Tucked neatly inside Campagnolo's coat check room is a small stack of awards the restaurant has won since opening less than a year ago.
Executive chef Robert Belcham, who Vancouver Magazine named its Chef of the Year, is genuinely honoured by the awards but he's not ready to hang up his apron just yet.
"Once you start resting on the laurels of the past you're sort of sunk," Belcham told 24 hours.
"For me, the most important dish that we've ever done is the one we're doing right then. You can never attain perfection. It's an impossibility, but you can always be striving for it."
Belcham, apparently is one of a few Vancouver chefs who remains in constant reach of the brass ring.
His other restaurant Fuel on West 4th Avenue is, and will likely continue to be, a go-to spot for critics and diners alike for its reasonably priced menu of regional cuisine.
As an owner, Belcham delicately juggles his guest's notions of value with the cost of offering premium ingredients per plate.
"We try to give them their value, but people also have to understand that we aren't buying our steaks at Costco," he said.
"We're going to the farmers' market because those items were picked that morning."
Belcham, who spends some of his 15-hour days visiting markets and studying competitors menus, said he learned his work ethic from his father.
"My entire life my dad has worked his ass off to provide for his family," he said. "He worked to make sure we had food on the table and a roof over our heads. It wasn't until I started cooking and found something that I truly love that I was able to truly understand that."
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Crispy Ceci
Campagnolo
1020 Main St.
604-484-6018
campagnolorestaurant.ca
2 cups cooked chick peas
1/2 cup arugala
4 leaves fresh mint
2 scallions
1 tbsp parsley
pinch chili flakes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon
Black pepper
Salt
- Start by deep frying chick peas.
- In a separate bowl make a simple salad by combing arugala, torn mint leaves, sliced scallions, parsley, sliced scallions, parsley and chili flakes.
- Dress the salad with olive oil salt and pepper.
- Add the zest and juice of one lemon.
- Add fried chick peas and season with salt and pepper to taste.
