Critiques and suggestions are unbiased and merchandise are independently chosen. Postmedia might earn an affiliate fee from purchases made by hyperlinks on this web page.
Article content material
Circumstances preserve bringing Laetitia Chrapchynski again to the kitchen at Donna Mac. After graduating from SAIT’s culinary program and paying her dues in just a few eating places across the metropolis, the immensely gifted chef was tapped for a gig on the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C. in early 2020. Like the whole lot else, that journey was rerouted by COVID and Chrapchynski discovered herself grounded at house in Calgary, together with her extra expansive goals briefly placed on maintain.
Chrapchynski had a terrific skilled relationship with Donna Mac co-owner Jeff Jamieson (who can be a companion at Proof cocktail bar and Vine Arts Wine and Spirits) and he provided her the pinnacle chef place at Donna Mac whereas she waited for pandemic restrictions to blow over. Whereas there, Chrapchynski (or “Chef LT” because the Donna Mac crew affectionately name her) gave the restaurant a much-needed burst of vitality, creating a number of the metropolis’s most coveted pandemic-era take-home fare and luxury meals.
Commercial 2
Article content material
Article content material
By the autumn of 2021, the Canadian Embassy got here calling once more and Chrapchynski was whisked away to create Canadian-centric meals for essential dignitaries assembly with the ambassador. She spent virtually two years creating dishes that advised tales of Canadian substances and traditions earlier than setting her sights on a restaurant gig in Toronto. However circumstances as soon as once more intervened and, after a foul biking accident, she discovered herself again house in Calgary, near her household and medical staff. Jamieson as soon as once more provided her a job, this time as a culinary director, overseeing each Donna Mac and Proof.
Throughout her time on the embassy, Chrapchynski honed a number of abilities in addition to her strategy to desirous about our nationwide delicacies, leading to an thrilling new menu at Donna Mac that restores the restaurant’s id as a neighbourhood joint that occurs to serve ingenious meals with a distinctively Canadiana flare. The signature Sylvan Star Gouda perogies ($19) and buttermilk fried rooster sandwich ($18) — each holdovers from Chrapchynski’s first stint on the restaurant — are nonetheless on the menu, though the previous is now an appetizer merchandise and the latter is simply out there at lunch. New dishes embrace a pemmican-inspired, Saskatoon berry-laden beef tartare with oyster mushrooms ($22), an up to date and delightfully vibrant tuna crudo ($18), agnolotti stuffed with Nostrala cheese and kabocha squash ($33) and a half brick pickle-brined rooster served with potato cake ($45). Elements are the star of the present right here and Chrapchynski likes enjoying with issues like sweet cap mushrooms, which seem in an ice cream that tastes extra like maple syrup than fungi.
Midday Information Roundup
Article content material
Commercial 3
Article content material
“Donna Mac has at all times been a little bit of a chef-driven restaurant,” Chrapchynski says. ”Our new menu is a fusion of my upbringing and Ukrainian and French heritage, with some Vietnamese notes, a number of the substances I discovered how you can use on the Embassy, and the concept that Canada has an eclectic and evolving delicacies.”
Donna Mac is situated at 1002 ninth St. S.W. The restaurant is open day by day for lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch. The restaurant may be reached at 403-719-3622 or by donnamacyyc.ca.
***
Donna Mac can be one of many greater than 85 eating places collaborating on this 12 months’s YYC Meals and Drink Expertise (also called YYC EXP), which has expanded right into a 17-day occasion for 2024, operating from March 15 to 31. As in earlier years, the pageant has two elements: a small choice of particular occasions held at higher-end eating places in addition to a spread of prix fixe menus out there day by day.
This 12 months, there are three classes of prix fixe menus: three-course brunches and lunches (priced at $25 or $35), three-course dinners ($35 or $45) and multi-course connoisseur tasting menus ($65 and $75). Taking part eating places will supply a number of of those choices, giving prospects a great style of what every restaurant is all about. The slate of eating places contains outdated favourites like Charcut, Pigeonhole, and River Café in addition to newer eating places like Main Colors, Enterprise and Pleasure, and Bar Chouette. A few of the extra attention-grabbing selections embrace a 30-minute “light-speed” omakase lunch at Nupo, a breakfast tasting at OEB, and an Indian feast at Calcutta Cricket Membership. All the menus are posted on-line in order that there aren’t any surprises. Eating places are likely to guide quick, so make these reservations nicely upfront.
Commercial 4
Article content material
This 12 months’s signature culinary occasions embrace collaborative dinners at River Cafe, Francine’s, Mannequin Milk, and The Wilde on 27, together with wine and spirits dinners, a one-night-only residency from chef David Leeder at Teatro, cocktail masterclasses at FinePrint and extra. Many of those will promote out (or have already got), so snag these tickets the place you may.
For tickets and extra data, go to yycexp.com.
***
Lastly, congratulations exit to The Wilde on 27 on the Dorian Resort, which was simply awarded the celebrated Distinguished Eating places of North America (DiRōNA) Achievement of Distinction. The Wilde is simply the second restaurant in Calgary to obtain this designation — the opposite is Teatro. The Wilde’s kitchen is led by chef Joshua Dyer, who had turn into identified for his opulent and ingenious effective eating dishes.
Elizabeth Chorney-Sales space may be reached at elizabooth@gmail.com. Observe her on Instagram at @elizabooth or join her e-newsletter at hungrycalgary.substack.com.
Article content material
