Chef Andrea Carlson tells us about cooking cardoons

Cardoons at City Farmer’s garden

For years we’ve grown cardoon as a beautiful ornamental with purple flowers. But many people have told us that it is used in Italian cooking. Visitor, Andrea Carlson, Executive Chef at Bishops Restaurant in Vancouver, shares with us how she uses the plant in the kitchen.

Excerpt from Wikipedia:

The earliest description of the cardoon comes from the fourth century BC Greek writer Theophrastus. The cardoon was popular in Greek and Roman cuisine. Cardoons remained popular in medieval and early modern Europe, and were common in the vegetable gardens of colonial America. They fell from fashion only in the late nineteenth century. In Europe, cardoon is still cultivated in Provence, Spain and Italy. In the Geneva region, where Huguenot refugees introduced it about 1685, the local variety cardy is considered a culinary specialty. “Before Cardoons are sent to table, the stalks or ribs are blanched by tying them together and wrapping them round with straw, which is also tied up with cord, and left so for about three weeks”.

Bishops Restaurant in Vancouver.

About cardoons on Wikipedia here.

Cardoon recipe here.

Andrea’s Bio from Bishops’ Website:

Andrea Carlson—Executive Chef
Ms. Andrea Carlson

Chef and gardener – at first glance, one wonders what these two seemingly diverse fields have in common. In the instance of Bishop’s Executive Chef Andrea Carlson, they represent two aspects of her passion for cuisine based on the fresh, organic, seasonal and local ingredients.

A graduate of the Dubrulle Culinary School (now part of the Art Institute of Vancouver), Chef Carlson honed her culinary skills under Executive Chef Rob Clark at Vancouver’s famed C Restaurant, first as a pastry chef and later as Sous Chef. While at C Restaurant, she pursued her interest in plants and gardens by taking courses in landscape design. From C, she moved to Victoria to work under Chef Edward Tuscon at the multi-awarded Sooke Harbour House with its famed edible landscape.

While you can take a gardener away from the garden and put them in a kitchen, you can’t take the passion for growing out of the gardener who happens to be a chef. The experience at Sooke Harbour House, with its extensive garden and commitment to organics, led Chef Carlson to take courses on organic farming. A stint of ‘woofing’ (willing workers on organic farms) saw her designing and installing a kitchen garden for the on-site restaurant at the Tofino Botanical Garden – an opportunity to combine both her interests.

The time at Sooke reinforced Chef Carlson’s passion for local, organic ingredients grown and produced in a sustainable manner. The next step in her career was an easy one – back to Vancouver as Chef de Cuisine at Raincity Grill, a restaurant also dedicated to local and seasonal cuisine. While there, Chef Carlson created the first-ever restaurant menu in Vancouver based on the 100-Mile Diet. During her Raincity tenure, the restaurant became known for its variations on the 100-Mile Menu and its many seasonal menus highlighting local produce at its peak of perfection.

In 2007, Chef Carlson jumped at the chance to become Executive Chef for the legendary John Bishop at his eponymous restaurant. Chef Carlson brings her next-generation sensibilities to the ‘locavore’ movement started by Mr. Bishop more than 20 years ago. It’s a match made in heaven.