Food is our common
denominator. It
brings people together
everywhere you go.
Alberta’s combination
of local ingredients and
skilled chefs with varied
backgrounds provides
so many opportunities
to gather and share, and
to celebrate our diverse
Canadian palate.
48
THE ESSENTIAL CALGARY 2016/17
which earned a Michelin star while he was
at the helm before his return to Calgary. The
menu at Whitehall reflects his British heritage
as well as his appreciation for local ingredients.
You’ll find traditional pork pie, black sausage,
and whipped pork drippings — a staple at his
family’s dinner table — served alongside the
bread basket. The gin-heavy bar offers snacks
like potted shrimp and pickled herring, and
cheese served with beer pickled onions, chutney,
biscuits, and Eccles cakes. On Sundays they serve
up a proper Sunday roast lunch family-style —
sink your teeth into beef rump with Yorkshire
pudding and dripping potatoes.
Other chefs master the art of a particular
regional cuisine not by growing up with it, but
by traveling and immersing themselves in new
cultures. Chef Darren MacLean spent a couple
years living and working in Japan in his early
twenties and then returne d to visit 30 cities in
45 days before opening Shokunin in Mission
in January 2016. Named for a Japanese artisan
dedicated to mastering a craft for the benefit of
others, the restaurant pays incredible attention
to detail, from the clay that Maclean dug by
hand for a local potter to make their serving
dishes, to the Bincho-tan (traditional Japanese
white charcoal), extensive sake list, and wellcrafted cocktails. The menu — yakitori, large
plates, late night ramen, and drinking snacks,
all served with precision but not pretension —
expand diners’ expectations of Japanese cuisine
far beyond sushi.
PHOTOGRAPHS: (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT) BY MICHAEL TRUDEAU, COURTESY SHOKUNIN; BY
MICHAEL TRUDEAU, COURTESY SHOKUNIN; BY NEIL ZELLER, COURTESY WHITEHALL; BY JULIE VAN ROSENDAAL
(Clockwise from top right) Shokunin; Chef Neil McCue in Whitehall; House-made
bread with salted butter and pork fat drippings, pine-cured salmon and radish
salad with grapefruit tea, house-made caramel chocolates, Brome Lake duck
with bitter orange purée, caramelized endive, and star anise, braised pork cheek
with black pudding, charcoal apple, turnip, and barley at Whitehall