A Night Out With Chef Candice (Our Kitchen Brantford Dinner with Bistro Vie)

A few blogs back we covered some of the unique culinary experiences offered here in Brantford. So, we decided to try a fun foodie event out for ourselves and booked a cooking workshop/dinner at Our Kitchen Brantford with the lovely plant-based chef Candice from Bistro Vie! What a night! Emma, who has been vegan for over 6 years, was particularly excited for the team to try some really awesome vegan eats. Do you love food? If you’re a foodie of any kind, keep reading because we’re delivering all the details!

The night started with the team gathering around the beautifully set harvest table while Chef Candice was setting up for our group activity/workshop portion of the evening. As soon as everyone had arrived we were ready to learn how to make vegan (dairy-free) fondue! Yes, you heard that right. Cheese without the cheese. How can it be? Well, let us tell you that if anyone can make it vegan, it’s Candice! We were blown away by how such simple ingredients could make such a tasty cheese-free French delicacy. We should also mention that Candice was born and raised in France, so she’s particularly skilled in the art of French cooking and putting a French flare on her dishes.

We thoroughly enjoyed the amuse bouche and were ready for the first course! Amuse bouche is a French term which is similar to saying “hors d’oeuvre.” The next plate we were brought was our first official course- a lightly dressed salad and “foie gras” on a toasted baguette. Traditionally, foie gras is luxury food product made of the liver of a duck or goose that has been especially fattened. Obviously because we were eating plant-based for the night, our foie gras was not meat based but instead made of nuts! Amy, who has tried foie gras in the past, commented that the taste was VERY similar! Wow, way to go Chef Candice on authenticity! The first course received a big thumbs up from everyone!

The main course of the evening was a delicious lasagna made with a thick layer of beefless ground in a rick gravy topped with a second layer of ratatouille simmered with fresh garlic and covered in a very french and cheesy bechamel sauce. Yum! Everything about it was so incredibly tasty. At this point we were all feeling. SO. FULL. but dessert was still to come!

For the final course we were brought the most delicious personal sized French apple pie with coconut whipped cream and caramel crunch ice cream. Honestly if you didn’t know it was plant-based you would assume it was made with all the traditional baking ingredients- eggs, butter, cream. This couldn’t have been more of a tasty finish to a 10/10 meal.

We had such a fantastic evening together at Our Kitchen with Chef Candice from Bistro Vie. Everything from the food, atmosphere and company was spot on. We really felt at home. Whether you’re looking to host your own event, attend a cooking class, or pick up a quick and tasty lunch, Our Kitchen has your needs covered. There you can also purchase pre-made plant-based meals from Candice’s own business Bistro Vie, so you can try her amazing meals out for yourself! For more details on Candice’s plant-based offerings we recommend you give her website a visit (https://bistrovie.ca/).

From our entire team at the Munir Group we want to say a sincere thank you to Chef Candice and Cathy for all their hardwork that went into hosting us. You knocked it out of the park!