Chef Jeff Van Geest says cooking is about learning and building on a body of knowledge
Jeff Van Geest has a loosely formed mission statement for his approach to cooking for his clientele, but he says it’s all in his head. Not that he’s ad-libbing. His menus at Miradoro at Tinhorn Creek Winery in Oliver are well thought out using local, seasonal ingredients and, like many chefs, he interprets a lot from other cultures.
Has family contributed to your interest in food?
JVG: My family weren’t chefs although we were good cooks. My one grandfather was a gardener-for-hire with a small kitchen garden at home and my other grandfather had an orchard and strawberry farm. Both on the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario.
How did you land in the Okanagan?
JVG: I moved to BC because of a recession in Ontario in the early ’90s and I couldn’t get a job cooking. I took the culinary course at Vancouver Community College and worked my way up. I worked with Bernard Casavant and learned a lot from him, but it was at Bishop’s in Kitsilano where I really sharpened my talents. Every step of the way I learned something new and important.
After 20 years in Vancouver, my wife Melanie and I started looking around for someplace to raise a family. We tried different places like the Kootenays and Gulf Islands before coming to the Okanagan. While working at Burrowing Owl I was introduced to Manny Ferreira and invited to become the executive chef for his new restaurant at Tinhorn Creek.
What region affects your style?
JVG: When I first started visiting the Okanagan the dry rolling hills reminded me of the Mediterranean region—around the south of Spain and Morocco. It was the landscape that really made me want to introduce this cuisine to the region. Our wood-fired pizza oven got me making Neapolitan-style pizzas right from the start and it seemed to me that this was an authentic approach to food.
Any there any Mediterranean regional foods you don’t prepare?
JVG: Definitely no French. It’s not that I don’t like it, but there are other interesting cuisines out there to explore.
What sets you apart?
JVG: We make our own sausages and smoked meats. I produce a lot of our own charcuterie like mortadella. Right now I have a prosciutto (smoked ham) that’s been hanging for nearly a year and is just about ready. (Charcuteries are meat products like pâté, terrines, pressed meats and brined meats that take their taste from the preservation process. They are usually associated with pork, but can be any meat.)
Do you use any special equipment?
JVG: No, other than the pizza oven, but if I recommended anything, it would be a good cast iron pan—a frying pan. It has to be well-seasoned and you should clean it by gently rubbing the cooking surface then oiling it with warm oil before putting it away. Never, never use soap on it.
Read more of the original stories celebrated in our 30th-anniversary issue.
Art in the open
I’m sitting on a local piece of public art. Don’t try and guess which one just yet, as you can see I’ve taken special care to distort its silhouette by lying awkwardly across it as if I was a bikini clad barista on a break at hot sands beach. I’m performing…
Prop Man Dean Goodine
Property master Dean Goodine learned hands-on from some of the best in the industry on sets like Unforgiven. He ensures anything an actor moves or uses is ready, era-authentic and fits how the character. It can be nerve-racking…
Valley Voyageur
“Preparez!” I raise my paddle over the water. “En avant!” Down it goes in time with the lead stroke, Laurie Bowen, who sits alone in the bow. Jordie, her husband and partner in Selah Outdoor Explorations, is calling orders from the stern of a 29-foot freighter canoe that’s dressed in the finery of the Hudson’s Bay Company fur brigade. It’s timely that I’m paddling Okanagan Lake with the rest of the 11-person crew. This year marks the bicentennial of David Stuart’s trek through the Okanagan and the opening of a vital fur trade route that flourished for decades.
Retro Music
I call him Collard. He’s a gorgeous hunk of piano, an 1864 product of the British piano maker Collard and Collard Company. When we met, the choice was this parlour grand or a molar implant. I don’t miss the tooth.
Teen Mental Health
These haunting words are true statements made by young people who went on to commit suicide.
Astronomers Show ‘n’ Shine
I’m always up for a new adventure, so when I heard about the Mount Kobau Star Party, near Osoyoos, I phoned a photo buddy of mine who has a camper van and we hit the road. Sleeping bag, foamy, pillow, camera, tripod, scope and Klutz guide, Backyard Stars.
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