellington, but made with fish. Chef Bastien paid homage to his family of chef owners with this. He spoke to his mother being at the front of house, how his wife is a pastry chef, and that this course was his take and an evolution of his father’s original version.
There was lot of rich butter in the patsy, fish, and sauce combine. And Chef Bastien even came around to each diner, offering a sauce top up, table side. Our group agreed that this rendition was better than any beef Wellington we have had. Soft fish with tender pastry was a perfect match, brought together closely by the creamy sauce, iconically speckled with fish roe.
The wine pairing here was blanc 22 domaine du pélican, savagnin. arbois. jura . France. This was a white wine produced like a red, with skin contact, made in the French Alps. It had a bit of smokiness to pair with the smokiness of the cod. It felt organic with a longer finish and notes of apricot.
Monarque also gave us our fourth course. A heavier lamb lollipop with artichoke, eggplant caviar, confit tomato, and black olive. This was tasty and my favourite course. I loved the salt and brine of the sides to help evolve the fattier lamb rib with every bite.
It wine mate was 23 clos cibonne . tibouren . cuvée prestige oliviere . côtes de provence . France. It gave me bright and unripened cherry with tart and sour characteristics. A good amount of acidity to balance out all the density above.
And that brought us to the following 3 dessert courses, starting with a pre-dessert preserved summer plum with bergamot by Chef Hawksworth. The bergamot was lemony, whereas the preserved nature of the plum made it tart and tangy. This was meant to be a palate cleanser and it shocked the mouth, helping us transition from savoury gravy to sweet cream.
There was no wine here, but we got our glass of unsworth vineyard. maréchal foch. solera. cowichan valley. bc. Canada earlier to be able to transition between plum and our first dessert from Monarque. The wine was produced from a hybrid grape grown locally. It was syrupy with ripe berry.
The paris-brest with hazelnut chantilly, milk chocolate, and puffed rice was like a crispy donut with plenty of luscious whipped cream. I especially liked biting into the whole roasted hazelnut for crunch. The dessert was on the sweeter side, but still manageable.
And our sweet finish didn’t end there. Next, we had a collection of mignardises from Hawksworth. A salted chocolate tartlet, a raspberry & wild rose macaron, and an apricot & brown butter financier. Perfect little bites to ensure you left happy and satisfied.
This was another wonderful evening courtesy of Hawksworth. Their events have yet to disappoint and I already look forward to the next one.
Hawksworth Restaurant
801 W Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6C 1P7
(604) 673-7000
hawksworthrestaurant.com
