Chef Andrea's Asparagus Pesto

If you are subscribed to our newsletter you will have seen that we are launching a new series of kid-friendly recipes shared by professional chefs. Each quarter we’ll share a delicious recipe created by some of the city’s best chefs with kids’ tastebuds in mind. Sign up for our quarterly What’s Growing On newsletter to be one of the first to try out a new dish. We also encourage you to share your recipe recreations on Instagram and tag us @GrowingChefs so we can celebrate your win!

For our spring newsletter, we reached out to our long-time friend, Chef Andrea Carlson. As MICHELIN star Chef and Owner at Burdock & Co, Harvest Community Foods, and Bar Gobo, Chef Andrea Carlson’s love for the land surfaces in organic, seasonal plates influenced by B.C.’s diverse environments. Her signature style of cooking – delicate, earthy and vibrant – captures the essence of farm-to-table dining and is a tangible reminder of her lasting impact and leadership within the culinary community.

Chef Andrea’s vibrant pesto combines the seasonal spring brightness of asparagus with fragrant lemon and earthy almonds, along with a generous helping of parmesan. Serve it with pasta for a quick and uncomplicated weeknight dinner.

Family Cooking Class: Summer Gazpacho

Join us for our ‘Family Cooking Class: Summer Gazpacho’ with Chef Morgan and learn how to make a cooling, delicious summer soup.

Chef Morgan has planned a fun and exciting “choose your own adventure” style gazpacho recipe and live cooking class for kids and families (grown-up supervision recommended). Join us as we learn how to make a delicious and nutritious cold summer soup that you can easily customize to your family’s personal tastes. Learn about seasonal fruits and vegetables and find out what the difference is between a baton and a batonnet. There will be plenty of hands-on opportunities to learn and practice kid-friendly kitchen skills during this event.

Family Cooking Class: Summer Gazpacho

In support of Growing Chefs. Where kids’ connections to food take root.
$25 | July 28, 2021 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM PST

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Knives for little hands!

Looking for a beginner-friendly knife? Check out the Kussi Kids Knife from House of Knives. 

"The Kussi Kids Chef Knife was designed for kids with the help of kids and is great for all beginners in the kitchen, no matter their age! Crafted from German quality steel for great edge retention, the blade shape and length are just right. The blade is wide enough to allow for some knuckle clearance—perfect for learning the basic rock and cross chop techniques. Designed with safety in mind, the rubberized handle ensures a non-slip grip, even when wet! The rounded blade tip and safety choil make sure that little fingers don’t slip onto the blade." - House of Knives

Use promo code GROWINGCHEFS when shopping at houseofknives.ca and 10% will be donated to Growing Chefs!

Get your kids and grownups into the kitchen! Can’t wait. Hope to see you there.

Stirring Up Fun!

Calling kids of all ages! A fun family cooking class awaits!

Stirring Up Fun happens this Sunday, November 8th. This class is going to be so cool. Grab your kid-sized aprons (and your kids!) and master your family’s cooking skills with Chef Alain Chow of the acclaimed Vancouver restaurant, Kissa Tanto. Consistently ranked as one of Canada’s best restaurants since opening its doors in 2017, Kissa Tanto is basically… a big deal!

stirring up fun - Family cooking class | november 8, 2020 | 3:00 PM
$50 INCLUDES ingredients from Whole foods market | $20 ZOOM ONLY

Chef Alain will walk your family through some accessible cooking techniques to help you make a delicious, nutritious, and vegan (but so good!) pasta dish based on Kissa Tanto’s famous Tajarin Pasta. How can stock infuse your pasta sauce with flavour? What is nutritional yeast for? Answer these questions and many more this Sunday.

Photo by Scout Magazine

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Our longtime friends, Whole Foods Market is sponsoring out From Farms to Forks Food Series, and also providing the ingredients you’ll cook with! The team at Whole Foods have carefully selected ingredients from their stores to help recreate restaurant-quality food at home.... with your kids! Sound too good to be true? We promise, it’s not! Ingredient packages will be available for pick-up at two convenient Whole Foods locations, with everything you need for the meal (except a little oil and salt) already assembled. Easy peasy!

Speaking of Whole Foods, Growing Chefs is currently the beneficiary of the fall 2020 bag donation program! All BC Whole Foods locations are collecting 10 cent donations for Growing Chefs for every bag you don’t take home. Don’t forget--pack a reusable bag, save the environment, AND support food literacy in your community… all in one.

