The flip side of journalism, sort of

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, I’ve been working like nobody’s business. #excusesexcuses

I do want to give you a quick heads up about The Vancouver Recipe, a documentary on which I was a bit of a hired gun interviewer. As Senor Poster above says, it’s airing at 7:00 tomorrow (Saturday). Set the PVR, or, you know, watch it live if you’re all retro like me.

The basic premise involves chefs talking about what makes the Vancouver food scene what it is, from the actual ingredients we can access here, to the mix of different ethnic backgrounds, the extremely active dining culture, and the chefs who actively choose to live and work here.

At least I think that’s what it is.

You see, as per my hired gun reference, this is one of a few projects that I’ve taken on recently where I’m not involved every step of the way. In place of pitching an idea, doing all of the interviews, writing the copy or script, and then being intimately involved with the edit process, I’ve shown up on the day of the interview (after doing some prelim research, of course), done my best to engage with the interview subject and evoke thoughtful, heartfelt answers, and then strolled away.

In some ways, it feels like I’m on the other side of the table, the one where interview subjects usually are. What’s the direction of the story? What clips are being used and why — how are they being positioned? What’s being written into the story? Where does each person fit into the overall piece? etcetera etcetera etcetera

Not only am I not able to answer these questions, I’m asking them myself. I’ll only know, I guess, on Saturday.

I do know I suggested including certain people versus others, and that I loved having the time to have nice long interviews with the subjects — a luxury compared to the world of daily news. I also know in our conversations that the chefs spoke knowledgeably and passionately about what they do, guided in a tiny way by the focus I had thought about in advance, and the question line I crafted.

I love interviewing. I mean, I seriously love it. It’s one of the best parts of being a journo. And truth be told, being a hired gun has a more immediate financial return than taking a project entirely from concept to completion. It may also create a better overall product, with individuals able to step in and perform tasks at which they excel, rather than having it entirely handled by a jack of all trades.

It is still a little strange for a control freak like me to step away from the process. I’m looking forward to checking out to the results on Saturday night.

Flying fingers, food bank challenge

Gennaro Iorio, Ned Bell, and Quang Dang looking relaxed.. © Claudia Kwan 2011

It’s not like it was a huge life goal or anything, but I’ve always wondered what it would be like to judge a competition. Would I be the Simon Cowell of the bunch, an encouraging presence, or someone out to lunch?

I had my chance to figure it out yesterday, when Sophie Lui, Dawn Chubai and I had the honour of judging a special challenge involving the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.

Loblaw (Real Canadian Superstore, Presidents Choice, No Frills, Dominion, Loblaws, Joe Fresh, etc) has just launched a Canada-wide campaign to raise $1.2 million and 1.2 million pounds of food, and was trying to figure out a fun launch event in Vancouver.

So the company decided to put on a black box challenge, similiar to what you woud see on Iron Chef — chefs are given a specific ingredient (that they don’t know about in advance) and a limited amount of time. They have to then create a dish to impress the judges.

The twist this time around: chefs Gennaro Iorio (La Terrazza), Ned Bell (Rosewood Hotel Georgia), and Quang Dang (Diva at the Met) would be using ingredients drawn from the list of items the food bank needs most — essentials like canned goods, starches, and proteins.

What could be under that mysterious box? © Claudia Kwan 2011

When the boxes were whisked away, the items the chefs had to use were revealed as canned tomatoes, canned green beans, canned pink salmon, rice, and the ‘twist’ ingredient — canned peaches.

Right away they began scribbling notes down for their plan of attack, and within mere moments, the horn was sounded — the chefs would have just 30 minutes to produce something that incorporated all of the items in a creative and beautifully presented manner.

When I’ve covered stories in the past about the food situation for those living around or below the poverty line, one of the issues I’ve heard brought up is not so much WHAT people are eating, as how it looks. ie, “poor people food.” It’s sometimes grey, or greasy, or mushy, or just generally unappetizing. And I don’t subscribe to that ‘you should just be grateful to be eating at all’ noise, so we can just shut that down right now.

No, I think that if we’re addressing a common human need — to not be hungry — there shouldn’t be discrimination on the plate. Food should be tasty, nutritious, and look good, and that applies for everyone. </endrant>

So what did the chefs come up with? Take a look!

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Holy cow, just watching the fellas hard at work made me tired — I can type in a frenzy like that, but definitely can’t cook that way.

After going carefully through the criteria and conferring with my fellow judges, the winner was… Quang Dang and his salmon cake! Excellent efforts from Ned and Gennaro too.

I do feel inspired after this. If these guys can come up with this kind of cuisine, on the fly with stuff you can find in anyone’s pantry, well surely I can do a little better with what I’m cooking up at home.

And certainly there’s no way anyone ever has to say again that something looks like “poor people food.”

ps I think I was a pretty fair judge — analytical without being overly critical. But really, with something like this, it’s a win for everyone.