TasteTrip
Farm-fresh cookin’ (page 2)
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By 1995, however, the then 37-year-old
Novak knew she wanted something else.
“It was the most difficult decision of my
life when I decided I couldn’t farm
anymore,” she recalls. “I was completely
worn out physically and emotionally.”
Instead of leaving a place that she loves
and to which she feels deeply connected,
she decided to downsize, selling some of
the farmland and leasing out part of the
acreage to a neighbour.
When she came up with the concept
of opening a cooking school on the
remaining 22-hectare property, a place that
would be more experiential than simply
instructional, she acted quickly, eschewing
a business plan and research for gut
instinct. It was February 1998 when she
made the decision. She opened her doors
that fall and hasn’t looked back.
The other participants in our cooking
class — two couples, a few girlfriends, a
mother and her university-aged daughter
— are already seated at a counter-height
wooden table when we gather inside.
Executive Chef Patrick Engel is buzzing
around preparing the ingredients while
his assistant, Amanda Bertrand, tops up
glasses with the Gewürztraminer that will
be paired with the first of our five courses.
An alumnus of the much-lauded
Niagara restaurant On the Twenty, as well
as Rodney’s Oyster House and Bymark,
both in Toronto, Engel is 33, with dark
hair, darker eyebrows and a trial-and-error
attitude to cooking. For a man whose wife
just gave birth to their second child the
day before (he’s actually still wearing
the hospital bracelet), he’s astonishingly
animated and wellspoken.
“I’m constantly learning in this business,”
he explains as he glides around the kitchen,
talking as much with his hands as his
voice. “That’s my attitude to cooking. If
something doesn’t work, I’ll just turn it
into something that does.”
It’s an easy-come, easy-go approach that
Good Earth carries into all its work. When
the weather is nice, for instance, Novak
sets up in a beautiful alfresco kitchen overlooking
vineyards, fruit trees and herb beds.
Menus are chosen to complement the
season and the bounty of produce, meat and
wines available locally. Participants, too,
are discouraged from rigidly following
along with a recipe. In fact, we are simply
given lists of ingredients — no measurements
(dessert is the exception, because
baking tends to be a more exact science).
The theme for our three-hour demonstration
class is “gone chopping,” which, it
turns out, is a punny reference to both the
process and the lobster “chops,” spring lamb chops and beef chop we’ll be watching Engel
prepare. But first we start with a “quick dip”
of smoked salmon, which Engel smoked
himself, and cream cheese, seasoned with
capers, red onion and lovage — a herb that
tastes a bit like celery — picked straight
from the Good Earth kitchen garden. Trays
of delicate homemade crackers and fresh
raw asparagus are passed around — the
veg also plucked sun-warm from the pretty
potagerie, where a dining table is nestled
among the tomatoes and peppers, purple
basil and arugula.
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