BUSS OF THE BANFFSHIRE

By CINDA CHAVICH

When it comes to the finest of gourmet cuisine, the devil is always in the details – a careful combination of tastes and textures that can take a plate of food far beyond its simple parts.

A sweet caramelized carrot, a shard of crisp eggplant atop a tiny quenelle of eggplant puree, a foamy sauce or an unexpected mouthful of ethereal egg white, poached in a savoury soup and floating like a tiny island alongside perfect pearls of roasted heirloom apple – there’s a special finesse in chef Daniel Buss’ exquisitely-designed dinners at the Banffshire Club.

In the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel’s eponymous five-diamond restaurant, Buss oversees a team of eight who work feverishly in their own kitchen to create this kind of creative cuisine for a mere 40 or 50 diners each evening. But at the hotel’s recent 16th annual wine and food festival, Buss spread his magic around, designing and executing two elegant lunches and a gala dinner for 175, featuring the same kind of rare local ingredients and finely-detailed plates that have become his signature.

“My food is very fine and I do love tiny tastes and texture changes on the plate. That’s one of my signatures.”

No where was that more evident than the festival’s cooking demonstration, where Spanish chef Sergi Millet created a deliciously rustic dish of panfried monkfish and white beans in a chunky romesco sauce, while Buss made a silky pumpkin soup, topped with a tiny hand-made pheasant and foie gras boudin sausage, a spoonful of curry-infused miniature roasted squash cubes, and a floating island of egg white, surrounded by his signature mini balls, scooped from organic apples and caramelized.

“I love my turbo Vita-Mix blender, it’s the most used tool in my kitchen,” Buss says, “and I do like little things.”

On the gala dinner menu, tiny micro-greens and farmed Canadian sturgeon caviar garnished a local heirloom potato, smoked rainbow trout and lobster terrine starter, while rabbit loin with rabbit confit and locally-foraged chanterelle mushrooms was served with sage and pumpkin ravioli, in a velvety pumpkin sauce.

“We made 960 tiny squash balls for the rabbit plate at the gala, and we used those baby honey mushrooms, and tiny squeeze bottles to add our sauces.”

Buss is a Guelph, Ontario native who trained in Canada and Switzerland before landing at the Banff Springs and opening the swanky destination restaurant seven years ago.

A recent trip to London – and a two-week stage at Le Gavroche with star chef Michel Roux – inspired Buss to create new soufflés for his menu and seek out a local Alberta source of milk-fed lamb.

“That’s all I use at the Banffshire and it’s had a huge influence on the hotel,” he says. “I’m proud and happy for our suppliers, they grow some of the best things I’ve ever tasted.”

“Now Fairmont wants all of the hotels to source local and sustainable products, which is really great.”

When Buss isn’t in the kitchen, the married father of two young children is in the mountains, cycling, fly fishing or just hanging out with his family. It’s a lifestyle that obviously balances his incredibly detailed and creative cooking.

“I don’t get too stressed – it always comes together – and I have a great staff,” he says. “I put all of my energy into it, and we all go full blast, to get that real wow every time.”

PUMPKIN SOUP WITH PHEASANT BOUDIN

Chef Daniel Buss created this elegant soup for a cooking demonstration at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

Serves 6

Pumpkin Soup:

1 kg cooking pumpkin (Cinderella pumpkin or Kuri squash)

1 teaspoon sugar

300 ml heavy cream

½ cup butter, divided

170g onions (about 1 medium onion), chopped

1 shallot, chopped

1 bay leaf

2 springs fresh thyme

1 litre chicken stock

¼ teaspoon Four Spice (equal amounts ground cinnamon, clove, allspice and nutmeg)

1 tablespoon honey

fleur de sel

freshly ground pepper

Cut the pumpkin in half, remove and discard the seeds, and cut the flesh into wedges. Place the pumpkin on a baking sheet, spread with two tablespoons of the butter, and sprinkle with the sugar. Season with salt and pepper, and roast in a 350-400F oven until softened and starting to caramelize. Cool slightly, scoop out the flesh and discard the skin.

In a soup pot, add the remaining butter, onions, shallot, bay leaf and thyme. Cook together over medium high heat, until the onions are translucent, then add the roasted pumpkin. Sweat together for 1 minute, then add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the herbs from the soup and puree everything in a blender until very smooth.

Return the soup to the pot, season with Four Spice, honey, fleur de sel and pepper. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and keep warm.

Pheasant Boudin:

1 pheasant breast, about 130 g/1/4 pound

40 g foie gras

150 mL/2/3 cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon Armagnac

sea salt and pepper

Chill the food processor and ingredients in the freezer. Dice the pheasant breast and foie gras and mix in the cold processor for a few seconds. Clean the sides with a spatula. With the machine running, slowly add the cream. Don’t overmix or the cream will break. Season mixture with Armagnac, salt and pepper.

Place the mixture into a piping bag and pipe into a clean sheep’s casing (or alternately use plastic wrap to encase the mixture and roll tightly). Tie the ends, and tie string along length of casing to form small sausages.

Place the boudins in a pan of barely simmering water (80C) and poach for 5-6 minutes. Remove and cool slightly, then remove plastic, cut each sausage on the bias and serve a piece in each bowl of soup.