Arboretum festival chef sessions [General]

2013 Jul 21
Arboretum festival

August 16 and 17

musical performers include Michael Feuerstack(Snailhouse), Jim Bryson, Owen Pallet (Final Fantasy), Cousins, Sarah Neufield(Arcade Fire) and Holy Fuck among others.

Chef sessions feature:

Trish Larkin / Black Cat
Steve Harris / Two Six (Ate)
Steve Wall / Supply and Demand
Chris Deraiche/ Wellington Gastropub
Chris Lord / Union 613

full schedule ticket prices etc are on their website

www.arboretumfestival.com

2013 Jul 21
Nice lineup.

Also
Steve Mitton / Murray Street
Marc Doiron / Town.

2013 Aug 17
At the chef sessions at arbortumfest. you have to pay 35 for day pass and another 36 for 6 samples so cost to try anythimg is 71 or about 12 dollar per sample

First up is Town with a onion and tomato tart topped with smoked duck breast and arugula and a shallot dressing

2013 Aug 17
For the black cat bistro sample i dug in and ate a third of it before realizing that i did not take a picture. Smoked pork belly and corn bread with a tomato and corn accent with garlic scape and a blue cheese sauce

2013 Aug 17
Came back from the craft beer fest at 3:03 and the volunteer tried to say I missed out on two six ate since they ended at 3pm. they know whi many tickets were sold aand was giving foid away to friend or volunteers. finally they gave me the 2nd last hot dog.

This is poorly orgAnized since yoy are held hostage fot 4:40 to 6:00 if you want to try all the chefs and you pay for all of it even if you cannot stay for the whole thing

2013 Aug 17
Supply and demand has their tuna crudo but made with bay scallop rather than sea scallop and while nice is only 4 small slices on a small scallop shell. I think I prefer the restaurant version

2013 Aug 17
The chef session concept and times were announced before tickets were available - to complain that it's poorly organized because you have to leave, even though you bought tickets, is not a valid complaint. Also - complaining because you were late and they gave food to volunteers? Come on.

2013 Aug 18
The chef session passport for $36 was presented as a way get all the samples but it is only 1 per session exactly. They did not say they were also selling individual samples for $6.

There was no advantage to the chef session passport except it was suppose to guarantee you samples from each and all the sessions. If they don't keep track of the passports sold and count the cash vs passport sells they can ran out of something from cash sales and the passport holders who were later miss out in favour of cash sales. I seen a couple of people with passports with one session not marked and wellington gastro pub ran out of the scallop before end of session but I did buy an additional portion of the scallop since it was so nice but I did it towards the last 15 minutes.


2013 Aug 18
Wellington Gastro Pub had seared scallop with cauliflower puree, bacon jam, dried black olive and it was make with a meaty sea scallop. Perfectly cooked and it was pan fried in a hot pan with butter for 90s on the first side, flipped and cooked another 30s on the second side according to Chris Deraiche.

I had 2 portions of it, 1 on passport and another paid. Considering that 3 scallops are often 19$ at Wellington gastro pub, while I like it as sample, I would probably prefer to eat it at the restaurant with the full sit down experience.

They were playing a game and those with writting on the bottom on the happy birthday plates got a stock pot ale hat.

Sorry phone ran out of batteries so no photo.


2013 Aug 18
Last one was Union: Local 613.

They were having spicy southern fried quail legs with a biscuit and marinated sliced green tomatoes. There were 5 quail legs per portion so pretty substantial.

I saw the quail legs were marinated in a spicy red sauce which I ask Chris Lord and he said it is full of different types of chillis, cayenne and chilli powder. They they dust it in a coating and deep fried.

The portion I got was very heavily salted and I did see they putting in a large pinch of salt with the fried quails leg and toss it around so when I wanted a second portion, I did ask for it to be unsalted. I did check to see if they brought lots which they did in a large container of marinated quail legs and not before I saw some cash customers already went back for their 2nd portions. One I think was a restaurant owner or chef since he talked to chris lord about cooking in french restaurants in the 80s and we chatted about where to buy game, mostly on the quebec side.

2013 Aug 18
Thinking back, I wished I had know you can buy additional servings since I would have bought one for the tarte and smoked duck breast from Murray Street Kitchen and Town in the 1st session.

A lot of work went into that one with the onion and tomato tarte and the smoked duck breast. The smoked duck breast was make almost similar to size as a bacon so think it was a large duck breast and it was pounded flat and maybe sliced lengthwise.

2013 Aug 18
The session of music I really enjoyed was Susan Neufield. The others from the 2 sessions were not as much my preferred types of music.

One thing I noticed were there were a lot of people with tats there.

2013 Aug 18
Additional vendors were Strata pizza, bootleg porchetta and a few others. The only one that looked interesting was the pizza which was $5 for a large slice.

