cooked. “It’s a big part of my life. Being
in the garden as a kid was a huge thing. I
turned culinary into my life.”
With fine, slender hands, he makes a
flour well to which he adds eggs and a little
oil and cream. He works it delicately into
pasta, gradually incorporating all the flour
and then adding some crushed black garlic.
He cuts the pasta into strips and before
long is serving me black garlic fettuccine
with lobster and curry sauce.
Lobster is a speciality on the island, as
are mussels, and I’m privileged that the pasta dish has been preceeded by a huge bowl
of blue mussels sourced the same morning
from PEI Aqua Farm just down the road.
Roark has cooked them in some roasted
butternut squash oil, butter-infused olive
oil and canola oil, to which he has added
carrots, onions, shallots, celery and an
array of spices including turmeric, paprika,
cumin and coriander.
Derrick gauges how much his guests
want to participate in the cooking – some
like to sit back and watch the chefs at work,
but most want to be hands-on, working
side by side with the chefs, absorbing as
much knowledge as they can.
“We have a lot of fun together,” said
Roark. “It’s hard not to have fun in this
environment.”
What he loves most about the island is
its spirit of community. In times gone by,
people had to trade food and get on with
their neighbours in order to survive the
harsh winters, and that co-operation continues to permeate the island today.
People would get through the winter
with root vegetables that kept for months,
freezing berries and preserving food, even
burying food outside. Roark draws on
the knowledge of family cooks who came
before him. His grandmother always stored
her apples with potatoes to prolong their
shelf life.
PEI accounts for a substantial portion
of Canada’s potato production. The island’s
potatoes are legendary and there is even
a potato museum in the town of O’Leary.
About 12 varieties grow on the island but
the waxy Yukon Gold is the chefs’ choice.
“It’s the iron (on the island) that makes the
potatoes so good and flavoursome,” said
Roark. “It’s good for beets as well.”
Braided bread ready to go into the oven.
Black garlic produced by Al Picketts at Kensington.
Black garlic fettuccine.