THE BEST MEAL IN A LONG, LONG TIME...

Whenever someone asks me "what is the best meal I've ever had" I tell the tale of my beef tenderloin & Caymus Cabernet at Quattro in Whistler with my uncle Antonio. My second favorite has to be the "experience" I had at Nine Steakhouse at the Palms in Las Vegas, I will never forget the first time I bit into that steak during my Stag weekend, it was awesome. So you see, the best meal was because of the food and wine pairing, the second meal was because of the experience. Well, I know have a third favorite meal and it's because of the food and the wine and the experience!

This weekend saw 13 Corsi relatives from Italy and 10 of the Vancouver-based Corsis head to Whistler for a weekend of fun, food and family-bonding. Some stayed in a hotel, others with my Uncle at his place while the rest of us made camp at a great 6-bedroom cabin in the woods. We had a BBQ on the lake, some folks went ATVing while others took the tram to the peak of the mountain, we ate at different restaurants, went dancing till the wee hours and usually ended up for cigars and cocktails at one place or another, it was a great weekend to be sure but let's get back to "the meal".

First off, all the meals were great, big ones included a suckling-pig feast at CARAMBA (how very Roman of us), the biggest bowl of traditional Paella at KYPRIAKI and some award-winning French appies at BAREFOOT BISTRO. But one meal in particular stood out from the rest and once again it was from Chef Jeremie Trottier at QUATTRO IN WHISTLER. Now I know what you are thinking "hey hey bald man, this is one of the family restaurants, ofcourse you are going to say its awesome". Not true jerk face, I calls them like I sees them and I have had disappointing meals at my family's restaurants, luckily, this wasn't one of them.

The meal, or feast, or food orgy, whatever you want to call it was 8 courses long and each course was paired with a fantastic wine. What's even better is that Chef Jeremie didn't just give us a meal of Quattro Favorites, he created a menu of his favorite dishes, some inspired by his Italian experiences, others from his personal adventures, it was truly a meal to remember.

A weekend with non-stop relatives can be tough, I mean we've all heard the stories or seen the movie version starring Chevy Chase but this was a great experience and it was awesome to see three generations of the family having a blast together. A few of them are here for another few days but you can see a pictorial history of their visit HERE!!!