The Blog of Chef Timothy May

Cooking Tip #1

There has always been a misconception about how you handle pasta once you have cooked it el Dante. When ever I order pasta in a restaurant I always know how it has been cooled down.

After the pasta is cooked I always spread my pasta on a baking sheet and add some olive oil to the pasta and let the noodles cool. Mix the pasta from time to time, it will enable the all the noodles to be comepletley coated with olive oil. Which will then prevent the pasta from sticking together. When the noodles are hot they will absorb what ever you put on them. Olive oil has much more flavor than water. Water will absorb much faster into the noodle.

When I reheat my pasta I always use a little bit of vegetable stock (or chicken, beef, veal) depending on what type of pasta I am creating.

Opening 2008

I am very excited about this season. The opening of my kitchen brings along beautiful produce such as Nanoose Organics and Organic Chicken from the Cowichan Valley.

A congratulations is in order for Ryan Orr. Ryan who has been my Sous Chef for the past 4 years is going to be a father this coming September. Ryan has decided that this summer he is staying close to home and has found a new job in Victoria,BC.

John, Liam & Tyler are the returnies for this year and will be taking on a bigger roll in the kitchen. I have a few new additions in the kitchen this year and I am excited about the new energy & buzz that will be created with our new team members.

The service staff has changed with one exception. Teresa is returning to take care of our wine program. We lucked out with a great service team in the front of the house. John (who has a 80’s Robert Downey Jr.) hair cut and Giselle (which is the better half of the team) come from Toronto.

It is a good thing that I spent another $20000.00 on kitchen equipment so I can keep up with all the specail requests.

My First Blog!

This is a trial blog posting. More to come, trust me.