Wish I had room for it in the 2nd session at Arboretumfest but did not. When I stopped off after 2nd session from the craft beer fesitval to my car the line for the pizza was long and they were cooking and making the pies with one in the oven likely the tomato ricotta and one they are making which is similar to the salami pizza I saw earlier but this was before they put the salami on. So did not wait and went home instead.

There were more people there in the evening at 8pm but it was not full. Not that many people in the early afternoon althought it started building up around 5 and 6pm. Talked to Strata pizza guys and they were at both craft beer fest and arboretumfest last year and they did say it was not as busy as last year but they really enjoyed themself last year at Arboretumfest. I think the cost of being a vendor is heavier at Craft beer fest too.

Looking at the crowds, likely being on at the same weekend as the Craft beer fest hurt this festival a bit and there was also the South Asian Festival at Conferderation Park which has free entrance.

2013 Aug 19
Regardless of the chef sessions tickets and pricing situation (which was plainly communicated on their website and in articles written about the event), thanks for sharing your reviews and thoughts on the food at this young festival. :)

2013 Aug 19
I had not read the articles about the event and the information on the website was minimal only the times slot the the chefs invovled. I only noticed the chef's session had the passport on Friday and that it was $36. I did think it was almost the same price at $71 as the harvest table on Sunday at vs $75.

Someone in line getting in bought a chef session passport but did not realize that they need a festival pass.

I think what upset me was the attitude of the staffer that said in a bit snarky fashion that I lost out and whose attitude said that he did not care if I was not happy. If he had an oz of customer service he would have said that he can check if I could use the prepaid amount for the missed session on a double sample of another session and I would have been perfectly fine with it.


2013 Aug 19
When I read about the Chef Sessions prior to the event, I had anticipated that there were going to be demonstrations of the preparation of the food. I know that the web site didn't state that, but it did mention that the Chefs would "take the stage". From that, I had made some assumptions which were completely incorrect. And when I purchased my Chef Sessions pass online, there was no mention on the web site that I needed to also purchase a Festival Pass. Perhaps that note was added later.

Anyway, I was quite surprised when I showed up on Saturday to find out that there were no demos, and that I also needed to purchase a Festival Pass. After a little confusion, they did offer me a half-price Festival Pass, which was nice of them.

But since there were no demonstrations, I didn't feel like hanging out by myself for 6 hours. I left after tasting 4 of the Chef's creations. It would have been nice if I had known that I could have taken 2 of the early offerings.

Since I wasn't there for the music, I guess I paid $55 for 4 tastes. Disappointing, but no one to blame only myself. I should have did better research, and asked for my money back when I realized that there wasn't a 'Stage' for the chefs.

2013 Aug 19
Great photos food travel:) thanks for sharing your experience.

2013 Aug 20
Artemis,

So I was not the only one expecting some demonstration then from the stage reference? Or at least some information about what is served? Pretty sure the chefs were tired from constantly replying about their sample. I found what they were serving after the fact on the websites line up chefs session page but would have been nice if they printed out a copy and hang it up by the booth.

Did you arrive around 12:15 or so? If so it was you that I saw that had the Chef's pass from online and was not aware that a festival day pass was needed. Glad they offered you a discount on the day pass but sorry you only can make it for the 1st 4 session. You were not the only one that misses samples since I saw a couple of other people in line with their card not completely marked off.

Of the 4 you tried which was your favourite?

With the cost of the day pass, the average price of the samples are $12 if you had all samples. That is close to appetizer prices at the restos and some were way smaller than their restaurant appetizers. I have been to 4 of the 7 restos so while I ended up being okay with the day after some mishaps I think I would have preferred to pay a bit more for one or several food crawls to the restos themselves.

From what I can see, 1st 4 chef had the food more or less prepared and just plated them. Wellington Gastro pub seared the scallop during the session facing the line so you can actually see the the scallops being made partially before being plated. You can catch small glimpses of the quail legs being fried in the distance since the fryers were in the inside and the chef and sous chefs back covered most of the action.

I know the Food and Wine shows used to have chef sessions that are demos with samples. I guess I just ASS-U-ME that is the way it would be too from the stage reference. My bad but festival organizers could have communicated some things a bit more clearly.

When I was at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, they had the chef sessions and it was 45 mins to an hour demo and they pass those prepared and other pre-prepared samples around. You pay for the day pass to get in for the jazz fest but the food demo / samples were free. Only those who get there early and got seats are guaranteed samples but sometimes they have extras to go around.

I guess I have been spoiled by Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest and a few other great festivals with great food, quite a few that had chefs' demos.

2013 Aug 31
At the chef sessions at arbortumfest. you have to pay 35 for day pass and another 36 for 6 samples so cost to try anythimg is 71 or about 12 dollar per sample

First up is Town with a onion and tomato tart