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Where: River House Grill, 8 Mission Avenue, St. Albert; 458-2232.

From St. Albert Trail northbound, make a left on St. Anne Street, a right on Perron, and another right on Mission Avenue.

When: Open for dinner, including the Sunday evening prime rib dinner.

The View:  This patio features billowing flower baskets on a south-facing balcony, with a view across Red Willow Path to the slowly meandering Sturgeon River.  All the flowers have been done by Tame Andersen, who splurged on super-wave petunias and filled in with other sun-loving species.

The Food: This is serious cooking, with emphasis on Alberta grown products and regional cuisine.

Chef Willy White used to change his lunch menus more often, but has settled on some popular salads, most notably the crab-cakes – roughly chopped scallops and crab meat with fresh herbs – served warm on a salad of organic greens, with a drizzle of Bless Wold farm yogurt dressing and other another drizzle of chipotle red pepper mayo.

He also does a fire-grilled flatiron steak – “A nice tender piece of meat, served with a jicama and Savoy cabbage slaw”.

On the dinner menu, the fresh lake trout is starting to come in now from the norther lakes.  Still with fish, he slow cooks Northern Alberta whitfish wwith a whsiper of Chinese five=spice and service it with a minted snap-pea coulis. There’s also Sunterra lamb sirloin with organic green salad.

“We got black currants and saskatoons from Berry Ridge farms, so I make a demi-glace.  We do a small bison ribeye from Meteor Lake Ranch with saskatoon and red onion compote.

The Drink: This is food that deserve wine.  Check the list.

The Crowd: Local food lovers know about this place, so make a reservation.

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FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY MAGAZINE -  OCTOBER 2004

Start with a hearty cock-a-/eekie soup; gently boil a succulent haggis and pair it with a dollop of neeps an’ tatties; a shot of Drambuie to wash it all down and a deep-fried Mars bar to tweak the tastebuds. It’s a Scottish spread fit for Sir Connery himself.

But Willie White is cooking to the pitch of a different piper. And he disnae mess aboot in the bon ny toon of St. Albert, Alta ., where he’s the chef/owner of the River House Grill – he’s serious about Canadian cuisine.

A native of Peebles, Scotland, his culinary craving began at a young age. “I always enjoyed cooking and baking,” says White, his accent rolling like the hills of the highlands.  “When I finished [high school] I went to culinary college and started an apprenticeship at the Peebles Hydro Hotel.”

White went on to work at some of England ‘s finest hotels, including the Lainston House in Winchester and The Oakley Court Hotel in Windsor. He’s also led Caribbean kitchens, but his specialty is Canada, and he’s worked it coast to coast with Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.

His first stop on northern terrain was Toronto’s 600-room L’Hotel. From there he was promoted to Edmonton’s Chateau Lacombe, where at 28 he became the company’s youngest executive chef. He was then appointed executive chef of Edmonton’s revamped Hotel Mcdonald, a notably challenging position , since the landmark hotel had been closed for nearly a decade. He continued to flit from Fairmont to Fairmont – taking the helm at New Brunswick’s Algonquin and heading west again to Calgary’s Palliser – before finding the perfect location to open his own restaurant, something White says, “Any chef worth his salt wants to do. ”

You won’t find Scotch eggs or treacle on the River House menu. The 44-yearold culinarian focuses on serving fresh , local meat and produce and his cuisine is triumphantly Canadian – Albertan to be exact. Nearly every ingredient is locally sourced, from bison to tomatoes to a vast selection of wine.
Customers are always impressed with what White creates from St. Albert’s backyard, such as poached Northern Alberta lake trout with black mustard seed crust,roast ginger-carrot emulsion and infused lemon-parsley drizzle ($19) or wild prairie mushroom and tarragon soup with snipped chives ($5).

White admits long hours make running a restaurant tough, but in the midst of emulsions and infused oils – which he’s always experimenting with – he’s a devoted family man. When his two wee girls Amber and Kailey flutter across the recital stage in their tutus, this bloke has a prime seat, right next to his wife of 14 years, Charlene. St. Albert doesn’t provide the most hospitable conditions for a new restaurant – in the first six months the River House Grill was open, six area restaurants closed. Ifs a small town minutes from Edmonton and it takes something unique to keep residents dining locally and something even more distinctive to draw the downtown
crowd to the burbs.

White has succeeded in creating an extraordinary experience and his customers keep coming back. Even Scotland’s rival Celtic and Rangers fans would agree – he’s absolutely brilliant in the kitchen.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

His Mentor: Favourite Tool: In his spare time:
British chef Murdo McSween
“He’s outstanding. He doesn’t
need a recipe for anything, he
just pulls it all together.”
Favourite Tool: “The blender is essential.
I make a lot of emulsions,
infused oils, purees and coulis.”

In His Spare Time: Attends wine tastings
in search of new additions
to his collection.

FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY MAGAZINE -  OCTOBER 2004