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Chef Ned Bell returns to his roots, to the place he was born, the place that feeds his soul

At the Naramata Inn, Ned Bell discovers that his roots go deep in the Okanagan

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Ned Bell is a pretty happy guy these days. But not so long ago he was lying awake every night, worried about the future, about death and illness and money and losing everything he cherished most.

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He was beginning to realize that being a high-flying celebrity chef wasn’t the most important thing in the world after all. And then fate came calling.

Now Bell is the chef and a partner in the Naramata Inn, a historic 12-room property on the shores of Okanagan Lake, where he’s surrounded by vineyards, orchards, friends and family. It’s a return to his roots, to the place he was born, the place that feels his soul.

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“I feel like I’ve been trying to get back here for years,” he says. “I feel at home here and that’s pretty cool. And I don’t think I would have wanted this the same way 10 years ago.”

‘What are we waiting for?’

Bell is probably best-known as the former executive chef of Yew Seafood + Bar at Vancouver’s Four Seasons Hotel.

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“Those five years made my career,” he says. “It allowed me to know that you can recover from a couple of stumbles.”

Born in Penticton, Bell grew up cooking for his family. He got his first restaurant job washing dishes at 15, graduated from Vancouver’s Dubrulle French Culinary School in 1994, apprenticed with Michel Jacob at Le Crocodile and was mentored by Rob Feenie at Lumiere.

Over the next couple of decades Bell worked in Toronto, Calgary, Kelowna and Vancouver, where he led the Four Seasons through its rebirth in 2011. He became a nationally recognized champion of sustainable seafood, an award-winning cookbook author and executive chef of Ocean Wise. He was a regular on TV, in magazines and on the festival circuit. And he built a family with his wife, publicist Kate Colley, and their three sons.

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He had, to all appearances, arrived. Of course, appearances can be deceiving.

These days, Bell is pretty upfront about his “stumbles,” which mostly had to do with alcohol. After a particularly epic binge landed him in hospital, he took up cycling and quit drinking entirely. He’s been sober ever since.

Much more devastating was Colley’s breast cancer diagnosis a couple of years ago, which threw the couple’s lives into turmoil. So when Bell got a call from his friend Paul Hollands, the recently retired president and CEO of A&W Food Services Canada, the timing was just about as bad as it could get.

The Naramata Inn.
The Naramata Inn. jpg

“The month before we found out Kate had cancer, Paul called me and said, ‘How would you feel about a run at the Naramata Inn?’ ” Bell recalls.

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Hollands and his wife, Maria Wiesner, had long dreamed of fixing up the old inn near their summer place in Naramata. Luckily, buying it took longer than they had anticipated. And last year, when Hollands finally said, “I think we can do it,” the timing was perfect.

“It was part-dream, and it was part-realizing, ‘What are we waiting for?’ All these things were just conspiring for us to say yes, so we said yes,” Bell says. “The South Okanagan was always part of my life. Summers on Skaha Lake, summers on Okanagan Lake. And I met Kate on Terry David Mulligan’s porch in Naramata. It just has made sense.”

French Naramatian cuisine

Since the mission-style Naramata Inn was built in 1908, it has been a private home, a hotel, a girls’ school and now the valley’s most talked-about boutique inn and destination restaurant, thanks to the seamless partnership of the two couples. Wiesner is the design guru, Colley the publicist, Hollands the business visionary, and Bell, of course, the chef.

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Wiesner has filled the inn with elegantly contemporary furnishings that complement the historic structure, and moved the restaurant from basement to main floor, with tables spilling out onto a gracious veranda. (The basement will eventually become a wine bar.)

The team has expanded with old friends in the kitchen and dining room. Bell is joined by his sous chefs Stacy Johnston, who worked with him at Ocean Wise, and her partner, Minette Lotz. Meanwhile, Emily Walker, who was wine director at the Four Seasons, is leading the wine program.

“The band’s back together,” Bell jokes. “I don’t drink, so I rely on her to be my tastebuds.”

Walker can pick and choose from wineries throughout the valley, and her list already boasts nearly 100 labels, including library wines and rare one-offs.

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“It’s a different level of knowing these producers. Part of it is being a local and getting to know people on a personal level,” she says. “And the biggest compliments we’ve received have been coming from the wine producers themselves.”

As for Bell, he’s never cooked better food. He’s calling it “French Naramatian — French technique, Naramata ingredients,” and emphasizes: “You can only have this dinner right here.”

With the exception of chocolate and coffee, everything on the menu is from B.C., as much as possible from Naramata. Even lemon juice is replaced with verjus or vinegar.

An outdoor dining space at the Naramata Inn.
An outdoor dining space at the Naramata Inn. PNG

“If it’s not of this moment or this place, it’s not going on the menu,” he says. “We’re building the dishes to the ingredients we can get our hands on, not the other way around.”

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He’s already forged relationships with Rosebank Farms, Puzzlegrass Farms, Medley Organics, Plot Twist and Unearthed Farm, and says, “I’m pinching myself at how fortunate I am to have that immediate connection with ingredient.”

And every day, more farmers and foragers show up at his door with, perhaps, some figs gently cradled in their hands, or a sack of mushrooms from the backcountry, or an invitation to help himself from a secret apricot orchard.

All this unexpected bounty has revived his passion for cooking.

