Champagne and Sabres

I am standing in a cellar surrounded by over 20,000 bottles of carefully chosen wine. I have a bottle of Moet et Chandon Imperial in my left hand and a large knife in my right hand.

Slowly I run the blade up and down the neck of the bottle listening to the sound of metal against glass.



Then with a quick flick of the wrist the blade slices off the top of the bottle – cork and glass together - and Moet spurts forth foaming to the floor.

I have sabred my first bottle of champagne.



Andre St. Jacques is the world record holder for sabring having sabred 21 bottles in under one minute.

He is also the owner of The Bearfoot Bistro in Whistler in Canada. He is happy to teach anyone to sabre. You simply pay for the bottle of champagne, Andre will teach you how to sabre it (no extra charge) and then you have the rest of the evening to enjoy it.

Sabring is a French tradition dating back to the time of Napoleon. The Hussards, under Napoleon’s command, used it as a means of showing off their skill on horseback. They celebrated their victories by 'sabring' off the top of a bottle of champagne. As legend has it, these skilled horsemen would ride on horseback at a full gallop while brave (or foolhardy!) ladies would hold up the bottles. With over 100 lbs of pressure per square inch in a bottle of champagne, the sabre must strike the neck at exactly the right angle.

Needless to say, it’s easier when you are standing still and have a world expert at your side to guide you.

It’s worth visiting the Bearfoot Bistro for more than just a lesson in sword play. Their award winning chef Melissa Craig does a wonderful taster menu. You’ll get a number of courses each exquisitely served like a work of art of on a plate. Each course, as the name implies, gives you a taste of a dish, allowing you to try everything on the menu at one sitting!

As each course is served the waiter carefully explains what you are eating, where it has come from and how it has been prepared. There is also a different wine with each course, all from vineyards in British Columbia and all carefully chosen to complement the food. Each is served in a different shape or style of glass. And, like his foodie counterpart, the wine waiter explains each wine, why it has been chosen, which vineyard it came from and perhaps some personal anecdotes about the vintage or the growers.

As a vegetarian my meal looked and tasted as carefully thought through and considered as any of the meat dishes. In no way was I made to feel that somehow my vegetarian status meant I was being given a second rate meal (see my previous blog).

There are two desert courses to finish the meal – one served with a maple syrup whiskey and the other with a local ice Wine from Mission Hill. The whiskey is created as a blend of Scotland and Canada celebrating the area’s Scottish ancestry with its Canadian heart.

The ice wine is made by leaving the grapes on the bush until the first frost. This produces a grape very high in natural sugar. The grapes are crushed will still “frosted”. The result is a sweet desert wine that slips down the throat like nectar – beware it’s easy to drink too much if you have a sweet tooth.


The showpiece of the meal was the liquid nitrogen ice cream. It’s prepared at your table in a large metal bowl. First, in goes a jug of cream, this is stirred as ice cold liquid nitrogen is poured on top. The chef disappears in a cloud of dry ice and by the time it clears your ice cream is ready.

Like everything at The Bearfoot Bistro it’s a feast for all your senses.

Tell the chef to cook something proper!

“Oh for goodness sake, tell the chef to cook her something proper!”

I was so thrilled to hear this that I nearly leapt out of my chair and did a little dance of joy.

Why was I so thrilled? Well, I have this issue with pasta and risotto as the unimaginative de facto standard vegetarian option in pretty much every restaurant I ever visit.

So when I was invited to stay for lunch at C Restaurant in Vancouver while interviewing Executive Chef Rob Clarke, I explained that I didn’t eat meat or fish. The waiter started to suggest their one vegetarian option – the pasta. It was at this moment that Mr Clarke uttered the words I was so delighted to hear.

And what the chef came up with was amazing. Why it wasn’t on the menu already and why they chose tedious pasta instead, I cannot imagine.

My meal started with tiny bites of marinated fruits and vegetables on skewers. They were served standing upright on a glass tile, looking like multi-coloured flags of food. The main course was essentially “British Columbia on a plate”. The chef personally delivered it to my table and explained each item and where it had come from in the province. It seemed there was a delight on offer from almost every area, laid out on the plate like a work of art and with a good balance of vegetables and protein (unlike pasta or risotto which generally only contains carbohydrates and fat).

It just goes to show; this chef was far better than pasta. It’s a shame that so often vegetarians (or meat eaters who fancy a day off) are palmed off with sub standard fare. And Rob Clarke’s comment makes me wonder if in fact they are aware of this but perhaps choose the safe (lazy?) way out on their menus.

