Talking Vancouver Food with HousexGuest Chef Jimmy Stewart
Article by Eschelle Westwood, speaking to Chef Jimmy Stewart about the Vancouver food scene, Top Chef Canada and HousexGuest.
Vancouver-bred Jimmy Stewart is the new Chef behind HousexGuest here in Vancouver, which is quickly turning into a major hot spot to eat in the city! He was also one of the youngest contestants on Top Chef Canada, worked at the Barefoot Bistro and even the awesome Roaming Dragon. He has also worked at Lumiere, spent a year in Gordon Ramsay’s MAZE, Ledbury in London, a year in Toronto at Colborne Lane and Origin. He was awesome enough to take time out of his schedule and answer some of my pressing questions about himself, HousexGuest and all the inspiration he has found in Vancouver.
Chef Jimmy Stewart on the Vancouver Food Scene
What have you loved most about working here in Vancouver?
“The produce that we have at our fingers as well as the suppliers we have. The people we work with will bend over backwards for us and always bring us ingredients of fantastic quality. And the other thing I’ve loved the most is access to many different wild ingredients.”
What elements of Vancouver inspire your food?
“The city itself inspires our vegetable salad dish. It’s made to mimic a garden in Vancouver and what ingredients are available; right down to an edible mushroom soil. I’ve also incorporated a dish called ‘flavours of sushi’ because let’s face it; no one in Canada has better sushi than Vancouver!”
How has HousexGuest been?
“HousexGuest has been lot of fun, we’re blessed with really great people on our team and I love my kitchen crew. HousexGuest has been known as a late night drinking spot, but since we’ve changed up the menu and the service we’ve been getting more and more people in for dinner and really loving the dynamics of the restaurant. We’re not about stuffy formal service or overly contrived food, we just try to make good food for good people and enjoy it.”
How did being on Top Chef Canada change how you looked at your career?
“Top Chef Canada really changed my life. It really put things in perspective and matured me. Going on the show at 23 was a bit foolish and overly confident, but I held my own and through that I grew a lot from it and got a lot of respect from my chef peers. It put me on a lot of people’s radar as an up-and-coming chef and it’s a really great feeling to be in that position, it constantly keeps me wanting to push myself and work harder because I’m representing my name as a chef as well as a Top Chef Canada Competitor.”
What Vancouver food inspirations do you take from day to day life?
“I take the aspects of how green the city is to heart and its cultural diversity. I wanted to wrap my head around the idea of a Canadian Cuisine but we’re too much of a melting pot (in a very good way) and a very young country; we don’t have the roots of Italian, French or Spanish cuisine. With that being said I don’t feel bad about saying that we are a Canadian restaurant that uses Yuzu (Japanese Citrus) because it is part of Vancouver’s cuisine and history (we drive past ramen houses and sushi restaurants every other block). I use techniques like smoking because that is something that has always been done in Canada. As much as possible we focus heavily on fish and shellfish because we have some of the best in the world available to us. I like to try and use as many different types of wood as possible in the food as well; we’re currently working on a cake made of bark and an ice cream made from smoked cedar.”
What is the best part about working in Vancouver – especially historic Gastown?
“I love Gastown. It’s really becoming one of the prominent dining areas of Vancouver. I love that Vancouver diners are becoming more willing to try new ingredients and take risks in what they’re eating, it’s becoming more global and comparable to some of the other great food cities of the world. The other best part about working in Vancouver for me is that I’m close to all of my friends and that we have one of the best farmers’ markets around. Trout Lake is a constant source of inspiration; you can walk through the market and formulate dishes in your head as you go.”
Tell us what dishes at HousexGuest excite you the most.
“I have three dishes that are really exciting to me right now – they’re really good! We have a braised pork cheek and grilled asparagus dish with smoked cheese, mushrooms and yuzu mayonnaise. The pork cheek is glazed in braising liquid and that sauces the plate with a bit of the mayo and then we top it off with juicy spears of smoky grilled asparagus. We have smoked cheese that’s been aerated a la Top Chef Canada and we finish it with smoked cheddar and black peppers streusel and purple mustard greens that have a dominant English mustard flavor. The vegetable salad is always exciting because whenever an item comes into season I pick a bunch of it up and manage to add it to the dish in the form of a pickle, roasted, shaved or marinated and we serve it with beautiful cheese, hazelnuts and whatever I can manage to forage or find. The last dish is our tree cake with rhubarb, rose, red currants and Cedar ice cream.”
What makes HousexGuest a great spot for a kid-free date night?
“HousexGuest is perfect for a fun and new date night, the food is comfortable but always having something new to introduce you to like Yuzu juice, Balsam Fir or young pine needles. To go with it we have a mixologist who crafts amazing beautiful drinks with the same caliber ingredients we use in the kitchen and always makes them fun, exciting and just the right amount of booze. The room always has something new popping out at you or catching your eye, as well we have DJ’s in a later in the night that are playing music that perfectly suits the room, not too ‘dub steppy’ or ‘trance’, just really good music!”
HousexGuest
housexguest.com | Twitter | Facebook
200 – 332 Water Street, Vancouver
Eschelle Westwood is the writer of Mumfection and is a dedicated young mother to two wonderful (though mischievous at times) boys. In between school drop offs, scraped knees, and milk spills you can usually find her on Twitter or on her hilarious Facebook page!
