A new chef in Qualicum Beach is bringing contemporary fine dining and an impressive pedigree to the Crown Mansion.
Andrew West is the new executive chef at Butlers at the Mansion restaurant.
A passionate and thoughtful food lover from England, West said he’s excited to bring a British and West Coast fusion to the restaurant, in an environment where he can create freely and cook delicious, beautifully plated food.
“It’s art to me,” said West of cooking. That includes everything from sourcing ingredients, creating new recipes, having an extremely high standard of cooking for every dish that goes out, right down to the plating.
“I think, obviously, a plate has to look beautiful… I’ve had customers before, they don’t want to even start eating because it looks too pretty. They don’t want to disassemble it.”
West’s passion for cooking began at a young age in the kitchen with his mom for the Sunday roast dinner. He took that passion to a post-secondary cooking program and into restaurants, eventually finding a place at Gordon Ramsay’s Claridges restaurant for four years, he said.
“Learning from Gordon was very, very hard work to begin with,” said West. “What you see on TV, it’s for the TV, but Gordon in person in his real life, if you make mistakes, you get punished quite severely,” West noted with a laugh. “I definitely learned how to duck flying plates and pots and pans.”
Nonetheless, he said, “The level of food that I was using in his establishment and the training that we got was basically what built my foundation to be here now where I am.”
Before arriving at the Crown Mansion’s Butlers at the Mansion restaurant in January as executive chef, West said he worked at various prestigious hotels and restaurants in England as head chef, including Retro Bistro in London, earning it two AA red rosettes and the Good Food Guide London Restaurant of the Year in 2012.
West is bringing an English and B.C. West Coast infusion style of food to the Crown Mansion, creating seasonal menus using as many local ingredients as possible.
“I like to keep the flavours fresh and clean, like, to their own nature, not mask things with heavy spices,” West said.
Currently, the menu includes local asparagus and truffled quail’s egg with pancetta, aged parmesan and hollandaise sauce as a starter at $16, and herb crusted rack of spring lamb with mint and pistachio, as well as halibut with toasted bulgar wheat, sea asparagus and clams as mains for $38 and $35.
“My food is very artistic,” said West, who sometimes draws inspiration from the environment in which one ingredient may be found.
For example, the halibut dish is meant to visually evoke the sea shore, with the bulgar wheat looking like grains of sand, and with West creating a foam with clam juice and halibut stock “to create a slightly citrusy, salty kind of sea foam on the plate.”
West said he’s been happy with the response from the dining community so far, but added he’s excited for word to spread.
With the opportunity to freely create new dishes with Butlers at the Mansion, West said he’s excited to entertain guests with new and surprising food made with contemporary techniques like vacuum-packing and sous-vide.
“I’m a really passionate chef,” said West.
“I get to express myself on the plate to the customers, and hopefully give them the best dining experience that we have here on the West Coast.”