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Yellowknife chef preps Northern delicacies down south Wise Guy Robin Wasicuna serves prestigious meal with nations top chefs Tuesday April 21 2015 13 ARTS CULTURE NORTHERN FOODS Northwestern Air Lease Kaesers Stores Berros Pizzeria Aurora College BZT Contracting Freunds Building Supplies Wallys Drugs TDC Contracting J.M. Miltenberger MLA Mike Labine Polar Creations A big thanks also to Lauraine Armstrong Ashley McLaren and Barb Mercredi for judging and cooking at the derby Liz Fortier for the great bannock all the wood splitters who kept us with wood for the fire and anyone we may have missed a big thank you. A very special thank you to NU Mechanical and Dezron Advertising for sponsoring the youth fishing prizes. We thank you once again for coming out and supporting our great community and sincerely look forward to welcoming you back for the annual Ice Fishing Derby next year NU Mechanical Border Cabs Dezron Advertising CAB Construction FS Royal Canadian Legion Pelican Rapids Golf Club Fields Fort Smith Mtis Council Dennis Bevington MP Salt River First Nation Annas Home Cooking Lous Small Engines Home Hardware ITI ENR Phoenix Auto Services Pelican Restaurant Terry Freund Sand Excavating Aurora Guest House Richard Mercredi Bill Reimer Melvin Fortier Gordon Pischinger 2015 Derby Committee Bruce McArthur Sholto Douglas The Fort Smith Fishing Derby Committee would like to thank all of our sponsors participants and volunteers for their contributions to the 2015 Fort Smith Ice Fishing Derby held on March 27 28 29 2015. Thanks to the generous monetary and draw prize donations and support from our sponsors community and individuals we continue to have a successful derby each year. This year was no exception We had excellent participation accompanied by an exciting weekend great people from various communities and a good community event. Fort Smith Sponsors Thank YouThank You Rusty Raven Fort Smith Liquor Store Shear Fun Tree Stone Holdings Terrys Construction Northern Stores Norm and Brent Dievert Town of Fort Smith South Slave Services NTPC Brookmar Electric Brent Dievert Terry Freund Hay River Sponsors Kingland Ford Monster Recreational Products Home Builders Norland Insurance Biggest Fish Winner Mel Fortier - 15lb 13oz Pike Biggest Fish Winner MSS Ltd. Diggerz By DALI CARMICHAEL EveryyearStevenCooperandhiswifeTwyla Campbell host one of the most exclusive culi- nary experiences in the country and this time around one lucky Yellowknife chef had the chance to bring his skills to the dinner table. Chef Robin Wasicuna owner of Wise Guy Foods in Yellowknife served up a total of 22 dishes at Northern Food Night 2015 on Apr. 11 alongside the Governor Generals private chef Louis Charest Chopped Canada winner and Calgary restaurateur Dilan Draper and JoshnaMaharajthe game-changing assistant director of food services and executive chef for Ryerson University in Ontario. Wedidsomethingprettyepicthisweekend anditwasntjustservingreallygoodfooditwas cookingandeatingsomeingredientsthatIdsay 80 to 90 per cent of the world will never even eat Wasicuna said. It was pretty amazing. Cooper started the tradition of hosting Northern Food Night at his Edmonton home about six years ago. A lawyer with the rm Ahlstrom Wright Oliver and Cooper servic- ing Alberta Nunavut and the NWT Cooper travels all around the far North for work. Often clients will gift him meats rarely pre- pared in the south including muktuk whale blubber walrus seal polar bear narwhal caribou and muskox. After stockpiling his gifts for about a year Cooper and Campbell plan their annual event. Dinner service is always headed by Charest with contributions from a rotation of visiting chefs. The guestlist usually consists of around 60 people from Cooper and Campbells fam- ily and friends to experts from various areas of the food industry including bloggers chefs and restaurant and winery owners. This was Wasicunas rst time being in- vited to the food night he said noting that Cooper and Campbell had previously enjoyed his gourmet-style comfort foods on several occasions. He particularly enjoyed making - and eating - Kentucky fried muktuk served with gravy and a wonderfully avourful wal- rus masala an Indian-spiced dish created by Maharaj. Thewalrusmasalawasunbelievable.Itwas oneofthebestthingsIveevereatentobequite honestWasicunasaid.Itwasabasiccurrybut madewithwalruswhichImsurehasneverever beendonebefore.Walrusisamarineanimaland sometimesiteatsrottenshsoitsgotabitofa funk to it but when she put it in the curry and cookeditthetraditionalway-whichisbraising for a long time - the avours of the curry took over. The avour of the walrus was there but it really got rid of a lot of that funkiness that wal- rus has. All the things you maybe wouldnt like about walrus were gone but all the things you do like about it were left behind. The fusion of international cuisine with Northern proteins continued all night as the chefs put together dishes like bowhead and narwhal tandoori polar bear ganjang-gejang cheesy barbecued black bear meatballs on bagel caribou loin tartare with mango and g sambal - the menu went on. All in all the group spent about two days putting together the feast prepping all the sauces and seasonings on Friday discuss- ing what dishes to serve Saturday morning and cooking from about 1000 a.m. until the last plate was served and the kitchen cleaned about 14 hours later. Itwassomuchfunbecauseyouputfourchefs inakitchenandyouhaveageneralideaofwhata dishisgoingtobebutbythetimeandyoureall bouncingideasoffofeachotheritsjustbecome thiscompletelyotherthingWasicunasaid.It wasreallynicetoseesomuchknowledgecome togetherinonelittlekitchenanditwasapretty amazing experience to have that camaraderie andcompanionshipofotherchefsandworking together. We worked really hard but I guess it didntseemthatwaybecauseitwasverycasual. There was no These dishes have to be out at a certain time. It was just like were going to put stuff out as its ready. For Wasicuna the weekend was a learning experience he wont forget anytime soon. Theres a good chance were never going to gettoeatanyofthisstuffagainlikepolarbear andwalrusandwhaleWasicunasaid.Iknow we live in the North - I live in the North - but lets face it I dont get the chance to eat a lot of thosethingsinYellowknife.ThatsaveryNorth- erncountryfoodandjusttohavethatopportu- nitytoevencookit-theresnottoomanychefs in the world who can even say theyve cooked polar bear or walrus or narwhal.PhotocourtesyofRobinWasicuna The chefs of Northern Food Night 2015 Dilan Draper left Joshna Maharaj Robin Wasicuna dinner guest Thomas Ford and head chef Louis Charest.