Gerry Goldwyre's North American Adventure

 

MasterChef winner, chef and architect, Gerry Goldwyre and his wife Susan are on a year's trip to North America discovering all that's best about food and cooking along the way.

October - Napa Valley to Edmonton

It is quite a thrill to drive past vineyards in the Napa Valley with names that are so familiar to us from the restaurant. On the food side, the French Laundry restaurant is famous here for good food at a price. Sadly it is also not easy to make a reservation. Maybe just as well because, at $200 each, this would have cut into our budget a little too deep. Instead, Susan bought me the book of the restaurant dishes. She then marked all the recipes that sounded too good to miss and left it for me to organise to cook the selected recipes. That way we still get the French Laundry food at cost price. The argument seems a trifle flawed but who am I to argue.

Napa was not just hot, it was blistering hot. We moved on via Highway 1 towards Oregon. Not so well-known for its food and wine. How wrong could I be? The wine here is outstanding, especially the Pinot Noir, thanks to cooler nights and hot summers.

Travelling towards Albany in Oregon we stopped in our tracks at a sign saying “Try Our Mushrooms”. Well how could we resist? A large jolly guy with a long beard and a pot belly rushed over when he saw our “tartan mobile”. I had thoughts of a few mushrooms for a meal for 4 but we left with over 2kg. A mycologist’s dream I reckon. So many different types of mushroom, all organically grown under controlled conditions in polytunnels. Investment in the growing medium is the key to good mushrooms apparently. You then seed the growing medium with the mycelium and let nature take over. We would have taken more of this fantastic produce but sadly there was not mushroom in the car. Sorry!

From Oregon we travelled on Highway 1 again, to Washington. Through Seattle, stopping for coffee of course, and a chance to sample the bustling street life. Then on to Whidbey Island where we caught the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island. The scenery here is so beautiful I would urge you to visit this part of the world and see for yourself. Words escape me and space does not permit me to try and do it justice.

From Vancouver we travelled on to Whistler Mountain. At this point in our trip we realised summer was finally over and snow was evident on the higher points of the Rockies. Autumnal colours here were more gold and yellow than the reds of the Maples in east coast New England, but just as breathtaking in their own way.

Glorious island scenery

An unexpected treat, the annual Fall Okanagan Wine Festival was in full swing as we moved on to Kelowna. I must confess I had never heard about this festival and maybe this was simply a serendipitous stop off. The festival has been running for 24 years. Short of time we chose to visit just one winery, Mission Hills, the most established enterprise on the wine trail. We met Jackie Cooke, one of the sommeliers, who kindly offered a private tasting since we were restaurateurs. We started with a 2002 Pinot Blanc which was particularly good value. At £5 to £6 per bottle, if you see it, buy it. If you don’t like it I’ll be shocked. Not normally a stunning grape, this pinot blanc had lots of juicy acidity balanced with floral flavours. The conditions at Mission Hill produce riper fruit with a low yield and a resultant high viscosity giving their pinot blanc more depth of flavour. We decided the wine would be particularly good with toasted sesame, seared scallops and maybe feta cheese; not necessarily all together of course. After sampling more wines, we finished with the ice wine. Grapes for ice wine have to be picked when the temperature is below -8 deg C. A loud siren alarm awakens the people who live on the Estate who have put their names down for the task. They tog up in their warmest clothes and sprint to the floodlit vineyards ready to start picking. Jackie confirmed the early morning task was pretty awful but the camaraderie made it all worthwhile. It will certainly make me reflect the next time I sample ice wine, hopefully next to a roaring log fire in our own restaurant.

From Okanagan Valley we drove to Banff in the Rockies and then on to Edmonton. At this point we are beyond the half way point in our trip and on the home run. This is also the farthest north point we shall go. Last night a light flurry of snow was forecast. Forty eight hours later there has been a foot and a half of snow and the temperature has not risen above -4 deg C all day. It’s only October!

After Edmonton we are heading for Calgary for a TV slot on a local station. Then on to Montana, Wyoming, Utah and back to California following the spine of the Rockies. Basically heading South, in search of some heat. Until then I may have to put my shorts away in the suitcase.