My plea to chef’s everywhere is don’t treat vegetarians as second class diners.

My experience of vegetarian food in British Columbia was generally excellent. I also visited (along with eight meat eaters) a seafood and sushi restaurant called Blue Water and we all tried a taster menu. Each course was beautifully presented and explained and wine chosen specifically to complement it. Quite often as a vegetarian I feel that I am missing out on the care and attention that a chef gives to meat eaters. Not so here. My food was carefully thought through, artfully presented and deliciously tasty.

I spoke to quite a few chef’s during my trip and needless to say we ended up having “the vegetarian conversation” (it seems to have become impossible for me to eat out without being asked why I am vegetarian, and do I find it difficult and do I miss meat, and what do I eat... ? etc). Each chef told me that if I didn’t like what was on the menu I should ask the chef to make me something else. They assured me that every decent chef has plenty of vegetables in the kitchen and can easily make a meat free meal that doesn’t involve pasta or risotto.

I’d been given similar advice by British chefs too, so when I recently visited the Cadbury House Hotel in Yatton I was ready to put it to the test. Cadbury House is a gorgeous hotel with a boutique feel. The decor is modern, elegant and a touch quirky. The spa is luxurious and the gym is well equipped. And the group manager Mark has some great tales to tell that will keep you entertained if you are lucky enough to get a chance to share a drink with him.

The restaurant prides itself on including plenty of local produce on the menu and I was looking forward to dinner and an imaginative vegetarian meal. Predictably the dish on offer was risotto, but that didn’t worry me as I was armed with my advice to ask for something else. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work as planned.

My main meal was a selection of the vegetable side dishes, which would have been OK (although I did feel a little as though I’d been palmed off with an “I can’t be bothered” meal) except for the fact it had large chunks of bacon in it! I think it’s fair to say they hadn’t taken any time to think about what they were serving me. Once again, a sad indication of the attitude of many chefs towards vegetarians.

There are of course plenty of exceptions. One such is The Harbour Cafe in Margate. This is a small seafront bistro that does the best Sunday lunch nut roast I have ever had. And it comes with all the trimmings of a traditional roast dinner. It’s worth going to Margate just for that. I’d also recommend that you save desert for a trip to the bandstand cafe on the beach and have a freshly cooked donut Brown Derby. Delicious.

Nature through all your senses

Nature is without doubt beautiful, but if using your eyes is the only way you experience it, then you’re missing out on about 4/5th of it.

I decided to put my five senses to the test during a walk along the Meewasin River Valley in Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada.

This delightful walk is accessible from the centre of town and my starting point was the majestic Delta Bessborough Hotel just a few minutes walk from the river path...

My eyes soak up the beauty of the river, sunlight glinting off the water, surrounded by the golds and reds of the trees as they begin to turn to autumn. As I walk I’m accompanied by the honking symphony of Canada Geese. I can feel the warm sunshine on my skin and a slight breeze mussing with my hair. My lungs fill with air that smells fresh, not city stale.

As the trail continues I enter a wooded area and the light changes to a speckled dance along the path. A rustling in the undergrowth delivers my very first sighting of a wild chipmunk.

Something I would have missed if I hadn’t been using my ears as well as my eyes.

As I walk along I can feel the leaves brushing my arms and the subtle change in temperature as I move between patches of sunlight.

Further along the sounds of the geese are drowned out by the rushing water of the weir, where I stand soaking up the sunshine and admiring the grace of fishing cormorants. Pelicans can often be spotted here but I’m not lucky enough to see one.

The insistent cheep-cheep of small birds alerts me to their presence and as I stand motionless on the path they flitter around me - tantalisingly close. I have no idea what species they are, but that doesn’t diminish my enjoyment.

I start walking again breathing in the light scent of clean air, vegetation and slightly damp soil. And then I am stopped in my tracks by a glorious yellow furry caterpillar with large black fur “spines”.

He is soft and fuzzy to the touch (although I have been warned in the past that you shouldn’t touch them as they can cause allergic reactions – but it seems worth the risk to me).

As I emerge from the trees I am confronted by jewel-like berries hanging from the bushes; bright reds and oranges. The berries are firm but soft to the touch, the leaves cool and smooth and the nearby tree trunks rough and hard.

It’s time to cross the river by means of wooden bridge high above the rushing water and on the other side my senses are rewarded with a whole new set of experiences.

