Chef Danny Mongeon of Hooch Bourbon House is taking benevolent dining to a whole new level with FLUX, a dinner club series that saw its first event last night, at Mariposa Farm in Plantagenet. Diners were whisked by bus to Ian Walker and Suzanne Lavoie’s farm, known to many in the culinary community for the wide range of exceptional products it supplies to area restaurants.
Chef Danny Mongeon welcomed guests to Mariposa Farm with glasses of tasty bourbon iced tea.
The name FLUX represents the notion that we are all in a constant state of change, both personally and as dictated by the seasons and nature in general. The dinners are a collaboration between several area chefs, all of whom seem to share Mongeon’s penchant for playful food that makes the most of seasonal ingredients. Participants for the inaugural FLUX dinner included Kyle Mortimer-Proulx, most recently of ZenKitchen, Stephen LaSalle of The Albion Rooms, The Courtyard Restaurant’s Ian Reed, Ian Carswell of K-W Catering (National Gallery), and Hooch’s Adam Bannerman. Kitchen and service staff all volunteered their time for this special dinner.
Mariposa Farm was the perfect setting for a dinner that featured oodles of fresh-from-the-garden elements.
The menu was inventive and flavourful, to be sure. I’ll present it here in pictorial form as few words are needed to describe such beautiful plates. Be sure to watch Facebook and Twitter for news of the next FLUX dinner, taking place sometime this summer. You don’t want to miss it.
House-churned sheep’s milk butter was the perfect companion for he fire roasted bannock (see below).
Bannock was a whole lot more fun than your traditional restaurant bread service!Duck carpaccio with dry-roasted crickets; the bugs added a crunchy textural element and made for lots of entertaining table talk.Nasturtium flower and nasturtium bud stuffed with thyme scented cashew butter along with grapefruit, pickled mustard seeds, verjus, apricot and ginger puree.“Lucky Lime” Malpeque oyster with pickled ramp.Char-grilled tomatoes on cherry tomatoes and ham hock salad with Nat’s bread crostini, smoked tomato ketchup and aerated bacon hollandaise.Spruce palate cleanser with spruce tip, gin and cucumber sorbet accompanied by pure olive oil, pickled spruce tips, violet and begonia petals.Arctic “char”-cuterie featuring leek gelee with honey, gravlax-style cured char, pickled dandelion buds, fresh asparagus ribbons and cucumber.Le Coprin mushrooms accompanied by a puree of reconstituted dry mushrooms, blue cheese and walnuts along with sauted, fire-smoked mushrooms glazed with raspberry vinaigrette, pickled cinnamon cap mushrooms and lions mane mushrooms, topped with kale chips.Sous-vide salsify cooked in goat’s milk butter with confit fennel puree, charred pearl onion, braised leek, smoked herring caviar, cucumber blossom and champagne beurre blanc.Cured, braised and roasted pork belly with pork snow, pickled beet, pork tuile and beet microgreens.Fire roasted purple carrots, sous-vide white carrots cooked in orange carrot juice, carrot ash dusting, house made lemon ricotta, ramp kimchi, shaved radish, white balsamic.Roasted garlic potatoes, choucroute garnis with pulled duck leg and wild mustard, topped with smoked duck breast, shaved fois gras and sour cherry and duck jus.Sheep’s milk yogurt with rhubarb emulsion, powdered malted milk crunch, honey drizzle.Fresh strawberry curd, pickled strawberries, vanilla and strawberry sorbet.Vodka sour infused with daisy buds, fennel, coriander, dill seeds and juniper berries alongside a chia seed pastry filled with lemon and golden beet curd.The final presentation was whimsical and wonderful – wisps of maple cotton candy draped on branches.
Welcome to my kitchen! I love simple dishes prepared with passion and am always seeking to find new methods to make food as fun and flavourful as possible. If you enjoy this space be sure to check out my Rogers TV Ottawa cooking show, Paula Roy's Favourite Foods, available on local cable, streaming and a dedicated playlist on Rogers TV's YouTube channel.
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Video recap of the first FLUX dinner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7jnNvqWAO4