About Us I'm constantly amazed by the people who turn up at my restaurant.When we pick up the phone, we never know who's coming--movie star, prime minister, prince, artist, tycoon, author, diva. But the biggest compliment we get is not from celebrities or guidebooks or the restaurant reviews, but from customers who come to dine time after time. We consider them as family. It's odd that Bishop's turned out the way it did. When chefs get together on their days off, they love to have dinner parties for all their friends and talk about what their restaurant will be like when they open it. At my dinner parties, we used to talk about how you can't go to a restaurant and do just what we were doing--sit around a table and get a whole chicken served family-style. I thought it would be neat to have a restaurant like that. Then, when I was ready to go out on my own, I took a trip to New York and went to a restaurant that astonished me. They used beautiful china and Cristofle silver and the best crystal, but there was modern art dripping off the walls and big flower arrangements. Here were all the trappings of a wonderful French restaurant, but no stuffiness. And, oh my God, the food! It was classic French cooking, but absolutely modern, with locally grown ingredients presented in a wonderful array of colours and shapes and all tasting very natural. In every way, this restaurant had a classical feel to it, but it was also very contemporary. So, out went the family-style idea. This approach felt so right that I was absolutely driven. I'd found what I wanted to create. It wasn't a great time to open a restaurant then--it was 1985 and recession was still on--but none of my friends were surprised when they found out what I was about to do. I'll never forget that first day. An hour before the doors opened, the furniture was still being moved; Theresa, my wife, was hanging the blinds she had made; my lawyer, Rick, was wallpapering the bathroom; soups and stocks were simmering on the stove. At the last minute, we realized we didn't know what to do with the napkins, so we arranged them in the wineglasses--a desperate move that became something of a signature of the restaurant. A week before, a friend had passed by a thought we'd never make it; he wondered if he could cancel the flowers he'd arranged to send. But he kept the faith, and, miraculously, we did pull things together and had a great opening party. At first, I cooked and at the same time attempted to greet my customers as they arrived, because I was the only one who knew the guests well. But after six months I was forced to change roles, put on a suit and try to cover the front of the house while also exerting some influence on the food. That's the way I still operate. We want to present perfect, understated, delicious food with everything thought out. I'd call our style of cuisine international new food. We have a very creative style of cooking that's grounded in a European tradition. The cooking methods are still roasting, grilling, poaching and steaming--and our preparation techniques are still classic. We're not reinventingthe wheel, but we do stay away from fussy and ridiculously complicated. Who needs it when you have flavourful fresh ingredients to start with? Ingredients are king--we look for quality and freshness. It's sort of a Japanese attitude: if you buy a fish that's just out of the ocean, you don't need to do a lot to it. And we don't apply the principle just to the centrepiece ingredient. The vegetables are local and organic, bright and delicious. The breads are baked every morning. We play with food the same way an artist plays with paints. We let the ingredients tell us what to cook. A supplier brings in a load of razor clams, and they become our evening special. Someone picks a bunch of elderberry blossoms from a tree growing wild, and their distinctive fragrance inspires a sauce. Blackberries come into season, and we consider the possibilities of using them different ways, perhaps in a meat dish. That's the fun of running a small restaurant. We like to tinker. The innovation comes in combining flavours, textures, ethnic influences and colours, all with pleasure in mind. The vegetables might arrive as different vividly coloured purées, all shaken together to make abstract art on the plate. Or the mashed potatoes might be sprinkled with a bit of coarse salt, so that with every forkful you get wonderful, unexpected high notes of salt. China might meet Mexico in a shellfish spring roll with a chipotle tomato sauce; a white fish fillet might look dramatic in a pool of red sauce. People often look at the dishes we bring out and say, "I don't know whether to eat it or lacquer it and put it on the wall," but eat it they do, and they usually tell us that they're glad they did. We also hear, "I could do this at home," in a tone of some surprise. Absolutely! That's the whole point. Chef Michael Allemeier presides in the kitchen now, cooking from the heart as he has for ten years. His cooking skills are world class, and he's also totally aware of issues surrounding food and food service. Those attributes make him an excellent teacher. Sous-chef Dennis Green also cooks like an angel, although his style differs slightly. He's brilliant with seafood dishes and creative desserts. Their two styles complement each other, and Dennis and Michael work together very well. We also have a wonderful team of support people in the kitchen. Carolyn Wallace starts work every weekday morning at 6:30 to bake our breads and pastries and to prepare the soups and sauces. What a great cook she has become. Then there is David Kerry, who works closely with both chefs, and Charlene Henke and Claire May, who prepare the salads, appetizers and desserts. In putting this book together, I wanted to keep the recipes simple. Yes, they're really interesting and involve lots of wonderful ingredients, but they're also easy to make. In fact, when we had our initial meetings about the book, we talked about how combinations of a few simple things are every bit as impressive as one complicated thing. For instance, serve homemade ice cream (which is not hard to make) with some of your own sugar cookies or gingersnaps. Serve a spaetzle that's flavoured to go with the main dish, and suddenly the dish is elevated. Mash the potatoes with roasted garlic, and change the everyday to the exotic. We encourage you to make stocks and sauces for the freezer so they're there when you need them. These are the basics that we use to intensify flavours in dishes, and they aren't difficult to make. Having them on hand will improve your cooking immeasurably. Over the years, we've developed close relationships with our suppliers because we depend so much on fresh, top-quality ingredients. Hazelmere Organic Farm even consults with us on which vegetables and herbs to plant. Unless you're a gardener yourself, you can't have that kind of control, but you can get to know the grocers and butchers and fishmongers that you normally deal with. Good customers get good service. One of the things I used to love when I was cooking at home was the hours and hours of preparation. I'd put on some jazz, pour some wine, gather the ingredients and just spend hours putting a meal together. I don't have as much time now, so I tend to shop at the last minute and find something absolutely knockout that can be prepared in a very simple way. Many of these recipes are like that. Others may require more preparation, but they're still straightforward. Of the hundreds of recipes we've prepared over the past ten years, we chose these because they are or were so popular with our customers. We've put in many suggestions for substitutions or variations, because that's how we like to work in our kitchen. In cooking, nothing remains the same. That to us is the tremendous fun of it. We hope that you will use and enjoy this book as an inspiration for your own creativity. |