I am now in open fields surrounded by a sea of golden grass. The sun is strong and I can feel perspiration forming on my back. As I walk along I can hear the drone of grasshoppers and the swish of the breeze in the grass. Then a strange clicking sound rushing past my ears alerts me to a very large grasshopper-cum-moth. Over an inch long, as it sits on the ground it looks like a grasshopper with folded moth wings, but when it flies (not jumps) it looks more like a dark moth with white wing tips. Its wings beat very fast and its flight is quite short and erratic. As I move along the path dozens of them dance in front of me marking my way.

The scent here is drier and faintly tinged with grass. I then suddenly I am surrounded by a thousand gossamer winged fairies as the breeze releases the floating seeds of the field thistles.
As I head back along the eastern side of the river I dive deep into a densely wooded area with tiny streams crossing the path. I almost trip over a small polecat – who looks as surprised as I do to see him there!

Its quiet here – the odd rustle in the undergrowth, the call of small birds, the tinkle of water cascading down, the leaves moving in the breeze. I breathe deeply and feel my lungs filling with cool air. The sun is hot on my neck. I feel calm and full of life as I soak up the beauty of nature, in all its forms and am thankful that I have five senses with which to experience such a wonderful place.

However you may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned taste – well, I’ll be honest, the main taste I enjoyed on my walk was the memories of the delicious cinnamon, maple syrup and cranberry French toast I ate for breakfast.

The Wild West is alive and well – in Canada.

If you thought the cowboy was dead then take a trip to Alberta in Canada.

I was lucky enough to do just that recently and stayed at Anchor D ranch, about an hour outside Calgary. It’s run by Dewy and Jan Matthews and Dewy looks every bit the sort of cowboy you’d see in a Hollywood movie.

The ranch has around a hundred horses and each morning the wranglers are up early bringing in the herd from the pastures and galloping them into the coral for the day.

Watching the different personalities of the horses is fascinating. There is a very clear hierarchy to the herd. Bug-eyed Pete (one of the least attractive horses I have ever seen!) is the head of the herd. He’s very laid back about it and you’d never guess he was boss – until someone gets out of line, then he’s on them with an iron hoof.

When all the horses arrive at the coral they queue up for water and depending on their position in the herd, depends on when they are allowed to drink. We spent nearly an hour watching three horses hog the water butt, having had their fill they refused to move, and a long queue formed behind them. But no one dared to push them aside, they waited patiently while the three demonstrated their power. Holly, a bubbly dynamo of a woman decided that this was unfair and strode into the coral to get the three bullies to move. After lots of shooing and pushing they moved aside, but those waiting in the queue refused to move forward; they knew they hadn’t been given permission yet, so they stayed put. In the end Holly gave up. Eventually the three got bored and moved on and the rest of the herd got their drink.

Being a wrangler is a long day with hard physical work, but according to Shona Duff a straight talking Glaswegian with a love and deep understanding of horses, she’s never had it so good. For Shona, now a Canadian resident with no plans to return home, the lifestyle in Canada and the rugged beauty give her a work-life balance that’s easy to envy.

Anchor D offers a variety of riding experiences, from a short two-hour ride into Kananaskis Country to a longer week long trip into the Canadian Rockies with a covered wagon.

“Over the Edge” is ride that’s not for the faint hearted. It was a wet day and I was kitted out with cowboy hat and slickers (the big coats that keep both you and the horse’s bottom dry!) and with my camera fixed firmly in a saddle bag we set off in a small group, riding our sturdy quarter horses up into the foothills. All I could see was rolling hills and greenery – not a building or road in site. After a couple of hours of climbing we were perched high above a rushing creek on a hill with such steep sides it looked as though getting down would be impossible. Now it was time to go “over the edge”.

The key on a trail that steep is to let the horse have its head, lean back in the saddle as far as you can go and pray. So that’s what I did. The horse, of course, doesn’t want to fall any more than you do, so with a surprising surefootedness it weaves its way down and out into the rushing water. Due to an unseasonably wet summer the water was deeper and faster than we had expected. Carefully we made our way up river, being sure to keep the horses side-on to the torrent so they wouldn’t get knocked off their feet. The water kept rising until it was half way up my calves and lapping at the horse’s belly.

It was a ride that I’ll never forget on a trip that will stay with me a long time.
I found spending time around horses and riding out into stunning countryside where I didn’t see another person all day was a truly reviving experience. I may only have spent four days at Anchor D but my mind felt as though it had spent a month on retreat.

Alberta is a stunning province and if you like fresh air, scenery and being close to nature then you can’t beat it. It’s also interesting economically as the Oil Sands in the north are bringing massive wealth (and unfortunately environmental damage too) to the area. House prices in Calgary have shot up as more and more people arrive for the oil rush. So if you like your creature comforts Calgary caters for that too.