Welcomed with open arms to Vancouver Canada, I discovered one of my favorite bookstores in the world! Three paces into Barbara-Jo’s magical cookbook shop, I was hugging the bookcases saying, “I want to live here!”
Two days of events #vanillatabletour and had the most wonderful time, I’ve never laughed so hard talking about vanilla; there was a lot of vanilla love in the room. The amazing help from Chef Jen, Mark, Janice and #BarbaraJo made my visit so much sweeter.
Radio Hour - Live to tape interview while making Heirloom Tomato Bisque with Green Pea Pesto, the vanilla caramelized onions cooking in the skillet “sounded” great! The local Canadian Chefs Dominique and Cindy Duby of Wild Sweets and contributors to Vanilla Table book, joined the crowd as I was interviewed by the lovely Sheryl and producer Sheila of CBC for #North by Northwest, a Saturday morning radio show broadcast nationwide.
All copies of Vanilla Table sold out! Lovely friend and former neighbor Lillian flew all the way from Calgary to be there, so with Barbara-jo’s recommendation we had a beautiful small plates dinner at the newly opened Anna Lena starting with cocktails! Los Bravos was our fav and had the most beautiful Garlic confit lobster and speaking of bisque, a beautiful take on classic lobster bisque! The Waygu Short Rib with sunchoke puree, mushrooms and peppercorn jus, a divine dish I can't stop thinking about!
Next morning stopped into the local culinary school – Pacific Institute of Culinary School to sample delicious baked goods and meet some of the students in Christine Beard’s class for a 10-minute vanilla total immersion talk…the students were speechless!
Granville Island tour, tasting #smokedsablefishcandy a local delicacy-so delicious! Spent the morning scouring the Granville Public Market for all sorts of delicious tastes from sausages and spices to berries. A beautiful visit to a beautiful and welcoming city; I can’t wait to return.
Barbara-jo McIntosh, the store's owner.