Now, don’t see the word vegan and opt out! We’re telling you… Chef Alain has packed nutrition and flavour into this dish. And we purposely chose a cool vegan dish to teach you something new. You and your little chefs will learn how to use products you might not encounter every day and make something you eat all the time more nutritious. 

And, there’s more! A musical guest. No kidding! The maestro Matt Kennedy (who happens to be a Growing Chefs board member on top of being an incredible musician) will delight you with tunes for all ages following the cooking demonstration! Enjoy restaurant ambience in your own home, with a chef-coached meal and musical entertainment… you’ll basically be fine dining!

Matt Kennedy is a Vancouver-based singer-songwriter and member of several acoustic string bands including fan favourite "Farmteam".  Matt sings and plays guitar and mandolin.

Photo by Mavreen David Photography

Get your kids and grownups into the kitchen! Can’t wait. Hope to see you there.

Join us to get Loco for Cocoa!

Less than one week until Loco for Cocoa, our second delicious event in our From Farms to Forks Food Series. I haven’t been this excited about an event in a long time.

loco for cocoa chocolate experience | october 25, 2020 | 7:30 pm

If you haven’t heard the details, it’s an online celebration of all things chocolate! The night includes cool (but short!) lectures on the history of chocolate and how cacao is grown, along with a live demonstration of a delectable chocolate dessert. It’s going to be super fun.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Merri Schwartz, the founder of Growing Chefs and one of the current Co-Interim Executive Directors. But I’m also a professional pastry chef and chocolatier. Talking and teaching about chocolate are two of my favourite things of all time.

Me surrounded by chocolate treats.

What I’m most excited about for Loco for Cocoa are the people. 

I get to work on the dessert with a good friend and one of my favourite pastry chefs (oh, and newest Growing Chefs board member), Wendy Boys! Wendy and I always have a great time together, and we’re stoked to do our chocolate class with a little banter. We all spend a lot of time watching talking heads online these days, and interacting with a colleague--even through Zoom--is a much more fun way to teach you how to make dessert.

The amazing Wendy Boys! Photo by Mavreen David Photography.

Then, we have Shelley Bolton. Another dear friend and favourite collaborator, Shelley is the manager and chocolate maker at the amazing East Van Roasters. She’s going to explain how cacao is grown and how chocolate is made, and share about her experiences at cacao farms in the jungles of Guatemala and the hills of Hawaii. Can’t wait!

Shelley Bolton making chocolate in a 30 kg stone grinder.

Our third guest, Dr. Shea Henry, is a scholar who knows aaaaaaaall about the history of chocolate. I could listen to Shea talk for hours about the archaeology of food. The current Director and Archivist at the Maple Ridge Museum, Shea is full of cool, historical facts and has been giving talks about the history of chocolate for the past ten years!

We cannot wait for Shea’s talk about the history of chocolate!

Oh, and I can’t forget the other awesome piece! The local bit. We decided for the dessert that we’re going to source every. single. item. locally. (Of course, technically… the cacao and the sugar in the chocolate are imported. But because the product is roasted and ground right in the Downtown Eastside, we decided to count it.) 

The pears are from Parsons Farm Maket, the honey is from Hives for Humanity, we’ll have Mission Hill Family Estate wine, and the wonderful Earnest Ice Cream… all from BC! Even our vegan options are local: the Earth's Own oat cream, and Blue Heron Cheese plant-based butter both hail from Vancouver, while the Cosman & Webb maple syrup comes from a lovely farm in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. The salt is courtesy of the amazing Salt Spring Sea Salt.

If you join us, your $75 ticket will land you a package of these items so you can follow along as we cook. Or just keep to enjoy later ;). For those of you who are from out of town, you’re still welcome to join the Zoom for just $20! We will provide you with a shopping list so you can follow along too.

Thank you Mavreen David Photography for visiting Chef Wendy Boys during her run-through.

We’re so grateful for the support of our Silver Thyme event sponsors, Mission Hill Family Estate and Whole Foods Market for helping us throw fun events like this one. Thank you Pacific Restaurant Supply for opening your space to allow for safe and convenient ingredient pick up!

I’d be honoured to have you on board. Let’s celebrate chocolate and Growing Chefs together! Purchase your tickets here, and check out the other great events we have coming up here.

loco for cocoa chocolate experience | october 25, 2020 | 7:30 pm