East coast chefs cooking their way to New York City

HALIFAX-Two separate quintets of chefs from Atlantic Canada have received invites from the James Beard House in New York City. Now all they need is the money to make the trip.

Sean Doucet, executive chef at the Delta Halifax and Delta Barrington in Halifax, Stefan Mueller, executive chef at Moncton's Delta Beausejour, Kevin Boyce, a chef and instructor from the Culinary Institute of Canada in Charlottetown, Roary MacPherson The Fairmont Newfoundland's executive chef, and  Luis Clavel, chef at McKelvie's and Salty's in Halifax, are slated to cook on Canada Day at the prestigious James Beard House located in New York's Greenwich Village.

A fundraiser held during the ApEx show in Moncton raised about $5,000 of the $14,000 to $18,000 needed to get the five chefs to New York.

The second group of five chefs is all from Nova Scotia and will be cooking at James Beard House on Aug. 7.

They are Michael Howell, head chef at Tempest World Cuisine in Wolfville, Craig Flinn from Chives Canadian Bistro in Halifax, Martin Ruiz Salvador, chef and owner of Fleur de Sel in Lunenberg, Dennis Johnson from FID in Halifax and Ray Bear, of Bear, also in Halifax.

A fundraiser organized by Taste of Nova Scotia took place on June 8 in Halifax to earn them the money to make it to New York.
 
While in the city, the chefs are responsible for all travel expenses plus the cost of purchasing food to feed as many as 90 people at James Beard House.

Howell last prepared dinner at James Beard in 2006 and this time around, he suggested a "dream team" gathering of Nova Scotia chefs to also make the trip.

"An invitation from the James Beard House is a great honour for our chefs, the province and the industry," said Taste of Nova Scotia executive director Janice Ruddock.

Doucet and his quintet of chefs made a request to James Beard House to cook an Atlantic Canadian meal.

After sending in their qualifications, the organization took them up on the offer.

This will be Mueller's second trip to James Beard House, but the first for the rest of the team, something Doucet said they are excited about.

"Being able to go back there and cook is a fantastic opportunity," said Doucet, a native of New York.

The menu being prepared is titled 'Taste of Atlantic Canada' and has each chef preparing one course of a five-course meal.

Doucet is in charge of making Nova Scotia lobster prepared three ways: bisque cappuccino, lobster salad with arugula and lobster risotto.

Mueller will be serving pan-seared New Brunswick salmon, a shrimp fritter, and vanilla scented salmon in tomato broth.

For his course, Boyce has decided on cooking smoked Nova Scotia duck breast, scallops and blueberry caviar.

Clavel will be preparing Atlantic beef tenderloin, confit of partridge, Newfoundland chantrelle mac and cheese, and arugula salad.

Finally, for dessert, MacPherson will bake chocolate fudge cake served with pistachio ice cream, raspberry barquette, and vanilla Bavarian and apple tart.

Each course is paired with Atlantic Canada and Ontario wine offerings from Jost Vineyards, Grand Pre, Jackson Triggs, Inniskillin and Thirty Bench.