Dine in the Alpine with Chef David Hawksworth
Taking in the sprawling splendor from the Valley View Patio at the Roundhouse Lodge atop Whistler Mountain, I felt like I was cheating. Usually, access to such iconic vistas means a day’s slog in hiking boots, but here I was – after an easy. twenty-five-minute gondola ride – in pink satin stilettos, sipping a tart gin bramble, basking in the palpable excitement of 100 guests waiting for chef David Hawksworth’s inaugural mountaintop dinner.
Whistler attracts a discerning international clientele with high expectations, and the culinary community delivers the high standards to match Hawksworth told me.
Stepping away from his eponymous Vancouver restaurant for the night, Hawksworth joined forces with chef David Zhou from sister restaurant Nightingale and proceeded to delight diners with a four-course menu of B.C. fare paired with wines from the Okanagan’s Tantalus winery.
Their snapshot of Pacific Northwest season began with gougères, Pemberton Valley cantaloupe draped in prosciutto, and Vancouver Island oysters paired to 2021 Tantalus Blanc de Blancs, its Chardonnay grapes harvested from the eastern slopes of Kelowna. Next, gravlax of B.C. salmon with a colourful accompaniment of golden beets, Granny Smith apple, and a dill and buttermilk dressing paired with Tantalus rosé (2023) and Chardonnay (2022). A duo of beef (short rib and Wagyu flank) was served with sour cherry jus, the Asian flourish of miso-glazed conehead cabbage, and a 2022 Tantalus Maija pinot noir.
As a devastating cold snap destroyed much of B.C.’s stone fruit crop this year, Hawksworth source from further afield for the peach rum baba that followed. Recent BC grape harvests have been similarly compromised, So Hawksworth and winemaker David Paterson spoke between courses about the importance of mitigating threats to local food and viticulture. A point driven home by the quality of both food and wine that night – and the exquisite setting, at long, white-linen-draped tables set under the open sky, a perfect vantage for watching the sun set over the Coast Mountains.
By Rebecca Felgate
