Hope for Kate

Hope for Kate [PDF - 600 kb]
Published: Monday, May 6, 2010

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Heart of Glass 4th annual

An Evening of Fine Wine and Food Pairings [PDF - 1.6 mb]
Published: Monday, April 5, 2010

$88 000 raised for the Heart of Glass event.

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Comfort food can be good for you too

Ron Eade, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

It's tempting to reach for soul-satisfying dishes like braised pork belly, sausage, or creamy mac 'n' cheese to take our minds off winter.

Seductive, perhaps, but a couple of Ottawa's top chefs will have decidedly more healthy -- and no less satisfying -- comforts in mind.

Here, the chefs -- Duane Keats of Luxe Bistro and Kenton Leier, executive chef at the Westin Ottawa -- share two inspiring, nutritious recipes plumped with nutrients, anti-oxidants and healthy omega-3 fatty acids typically found in fish, one of their favourite proteins.

~ Read all about it....

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Cook For Cure

Ottawa chefs sauté their best for cancer telethon

It’s tempting to reach for soulsatisfying dishes like braised pork belly, sausage, or creamy mac ’n’ cheese to take our minds off winter. Seductive,perhaps, but five of Ottawa’s top chefs will have decidedly more healthy — and no less satisfying — comforts in mind Sunday, when they’ll demonstrate tasty dishes that happen to be ohso-nutritious during the 13th Cancer Foundation Telethon from noon to
5 p.m.

~ Read all about it...

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Firestone Restaurant Group raised

$61,000 for the Heart Institute at the third annual Heart of Glass Event!

~ Read all about it...

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Reviewed by Anne Desbrisay, Ottawa Citizen

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Comfort & joy

Luxe under Keats = Durable mainstays + damn good steak frites + one of the better chocolate cakes of my life

With Duane Keats at the helm, Luxe remains a French-style steakhouse where meat rules. Neither the steak nor the frites disappoint.

Daily for lunch and dinner; closed Sundays beginning in January

Here’s a wintry tale of woe. It was late last February; my third and (I had hoped) conclusive visit to Luxe Bistro under chef René Rodriguez. As I was settling the bill, it became clear that business that had been ongoing in a neighbouring booth was in fact the final interview of a new chef. The handshakes and parting words tipped me off that the fella who had just made me lunch (and two dinners before that) was quitting after less than a year of service. And this baby-faced, goateed, bald guy was moving in.

The new guy turned out to be Duane Keats, then sous chef at Brookstreet Hotel under executive chef Michael Blackie. Keats was being handed the Firestone Group’s upscale ByWard Market steakhouse, and Rodriguez, I later learned, was leaving to set up his own restaurant, Navarra (reviewed in this space in September).

My report on Luxe-underRené, was now moot. That’s the woeful part.

Ten months later, I’m back, seated in the corner booth, tasting Luxe-under-Keats. This is where the story takes a happy turn.

Duane Keats is Luxe’s third chef since it opened in 2003. And though each chef (Derek Benitz and Rodriguez were the others) has had an effect on the menu, Luxe remains a French-style steakhouse with durable mainstays — French onion soup, Bouillabaisse, steak-frites. Keats’ strongest impression is on the page of daily additions in the colossal menu.

Many of the daily additions have Keats’ time at Brookstreet Hotel written all over them. Note the equations: Golden beet + Lime + Goat Cheese soup (= lovely) and Free Form Short Rib Lasagne + Smoked Tomatoes + Buffalo Mozzarella + Seared Foie Gras (all delicious).

Meat rules here. At $38, the steak-frites better be damn good, and it is. The thin fries with their judicious salting and a pot of chive mayonnaise are regrettably great. The thick steak is well char-striped and well seasoned and cooked as rare as I ordered it. You can add vegetables to tote up to your vitamin intake. Or not.

The kitchen plays with threesomes. Giant prawns wrapped in wisps of potato, fried to crisp, served with a spicy mango relish + Sichuan salmon wrapped in leek + tuna sashimi with caperberries and a seaweed salad. This $20-trio could be a full meal, and may be one way to enjoy Luxe without breaking the bank before Christmas.

The gnocchi might be another way to go. The $29 price tag (for potato dumplings?!?) may seem insane, but they come with a hillock of lobster, the claw rising out of the centre of the dish. The gnocchi are very good, light, spongy and wildly rich in a gorgonzola cream sauce — with roasted pine nuts, fresh sage, cubes of roasted pear and chunks of softened dried fig. Five bites and you’re through. Take the rest to the office for lunch.

Keats can braise. His short ribs are divine. He smokes too. A breast of Mariposa duck benefits from a light smoking before it’s roasted to pink, sliced and fanned over a thyme-flecked, walnut and blue cheese stuffed bread pudding, on a bed of lovely braised veg. The backyard flavour and the unctuous duck jus gently waft down as you fork it up. Very nice.

A bright white black cod is given a miso and maple glaze, served with fingerling potatoes and braised bok choy. Again, very nice.

Missteps? Not many. We find a butternut squash soup too sweet. A pyramid of potato, pistachio and duck confit wrapped in cabbage leaves arrives cold beside the splendid seared scallops in a beurre blanc. A crab cake is too salty, too dense, a bit on the rubbery side. For dessert, chocolate reigns. One of the better chocolate cakes of my life, served with vanilla gelato, or a trio dessert of smooth dark mousse, a brownie (with figs) and ball of chocolate sorbet, served with candied lemons and stewed cloudberries for arterial relief.

