Sitting down in the gorgeous Brentwood Bay Resort Arbutus Room to chat with new executive chef Aaron Turner, I'm struck by a plate of live mushrooms, growing in a cloud-like form.
Turner put them out there as a conversation piece 鈥� he gets them from a mushroom farm called West Coast Mycology, all part of his goal: to source 90 per cent or more of his new menu from within 100 kilometres.
The owner of West Coast Mycology, Turner explains, has a passion for his product and a synergistic approach. For growing cultures, he uses leftover grain from a flour mill up the street, and turns leftovers into garden compost for his own use and to give to a neighbour farm.
"What he's built out there is kind of what we're looking for ourselves," Turner said.
"I've been in the industry for 27 years, and I've seen how wasteful our industry can be. Part of growing up on Vancouver Island for me was that big push towards doing our part for the environment."
Turner became the new chef at Brentwood Bay Resort in January and got the job thanks to his vision, explained general manager Natasha Richardson, who described his goal to source 90 per cent of their ingredients locally as "ambitious, inspiring鈥� and just a little bit terrifying 鈥� in the best way."
"His excitement for learning about Indigenous ingredients and food traditions from around the world really stood out," she said. "It immediately resonated with my own vision 鈥� recognizing the diversity of cultures while honouring the land and peoples of the place we are located."
Working with local sources not only builds a connection with the resort's frequent local visitors, but also gives tourists a real sense of the Island with every bite. And the 20-year-old luxury hotel overlooking the marina gets a lot of tourists.
"Fifty per cent of this resort鈥檚 operation is food and beverage. As a destination resort, the food experience is paramount in impressing clients and keeping them returning," Richardson said.
Turner is also exploring how the food program can breathe new life into underutilized spaces in the resort. That includes amping up the marina and spa food offerings, rolling out picnic baskets this summer, and incorporating food into the hotel's tours and sunset cruises. The Arbutus Room is also adding tapas and light bites starting at 12 p.m., in between the breakfast and dinner service.
"It's one of the coolest things taking over something like this 鈥� your imagination is going to be the limit of how far we can push this," Turner said.
Turner is B.C.-born, growing up on the mainland, with his teenage years spent in Comox and Victoria. It led him to be "super proud of the things that people do" on the Island. In 2012, he moved to the Cayman Islands for three years to live out a childhood dream and got to cook with people from around the world, which taught him how to "blend things harmoniously." He also worked as executive chef at Four Points by Sheraton Victoria Gateway and was regional chef at Earls in Victoria.
But at Brentwood Bay Resort, it's truly his chance to create, and Turner's is a menu that defies classification.
"Having seafood that is that fresh coming out of the water is one of those simple joys of life as a chef," he said.
He added that South Island Farm Hub has been a "game changer", with an online portal that helps them navigate local products.
The funnest part for him is the "creative challenge" of finding local ingredients (which he describes as the "coolest scavenger hunt ever") and connecting with the bountiful products of the region 鈥� everything from olives to citrus to seafood.
"It's an old idea, right? Of communities eating what the community is providing. And we're fortunate in this space that we can push in that direction."
