Wild Goose Vineyards announced Chef Richard Desnoyers to the Okanagan food scene as the new chef at Smoke & Oak Bistro, located at the winery in Okanagan Falls.
With over two decades of diverse experience, Desnoyers joins the team at Wild Goose from renowned North American establishments including The Rimrock Resort in Banff and Belvedere of Calgary. His goal is to please the exacting palate of the customer. His menu is diverse while paying homage to the meat smoker that is central to the cuisine found for the past two years at Wild Goose.
“Cooking is all about memories, if the food is good, the memory will be good,” said Desnoyers.
The chef owned and operated his own restaurant in Quebec City, Café Colette, before heading out West to learn the cuisines of the Pacific, including Vancouver and California.
The quiet pace of retirement has brought Desnoyers and his exacting talent back to the kitchen and he is thrilled to be working with the abundance of the Okanagan. Before retirement, the chef published a cookbook, Cooking with the Wicked Chef, hosted cooking segments on morning television, and a weekly radio broadcast on CBC.
Chef Desnoyers’ menu invokes a culinary trip around the world with dishes inspired by the fiery heat of South American and the smoke flavours of the Southern U.S., all tied together through the freshness of local ingredients; duck confit salad, South American pixtos skewers, Berkeshire St. Louis back ribs, Two Rivers smoked bratwurst, wild boar burger, house smoke fish platter and much more. Vine trunks and wine barrels are used to smoke meats in an authentic competition worthy smoker, imported directly from Tennessee. Chef Desnoyers style is to use flavours and accents to keep the dishes’ main ingredient the star of the show.
The Smoke & Oak Bistro is open Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. until June 14, and daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. from June 15 to Oct. 15.