If chocolate seems a bit much, there’s a good sweet potato cheesecake with shards of pecan brittle and a maple syrup sauce.

Luxe is a restaurant of considerable comfort (except, at times, for the noise level and the curious choice of thumping music during the dinner hour, in a room filled with mostly middle-aged men eating steak).

The service adds to the pleasure. Fetching women in notmuch-black and handsome men in white shirts and jeans run the floor with professional ease, and speak with authority about both the wine list and food choices.

The wine list is managed by sommelier giant Neil Gowe, and has consistently won Spectator Awards of Excellence.

Luxe is not a bargain. But I like it. Keats can stay put, please.

New chef comes to Luxe Bistro

Ron Eade -- MAR 17 - 3:20 P.M. -- After more than four years serving under executive chef Michael Blackie at Perspectives restaurant, sous-chef Duane Keats is leaving to take on the head job at Luxe Bistro in the ByWard Market.

Duane, 29, moves over to Luxe as executive chef on April 7, replacing executive chef Rene Rodriguez who leaves March 26 to set up his own Basque-style restaurant, to debut in mid-June (see this blog, March 12).

Duane is a graduate of the Algonquin College culinary arts program, class of 1998. "A headhunter approached me about two weeks ago, saying they had this opportunity," Duane tells me.

"They were looking for someone who's ready to take the next step, someone who is young and eager." He expects the owners, Firestone Restaurant Group, which also holds Blue Cactus and Stella Osteria, may expect his imprint on the menu in two or three months.

"With Duane at the helm, we again confirm we are serious in our commitment to being a French bistro steakhouse with classic French elements, while at the same time allowing the creative and unique skills of our chef to shine through," says Sam Firestone, president of the group.

Adds Ida Firestone, part-owner: "Having cooked at many high-end restaurants across Canada, chef Duane Keats brings fresh and creative ideas to the Luxe Bistro kitchen. His enthusiasm and motivational attitude will have Luxe Bistro preserve its high level of quality and maintain its focus on French bistro fare."

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Luxe does bistro proud 'Really really good beef' matched by yummy plate-mates

Anne Desbrisay, The Ottawa Citizen

Twenty degrees in the shade, tulips poking through the thaw and not a bug in sight. The one week in April when Mother Nature figures we deserve a treat and awards our patience with six days of sun and warmth. The lucky and alert among us find sandals, shed a layer of clothing and head to the Market for a bit of al fresco dining. My sandals found a perch on the Luxe Bistro patio, and then moved to a booth at the back.

There is much to enjoy at Luxe, the three-year-old steakhouse bistro that anchors the corner of Byward Market and York. Steakhouses are often burly places, with size-matters-most portions of meat and potatoes. The sleek and handsome Luxe tries to be a French steakhouse, which makes all the difference. In addition to its steak and sea offerings, it features such bistro standards as onion soup, bouillabaisse, moules et frites, osso bucco, along with a few pasta dishes and meal-size salads.

The steak at Luxe is advertised as "hand selected Sterling Silver Certified Premium Beef" which is the meat industry's way of saying "really really good beef." Your fancier steakhouses (which Luxe could certainly make claim to being) will sometimes bring a slab of the raw meat tableside for pre-grilling display; it's part of the sell. Luxe, blessedly, refrains from this practice. Our server simply tells us it's good stuff and the menu reinforces the fact, with prices for a cut running from $35 to $42 (though choice of potatoes, vegetables and sauce are included in the tab -- which we also like).

The meat lives up to its billing. A 16-ounce, three-quarter-inch thick rib eye delivers a charred exterior, a ruby-red interior and the intense mineral flavour we seek. The meat is neither too fatty nor too sinewy, just bone-in flavourful, and truly delicious.

Yummy too -- and here's the wonder of it -- are the plate-mates. Pommes frites are first class: thin, crisp, perfectly cooked and addictive. Garlic mashed potatoes are rich and nicely textured, roasted new potatoes are perfectly done, very fresh tasting. Grilled asparagus is lovely, haricot verts need their stems off, but are otherwise fine, and if they hadn't forgotten my Bearnaise, and if I hadn't forgotten to tell them, then further forgotten to re-order it on my second visit, I could let you know how they handle that classic French steakhouse complement. But I suspect they do it well, for I have confidence Luxe chef Derek Benitz only knows how to do things well.

Take his soups. What an astonishment to find a good French onion soup, stock made from scratch, onions caramelized, cheese and crouton in excellent balance. Good too is a roasted red pepper, fennel and potato soup; though a dash less cream would have improved the flavour.

Main dishes other than steak could include a pretty plate of sweet, meaty shrimp, perfectly grilled, and scallops -- three of them, two perfect, one tainted with iodine -- in a garlic-chive butter, with steamed potatoes scented with dill and more of the good vegetables. At lunch, a sandwich of egg-dipped multi-grain bread around a filling of aged goat cheese and a smoky ratatouille, served with frites and bouncy greens. Just what you want and more; half the plate was packed up for further consideration at home.