Restaurant:   Recognized by critics as the ‘jewel in Vancouver's culinary crown,’ West restaurant serves contemporary coastal Canadian cuisine. West delivers seasonal ingredients in artfully realized classic dishes. Recent awards include the 2014 Four-Star Restaurant Award from Forbes Travel Guide and the Wine Spectator’s 2013-2014 'Best of' Award of Excellence.

Chef:   Raised in Calgary, Alberta, Quang Dang moved to Vancouver in 1998 to study engineering. Part-time restaurant jobs revealed his interest and talent at cooking and lead him to pursue a culinary career. Quang Dang began as West’s junior sous chef, moved on to work in some of Vancouver’s finest restaurants, and eventually returned to West as executive chef in 2011.

Butter:  West’s kitchen staff whip butter with extra virgin olive oil and Maldon salt. They form the butter into little domes, top them with salt, and serve them on chilled glass plates with crusty, freshly baked rolls. Because the recipe includes olive oil, diners can easily spread the butter.  The rich combination gives guests a memorable first impression.

Commentary:   Chef Dang has two lasting childhood memories of butter. The first involves making cookies with his mother and creaming the butter with an electric mixer. The second memory is of sitting at the breakfast table, spreading butter on warm crumpets, and watching it melt into the crusty crags and voids.  

Chef Dang still uses many of the butter cooking techniques he learned in culinary school. “I don't think that I could live without brown butter,” he confesses.