“I was getting bored with my own food, and it’s so fun to be getting creative with ingredients. I’m filling my bucket,” he says. “It just does not get any better.”

A vision for Naramata

The Naramata Inn reopened June 5, and it’s been slammed ever since. The rooms are booked well into October, dinners for weeks in advance.

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“We have this vision of being one of the best restaurants in Canada, in this magical place,” Bell says. “A signature restaurant in the village of Naramata will only attract more business. We have as good an opportunity as anyone else.”

After all, he points out, Yountville was just a sleepy village in California’s Napa Valley before Thomas Keller opened The French Laundry and transformed it into a dining destination.

Which is all to say that, as Ned Bell enters his fourth decade as a chef, he’s just getting started.

“I’ve never had less of an ego and never been more confident about it,” he says. “I feel like I’m learning again for the first time in years. All you’ve got to do is ask, ‘What makes your boat float?’ ”

In Bell’s case, that turns out to be the place that was always meant to be home.

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“The universe has been good to me,” he says. “That’s for sure.”

A dish created by Chef Ned Bell.
A dish created by Chef Ned Bell. jpg

RECIPE: Organic Apricots, Desert Flower Naramata Honey and Wild Pacific Halibut

“This is an absolutely addictive summer dish made so by the sweet, sour, honeyed, buttery apricot love on the plate,” says Ned Bell, chef at the Naramata Inn. “Plating is meant to be fun so do as you wish, though I’m keen on this presentation.” He adds Unearthed Farm garden peas and Plot Twist summer squash to his plating, and notes that you can always replace the halibut with ling cod or wild B.C. salmon.

4 pieces Ocean Wise wild Pacific halibut, 5 oz (150 g) each

Kosher salt

1 tbsp (15 mL) butter or as needed

4 to 8 baby summer squash, cut in half lengthwise

Fresh peas (optional)

Apricot compote (see recipe)

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Creamy summer pea purée (see recipe)

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).

Preheat a cast-iron or heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan to high heat. Sprinkle about 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt over each piece of fish, then lay the seasoned fish in the hot pan.

Pan-sear the fish for 20 seconds to begin the caramelization, then place the pan into the preheated oven for 5 minutes.

Remove the pan and fish from the oven. Gently flip the fish over, add a knob of butter to the pan and baste the fish for 20 seconds.

Remove the fish from the pan and set aside. (Chef tip: Do not overcook — perfectly cooked warm fish is always way better than overcooked hot fish.)

In the same pan, add the cut summer squash, cut side-down, then place the pan in the oven for 3 minutes until the squash is golden brown and tender. If you like, add a handful of freshly shucked summer peas, sauté for 1 minute.

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On each plate, arrange the vegetables, apricot compote and fish, then spoon some pea purée alongside.

Serves 4


Apricot Compote

As delicious with ice cream or cake as it is alongside seared fish.

2 tbsp (30 mL) salted butter

1 lb (454 g) apricots, fresh and ripe but firm, cut in half and pitted

3 tbsp (45 mL) honey, preferably Naramata Desert flower honey

1 tsp (5 mL) Vancouver Island sea salt

2 tbsp (30 mL) elderflower vinegar (see recipe)

Method

Preheat a cast-iron or heavy-bottomed stainless steel pan over medium heat.

Add butter to the pan. Once melted, add the apricots, cut side-down. Gently roast for 1 minute, flip them over and add the honey and salt as needed.

After 30 seconds, add vinegar, remove from the heat and set aside. Try not to overcook the apricots, though they’re delicious no matter what.

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Serves 4


Elderflower Vinegar

This delicately floral vinegar can replace your usual wine vinegar in almost every application. Chef Ned Bell suggests trying it in a salad dressing made with two-thirds organic Canadian canola oil and one-third vinegar.

1 lb (454 g) fresh elderflower blossoms

4 cups (1L) white wine (Bell recommends Fandango from Naramata’s Terravista Vineyards)

4 cups (1L) pickling vinegar

1 cup (250 mL) honey

3 tbsp (45 mL) salt

Method

Place the elderflowers in a large bowl or tub.

Bring the wine, vinegar, honey and salt to a simmer in a pot on the stove. Immediately remove from heat and pour over the elderflowers. Place everything in a large, clean Mason jar, sealed tub or other non-reactive container.

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Put mixture in fridge to cool. Chilled, it will last for months and is delicious on its own or used in salad dressings.

Makes about 8 cups (2L)


Creamy Summer Pea Purée

Adding spinach to pea purée is a chef’s trick for making it bright and green. If you thin this with a light chicken stock it makes a bright, fresh summery soup.

3 tbsp (45 mL) butter

2 tbsp (30 mL) finely diced shallots

3 cups (750 mL) fresh peas

1 cup (250 mL) heavy cream (36%), if possible from D Dutchman Dairy in Sicamous

2 cups (500 mL) fresh spinach leaves

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

Method

Melt the butter in a medium-sized pot over medium heat. Add shallots and sauté for 2 minutes. Add peas and sauté for 2 minutes. Add cream and simmer for 3 minutes, until the peas are tender. Add spinach and remove from the heat. Season with salt.

Purée in a blender for 1 minute until the mixture is vibrant green and ultrasmooth.

Makes about 3 cups (750 mL)

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