loading...
Canwest News Service
IRON GOES GOLD: What two dishes will 2009 Gold Medal Plates winner Rob Feenie prepare tonight while facing chefs from Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, St. John's and Toronto in the Canadian Culinary Championships at the Sheraton Wall Centre Vancouver Hotel? Maybe judges will provide hitherto-hidden ingredients for braised rabbit loin with smoked double bacon, pearl onions and red wine, and roasted red snapper with fennel and saffron jus. Those dishes won friends' approval in 1995, when Feenie and financial partner Ken Wai rehearsed them before opening Lumiere restaurant.
Globalist Daniel Boulud is now Lumiere's signature chef. But Feenie's the only Canadian to take the Iron Chef America title. He should be hot tonight.
– - -
GALAS'R'US: The VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation's recent Night of 1,000 Stars banquet was a ma-and-pa effort for event chair Drinda Scott and auctioneer-husband Barry. Emceed by CBC news anchors Ian Hanomansing and Gloria Macarenko, the $210,000 fund-raiser was basically "a networking night" honouring health professionals involved in the 2010 Olympics, foundation chair Rick Mahler said.
– - -
LET IT RE: Fuel owners Robert Belcham and Tom Doughty have closed that Kitsilano eatery, devised a cheaper menu and started over with a changed name: Refuel. Maybe Whistler's legendary pub will rise again as Reboot. Or Danny Filippone's Seymour Street strip club could go straight as the Repenthouse.
– - -
FARMER'S LONG GREEN: City gallerist Catriona Jeffries will list global prices for Geoffrey Farmer's artworks at next week's Art Basel Miami Beach exhibition. But three bucks gets you one at 1875 Powell St., steps away from the esteemed Princeton pub. That's where Farmer's Every Letter In The Alphabet project will run for a year within the city's Mapping and Marking program. Folk sent three-word phrases to everyletterinthealphabet@gmail.com and Farmer turned them into $3 placards to fund 25 more Every Letter efforts.
– - -
HOUSE AND HOPE: The TD Waterhouse Private Investment Advice team generated a reported $71,000 for Covenant House Thursday, up from $50,000 last year. At a gala in the downtown Birks store, the extra moolah came when an anonymous donor matched winning auction bids. Executive director Krista Thompson said Covenant House cares for 2,000 at-risk youths yearly, has increased beds from 22 to 54 since 2007, and has 30 more in a secondary facility. An in-house program now sees seven St. Paul's Hospital psychiatrists counselling the 45 per cent of youngsters who need aid, she said.
– - -
F TROOP: Former Vancouverite Maeve Doyle exhibited city artist Raif Adelberg's work at her and Jake Devere's London art gallery recently. Police temporarily closed the joint because a graffiti-like mural incorporated a word many Londoners can't speak without. But Notting Hill's a with-it district. When hipped to Adelberg's artistic intent, the coppers chilled and promised to catch subsequent shows.
– - -
COOL CALL: As for British reserve, former B.C. attorney-general Garde Gardom was speechifying at London's Director's Club when a steward murmured: "There's a telephone call for you from a man in British Columbia. He says your house is on fire. Do you wish to take it?"
– - -
DIFFERENT COLLARS: Modern Dog magazine editor-creative director Jennifer Nosek strayed to the bad-dog district of Abbott-off-Hastings Street recently. She and Tammy Jo opened the Fair boutique to sell their own-design Academie silk frocks and 15 other lines. With smart stores flourishing north on Abbott and nearby streets, and tenants moving into the Woodward's redevelopment, there's bound to be more of this.
– - -
MIGHTY BRIGHT: Direct-service AIDS agencies collected $19,000 this week, when Dalannah Gail Bowen, the Sojourners singing group, Sibel Thrasher, event organizer Kendra Sprinkling, music director David Sinclair and others performed in the Shooting Stars organization's 24th Starry Night concert at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage. Emcee and former New Addams Family actress Ellie Harvie fetchingly switched her look to Mad Men, with an Obakki dress and swoopy do by Jason David stylist Louis Maduro.
– - -
ONE MORE TIME: Singer Kenny Colman, wife Lily and event organizer Richard Lowy produced the 1993 bash for late Howe Street promoter Murray Pezim that I mentioned recently.
– - -
DOWN PARRYSCOPE: Tip of the hat to Mike and Lesley Rogers and Cioppino's restaurateur Pino Posteraro for the 20th-annual World AIDS Day Luncheon that benefitted A Loving Spoonful Friday.
malcolmparry@shaw.ca
604-929-8456
