My Chef, Ray Bear has lots of pots on the stove. Working with him gives me a glimpse at what’s cooking on a celebrity Chefs stove. He hosts cooking competitions, sells chinaware, and even has his own line of gourmet sauces called Q Gourmet by Chef Ray Bear. Actually, my first “shift” I worked for him was at Pete’s Frootique, sampling and selling 3 of the sauces; Smokey Mango, Passion fruit Mustard, and Smokey BBQ sauce.
While I was tending the Q Gourmet booth at the CATCH Seafood Festival on June 28th and 29th, for Nadine Spencer, I got a chance to meet Peter of C100 FM’s The Breakfast Club. We chatted for a minute about the Chefs competition and Chef Bears sauces. I had mentioned that the White House Chef used the BBQ sauce, and he bought a bottle and went to find out the whole story from Chef Bear. Read the whole story: Smokey BBQ Cooking Sauce Makes it to the White House.
The next day, when I got to work, Chef Bear told me that Peter had invited him on the radio to talk about his sauce line and give Halifax the scoop on the Presidential BBQ sauce.
Recently when my father retired, we celebrated and raised our glasses with a family BBQ. I used the Smokey BBQ sauce on the braised ribs and they were a hit!
We use Chef Bears Q Gourmet sauces at Bear Restaurant too. The Mango sauce is used mostly for specials, tasting menus, and amuses. All of the sauces are really versatile and easy to use in the spur of the moment. They go great with everything, seafood, pork or chicken. We use the Passion Fruit Mustard as a finishing sauce on the Lamb plate.
We also use the Smokey BBQ sauce in the restaurant and serve it as the sauce for our fried calamari dish. Our calamari comes from Terry O’leary, in Canso. Many places in the city serve imported squid from Taiwan. Not Bear, he has a close and personal relationship with Terry. He lives in Canso, retired, and makes the treck o the city every few weeks to sells his squid to a select few restaurants downtown and close friends across the province. The squid are bigger and meatier, fresher, and don’t have to fly halfway around the world to finally end up on you plate.
We serve the squid on a bed of the Smokey BBQ sauce (that we make inhouse from the exact same recipe) and garnish with a chiffonad of cilantro, salt, a squeeze of lime, and half a key lime in case the guest needs it.
You can pick up the sauces at Pete’s Frootique or online at Q Gourmet. There's also some great recipes.
Here is a quick one of my own:
Passion Fruit Mustard Salad Dressing
1 cup Vegetable Oil
2 tbsp Cilantro Leaves
1 cup Q Gourmet Passion Fruit Mustard
Blend Cilantro and Q Gourmet Passion Fruit Mustard in a blender at a medium speed. Slowly pour the oil, in a steady and fluid stream. This should take 45 seconds to a one min. This causes an emulsion and will make the dressing creamy.
I love this dressing with a salad of roasted beets and goat’s cheese, a little shaved fennel, some orange segments and some fresh greens from the market.
Enjoy!
- Adam
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