Chef Alex Kim’s Award-Winning Menu Is Now Available at Five Sails Restaurant

Like many food-obsessed people, I am an avid watcher of culinary competition TV shows. From Top Chef to Beat Bobby Flay, I watch with baited breath as chefs plate jaw-dropping dishes (and simultaneously judge as if I could ever make a single one of them). But the main problem with these shows is that I am then left hungry and let’s just say a zhuzhed up box of KD does not satisfy in comparison. (Though: no hate, it’s a personal go-to for a reason.)

That all changes now. Earlier this year Five Sails’ Culinary Director, Chef Alex Kim, took home gold for B.C. at the Canadian Culinary Championships. The competition itself is three days of high-octane rounds where secret ingredients, tight time limits, and banquet-level plating are all imposed on the contestants. But Kim’s thoughtful, detail-oriented plates (and a fair share of prep back home to combat the pressure) paid off. And until March 19, those winning dishes are available at Five Sails. So, to summarize, for the first time ever, my wish was granted: I got to eat the winning dishes of a culinary competition and it was everything I wanted and more.

The winning dishes were presented as a tasting menu, which gave Chef Kim a little more room to stretch his talents: the first three dishes of the menu are all components of his final winning signature dish. The first of those dishes was a lush crudo of plump B.C. side stripe shrimp with yuzu gel and vinaigrette, topped with a delicate tuile made from fried shrimp shell.

The second dish featured a plump, seared West Coast oyster and arrived looking like, well, an oyster. But looks can be deceiving because the shell it was presented on was meticulously crafted… and entirely edible. A perfect one-biter, the layers of pastry gave way to punchy Okanagan apple and Pemberton salsify.

The third dish was a Haida Gwaii sablefish and scallop terrine, with a decoration meant as a nod to Chef Kim’s Korean heritage. It was delicate but didn’t hold back on flavour. When paired with an additional, perfectly seared scallop and both crispy and pureed sunchokes—it’s a knockout of a dish.

The fourth dish was what Chef Kim made in his mystery wine challenge. The contestants were all given a bottle of unmarked wine and had to build a dish around a pairing, and Chef Kim came out swinging with a delicate pasta. It’s no small feat to roll, cut, shape, fill and cook over 100 plates of pasta—but the resulting dish stood out amongst its competition. Filled with goat cheese and squash and topped with a brown butter emulsion and toasted nuts, the dainty pasta exploded with flavour.

Chef Kim’s final dish was what he crafted for the black box challenge (where a box of mystery ingredients are provided and the contestants have to use every single item). His resulting dish was a show-stopping combination of perfectly seared Fraser Valley dry aged duck breast, mushroom ragu, and melt-in-your-mouth celeriac Parisian gnocchi (made with choux batter).

While the dessert portion of the tasting menu was not part of the the Canadian Culinary Championship, pastry chef Daria Andriienko knocks it out of the park with a multi-layered ode to honey crisp apples. It’s molded to look like a golden apple, but breaks away under your spoon to reveal a pie-like filling ensconced in mousse.

Want to try these winning dishes for yourself? Chef Kim’s tasting menu is available at Five Sails until March 19 ($155 per person).