Food.
It’s all about the food. Dinner the first night is as good as some of us are lucky enough to get when Mike is cooking. We call in Paint Chow and the food at Sooke Harbour House is done in the same style, the same approach, as Mike takes. But they have a set of constraints, of limitations, that force creative solutions: prepare world-class dishes using only edible ingredients that are in season on Vancouver Island, and only food that can be grown here in this current season, or put up in its proper time, like jams, jellies, chutney and such.
Sooke Harbour House is a quaint inn with stained glass, knotted rugs and local First People’s art combined with rocking chairs, old glass bottles and found-object art, mosaics on the walkways.

It’s not what we expected from the hotel that houses Vancouver Island’s Best Restaurant (April, 2009). The dining room is quaint too, with crab shells hung on the walls and a huge stone fireplace in front of a seating area for those waiting on a table or just having a drink. It’s comfortable, welcoming and perfectly suited to this location and the Inn Keeper, Frederique.
Okay, okay. Now to the menu. After our early morning flight, we were both still a little chilly. So Mike started with a simple Parsnip Soup, topped with lamb pancetta and frizzled leeks. My first course was seared scallop on a bed of fingerling potatoes, pine mushrooms, and roasted pearl onion. Aged balsamic drizzled across the scallop, accompanied by hemp seed oil. The hemp seed oil is different. Groups of tiny hemp seeds are spread on the plate with oil ‘roads’ connecting them. The seeds are crunchy like sesame seeds, but completely different. They group together a little like green baby tapioca. Flavor is mild, green and earthy.
For our entrees, Mike had lamb shoulder stew with sliced acorn squash. The acorn squash was sliced then, and cooked with skin on. After being oven roasted, Sam, the sous chef, throws them in a hot pan to crunch up the skins. Totally delicious. My main course has grilled halibut on a chorizo ravioli served with Napoli squash. We had never had Napoli and there are a number of varieties of Napoli and I don’t know which this was. Shaped sort of like an elongated watermelon, and striped like that, too, the flesh is sweet, cantaloupe flavored when raw and pumpkin flavored when cooked. Dice-sized squares were danced across my plate and the whole dish was set on a bed of roasted pepper and onion oil and Napoli vinaigrette. It was absolutely the best dish we had.
Dessert, well, we couldn’t say no. Mike had a cheese plate with four different local cheeses. Our favorite was the Bessie Blue, a soft blue with an intense, but soft, blue essence. Bessie is the cow who donates the milk to make this cheese. I had a trio of sorbet that were amazing: quince with angelica, raspberry mint and I can’t remember the third. But man they were good.
Breakfast the next morning was a farm fritatta.
At 10:30 we meet Byron in the lobby and head out to the organic garden on the property.
Everything that has been intentionally put on the land is edible. Walnut and hazelnut trees, pine trees, fuchsia, tuberous begonia, evergreen kiwi… it’s delightful. Byron walks us though the edible landscape, pointing out and letting us taste. Fuchsia berries were our first surprise. They’re delicious, about the size of an olive and tangy. Apparently, the chef’s run out and pick them as soon as they appear and make jam. Lemons don’t grow here in BC so they’re out of the kitchen. Instead, substitutes like the tuberous begonia, lemon verbena and other lemony herbs are used instead. The tuberous begonia is the only kind you can eat. The leaves are very lemony and the cooks use then in salads and oils. The stalks are taken and sauteed or candied. It’s fun to walk the yard. There are a few things we’ll try to add to our garden next year.
After all that food we headed out to town to explore the one-square block that is downtown Sooke. We spend all of our time at the jewelers and I come away with a new ring!
Then it’s back to Sooke Harbor House and time for Mike and I to head into the kitchen. Down the back stairs and through the underbelly of the hotel into the staff changing room. Mike is groaning the whole way about having to put polyester back on. It’s been 10 years since he was in the kitchen but he’s dreading the return of kitchen dreams and is sure putting on whites will trigger them. Unfortunately, I had the catering/kitchen nightmare dream that night and he didn’t. Outfitted like chefs, we come back up the stairs and report for duty. I work with Sam, their sous chef, and Mike is paired with Robin. Since there’s to be no knife work for me, it’s peeling vegetables to start. Mike is put to work making
goat cheese balls rolled in panko. Once the parsnips, celery root and yams were cleaned, I got set to make Spatzel dough. One pound of flour to seven eggs. ”Weigh the bowl first” whispers Mike as he passes by with butter from the walk-in. ”Doh” I would have missed that for sure.
The dough is really thick and I need a big wooden spoon to mix it. The whisk simply gets clogged with the dough. We set that aside for a bit and put on a huge pan of water to boil. Once that’s done a slotted pan is handed to me along with a flat spatula. My job? Make the Spatzel. Putting the dough on the back side of the pan, I’m to press the dough through the holes and into the water. It sounds easier than it is. The steam is hot, the pan is sliding all over the place and my arm gets tired. Every 5 minutes or so I stop, scoop out the Spatzel, and start over again. Mike comes over and is laughing at me. ”All we ever did with Spatzel in school was ruin it.” So at least I have one-up on him!
Spatzel chores completed, I get sent to the pastry chef for my next adventure. Mike is still working with Robin. He’s made blue-potato croquets and is now onto the parsnip and nettle soup that we’ll have for dinner. I hear Robin shout over the hood fan noise “It’ll be a gross green color, Mike.” Mike is splattered with this green mess when he’s done putting the parsnip and nettle mixture in the large blender But it tastes great!.
In the pastry kitchen, I’m set to the task of making cheese rounds. Soft jack cheese mixed with red, black and white pepper and lots of paprika. The grated cheese and spice mixture is then to be put in rounds on a sheet pan and cooked until bubbly. Then it’s time to burn our hands as the melted circles need to be shaped within 10 seconds after being removed from the oven. Mike is done making icky green stuff and is there to help me lay the wicked hot cheese on the rolling pin to create the shapes. We break a few, but all in all, we did okay.
Mike had more fun than he expected and so did I. We thought we’d get a tour and be set down for a lecture. We didn’t know we’d be helping to make dinner. And Mike learned a few things, which was fun. Mostly, though, he learned he can cook with the best of them!
After a short nap in front of the fire, we head down to dinner for a 7:45 seating. Our 7-course extravaganza is about to begin. Instead of the 7-course meal being planned as a single event, we simply get smaller portions of all the items on the menu. Mike’s parsnip and nettle soup is the starter. Served in a simple white plate with a deep indentation in the middle, the soup is a vibrant green garnished with the goat cheese ball and a small fennel frond. It’s a simple, aromatic soup made without stock. And it’s giving Mike “ideas”.
2nd course is a smoked black cod on the blue-potato croquette. The final course is an under-whelming pork wellington. The pork is stuffed inside the puff pastry with kale. It’s a little dry and not that flavorful. Set in broth, the pastry is soft and falls apart.
Dessert saves the day: Quince Cheesecake with Buttermilk Ice Cream. And it is heavenly. Simply heavenly.
And it’s back to the room and the sleep of the dead.