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THE Pemberton |

_ Valley is a deep, V-
shaved pocket
dropped into. the
Coast Mountain

. Range northeast of
Whistler.

It’s lower and warmer
“than the resort town, the
soil is tich, the air is clean ... ;
it’s a marvelous spot to grow vegetables.

It’s also a marvelous spot for the execu-

~tive chef of a world ciass luxury hotel to
make regular visits to. A place where he can
gct his hands dirty and see what's growing,
talk to the farmer and plan in his head
menus that are appealing, tasty, very fresh

. and as local as he can get it.

The opportunities afforded by having a
busy and productive farm nearby were
exactly what Glenn Monk, executive chef at
Chateau Whistler, wanted to share with a
gaggle of rosy-checked foodies in Whistler
for its annual food and wine celebration,
Cornucopia. In its third year, the festival has

- grown into a sophisticated, and somewhat —
pricey, three-day foray into the world of

- Pacifte Northwest food and wine. The
Chef's Trip to the Farm was a standout, and
worth every penny of its $45 ticket price.

Monk, who is a North Vancouver native,
loaded his charges onto a bus and took
them to mect Jordan Sturdy, owner of |

_ Sturdy’s North Arm Farm in Pemberton.

* The gourmet field trip allowed participants
an up-close look-at how food gets from field
to plate in the kitchen of a luxury hotel.
Sturdy led the way through damp and
muddy fields — now lying fallow ~ and
pointed to plots where he grows potatocs,
corn, carrots, salad greens, pumpkins, sum-
mer squash, winter squash, strawberries and
raspberries. He sells his produce directly at
the farm, to markets in the sea-to-sky area

and to an impressive roster
of chefs, including Monk, at
restaurants and hotels in
Whistler.
Preparing locally-inspired
and produced cuisine is a
food trend that’s had stay-
ing power, and for good
reason, It’s a point of pride
for B.C. residents that
some of the best food in the
world is local — and for
out-of-province visitors, discovering food
that is appetizing, well-prepared and cheap
by their standards, is an added bonus to .
incredible scenery and a wallet-friendly
exchange rate.

Monk is able to take the trend one step
further, His working relationship with
Sturdy includes having input into the kinds
of vegetables grown at the farm. His pre-
Whistler resume includes an eight-year stint
with Pan Pacific hotels throughout Asia. He
honed his craft by learning about cuisine in
Micronesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. In
fact, he’s known for his talent at blending
unique Pacitic Rim favours with local B.C.
produce. It’s not surprising ther, that he’s
asked Sturdy to grow 2 varicty of Asian
greens along with all types of baby vegeta-
bles: carrots, squash, eggplant and beans.

So his final conundrum, once faced with
the assortment of just-out-of-the-ground
produce Sturdy presents him with, is what
to do with it all.

With a late fall assortment of vegetables
available, and the Cornucopia crew eager to
taste the results of the Monk-Sturdy match-
up, the chef chose to stir up a batch of
Roasted Pemberton Sugar Pumpkin Soup,

served with Pumpkin-seed pretzels prepared
Pp P i ;

by Monk's pastry chef.

Slurping and nibbling while admiring the
mist clinging to Mount Currie, the seminar
participants agreed it was a fitting tribute to
the power of teamwork.

Wednesday, December

vote Oy ph

GLENN Monk, executive chef at Chateau Whistler,
and Jordan Sturdy of North Arm Farms have a part-
nership made in culinary heaven.

Powering she Future: The
Railard Fuel Cell and the
Race to Change the World by

Tom Koppel John Wiley &
Sons Ltd., 276 pp, $34.98

Gil Parker
Contributing Writer

_ INa story long known

in Vancouver, the
Ballard fuel cell is start-
ing a slow burn beneath
the cnergy world. n

Ina research sequence that
started 15 years ago, Ballard
Power Systems has taken the
proton-exchange-membrane
(PEM) technology that pow-
ered the Gemini V spacecraft
and developed it in quancusié
leaps. With a two-vear lead on
other systems, the firma is
attracting auto makers from
US., Japan and Europe to a
technology originally ignored
by the U.S. Big Three. :

Powering the Future traces
Ballard from its faboratory-in-
a-teailer to today’s unexpected
penetration inte the automo:
bile world. i

The author, Tom Koppel;
immediately recognized “the
David and Goliath story of a

* feisty little B.C. company led

by a very impressive and ideal-
istic guy.” woe

Geoffrey Ballard comes
from a background of gcolog:
ical engineering — oil patch

‘and scientific research into

alternative energy systems for
the U.S. Army. He decided
that the world needed energy
conversion from an abundant
source into useable, mobile
forms, not just conservation.
Bailard teamed with elec-

‘trochemist. Keith Prater and:
‘mechanical “

engineer - Pa
Howard ro form Ultra Energy.’
Housed in a shed in North
Vancouver, the company
began developing recharge-
able battery power. for a sub-
marine.

Its successor, Ballard’
Research, began as a small
firm, working as an idealistic;
almost’ “famiiy”.. company;
Ballard Research developed 4 -
device that will change the way
we use energy. With a boost
from a 1983 contrast for
DND Canada and funding: .
thar lasted until 1989, its team
increased the fuel cell “stack?
power 30-fold in 10 years. The:
company eventualiy attracted.
Daimler Benz, a breakthrough

See Keep page 17