IN SEARCH OF THE WEST COAST’S FAVOURITE FALL INGREDIENTS
Autumn, a Muse
By Chef Phil Scarfone
Phil Scarfone is the Culinary Director of Banda Volpi, the gang behind folkloric Vancouver neighbourhood spots Savio Volpe, La Tana, Pepino’s Spaghetti House, and the upcoming Elio Volpe. He grew up on the East Coast and moved to the West Coast in 2009, joining a variety of celebrated restaurants in Vancouver before his current pursuits. He loves foraging the local mountains and forests for wild mushrooms, hiking, and enjoying the great outdoors. Phil was runner-up in Top Chef Canada's seventh season.
Of all the seasons we experience here amongst the rainforests and mountains of Canada’s West Coast, autumn takes the top spot, and it's not even close.
Images courtesy of Hakan Burcuoglu
This time of year brings frosty mornings, torrential rain, and beautiful, crisp evenings, but it offers much more than that. It brings us the abundant gifts of our local forests, farms, and oceans. Here are some of my favourite ingredients that pop up around this time of year.
Mushrooms
I might be somewhat biased when it comes to seasons, as the fall rains breathe new life into our renowned rainforests, yielding the most rewarding treasure for those patient enough to venture among their mossy floors - wild mushrooms.
My best friend Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson (Executive Chef of Published on Main & Boxset Collective) and I will usually hit the road into the woods in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes as early as 5 a.m.! We’ve got our favourite spots in Squamish, Hope, and Princeton, but we are always up for a scouting mission to search for new ground. Usually, we’ll end up home just after dark after a long day of foraging in some of the most beautiful forests on this earth.
Admittedly, they aren't everyone's cup of tea, as their texture and flavour can be an acquired taste, but for me, there's nothing quite like the flavour of nicely roasted mushrooms, studded with garlic, butter, and lemon.
The likes of golden chanterelles, cauliflower, porcini, and the elusive pine mushrooms serve as muses for both local chefs and mycophiles. We make a dedicated effort to feature each of these mushroom varieties throughout the entire Banda Volpi famiglia menu, from risotto and pizza to pasta and antipasti. Our goal is to celebrate these seasonal and regional delicacies through the lens of Italian cuisine.
However, mushrooms aren't the only seasonal ingredients that autumn brings.
Late-Season Vegetables
By the time October rolls around, the Kitsilano Farmers Market brims with late-season vegetables. I’ll always pick up a delicata squash for roasting and stuffing with slow-cooked onions, breadcrumbs, and sage.
Roma tomatoes are available by the bushel, enabling me to craft a flavorful passata that I preserve in Mason jars, offering a glimmer of summer on those gloomy winter nights.
Brussels sprouts are a perennial favourite as well. Hard roasted flat side down in a hot pan and tossed with concord grapes, sherry vinegar and a nut of your choice is a one-way ticket to flavour country! Under no circumstances should you boil Brussels sprouts, this essentially takes all of the fresh cabbage-like flavour out of them and turns them into pungent, flavourless lumps.
Apples & Pears
My apple of choice is the Aurora Gold, which ripens in mid-October. I reserve these exclusively for our apple salad at Savio Volpe. Their crisp, cream-coloured flesh is delightfully crunchy and intensely floral. During service, we keep them submerged in an ice bath, cutting them á la minute for our apple and fennel salad, thus highlighting their texture and preserving their pristine crispness.
For pears - I love a nice firm bosc pear both for eating raw and for slow roasting with honey & thyme for a delicious dessert served over vanilla bean gelato.
Autumn is the most generous of seasons, where the toils of those long summer days of planting pay off for our farmers, and we are spoiled with the bounty of their harvest. For me, inspiration dwells deep within the forest as I search amidst the pines and firs for my next dopamine-inducing experience. If you are keen on learning more about foraging, the best way to learn is to seek out someone with expertise who is willing to share it with you. Ask your friends if they know a forager, or look online for guided forest tours such as Swallow Tail Culinary Adventures.
If you’re into mushrooms but don’t have the desire to forage, you can always hit up the farmers market and look for a mushroom forager. They’ll have all of the season’s best goodies. Don’t let the high per-pound prices deter you as you get a lot of mushrooms in one pound and they will last forever in your fridge if you can’t use them right away.
Indeed, the best parts of the fall are the mushroom hunt and the farmers’ market!
I'd willingly exchange those warm summer nights for the rainy days spent with friends deep in the woods. So - dive in there! Explore your late-season farmers market as well, as there are loads of pristine ingredients readily available.
There’s much more to fall than pumpkin spice lattés and flannel, although I do admittedly love both of these things as well.
