Some of Our Favourite Chefs Are Popping Up at These Swallow Tail Events
swallow tail
Led by Chef Robin Kort, Swallow Tail is a Vancouver-based secret supper club and foraging-focused culinary experience known for intimate long-table dinners, pop-ups and chef collaborations in unexpected settings.
Eat the Invaders
Friday, May 22 | LaSalle College Vancouver
Presented as part of the UN’s Biodiversity + Design initiative, Eat the Invaders is a stand-up tasting event where cuisine meets conservation. Participating chefs will create dishes using invasive or over-abundant edible species such as sea urchin, venison, rabbit, Manila clam, blackberry, burdock, dandelion, nettle, European green crab, Pacific oyster and more. The chef lineup includes Andrea Carlson of Burdock & Co., Robin Kort of Swallow Tail, Ly Thi Nguyen of Anh and Chi, Kenta Takahashi of Boulevard, Kenji Nguyen of Good Thief, Tushar Tondvalkar of Kavita, Matt Gostelow of Acorn, Cheryl Chang of Nourish, Joel Barohn from NYC, Julian Bond and the LaSalle Culinary Program, plus additional collaborators. Guests can expect 12 tasting dishes, drinks, oysters by Fanny Bay Oysters, dessert by Earnest Ice Cream, tea by TeaLeaves and a behind-the-scenes tour of LaSalle’s new culinary kitchens.
Chelseah Compton at Swallow Tail Supper Club
Friday, May 29 | Secret Mount Pleasant Garden Location
Longtime Swallow Tail house chef Chelseah Compton steps into the spotlight for an intimate garden supper rooted in Asian-influenced comfort food, precise plating and bold, addictive flavours. Her menu moves from Japanese carbonara with cured egg yolk and pancetta to pulled pork croquettes with hoisin barbecue sauce, scallop carpaccio with sesame and yuzu pearls, lamb-stuffed braised onions, malfatti with crispy chicken skin butter and prawns wrapped in crisp phyllo. It is the kind of dinner that feels personal, polished and full of character, hosted in Swallow Tail’s home kitchen setting in Mount Pleasant.
The Morel Dinner with Bruno Feldeisen
June 26 and 27 | Secret Vancouver Garden Location
Chef Bruno Feldeisen, James Beard Award winner and beloved judge from The Great Canadian Bake Off, joins Swallow Tail for a six-course supper dedicated to spring’s prized morel mushrooms. The menu explores the full range of the ingredient through stuffing, frying, braising and baking, with dishes such as morels and asparagus with kimchi gribiche, butter-fried morels with ahi tuna, sockeye salmon with bacon-braised morels, shallot-braised morel tart and maple-candied morel vegan cheesecake. Hosted in Chef Robin’s home kitchen and garden, the dinner offers Swallow Tail’s signature relaxed long-table atmosphere with a foraging-focused lens.
The Backyard Barbecue with Brent Thornton
July 25 and 26 | Secret Vancouver Garden Location
Swallow Tail’s annual meat-lover’s barbecue returns with Chef Brent Thornton, head chef at Les Faux Bourgeois, and previously of Elem, Is That French?, and St. Lawrence, leading this year’s fire-kissed menu. Framed as a fancy backyard barbecue, the evening features yellowfin tuna with sungold tomato and lemongrass yoghurt, Turkish lamb and pork kefta, summer bean cassoulet with pork cheek and bone marrow, beef striploin roast with sweet corn salad and maple brandy cake with BC summer berries. Guests are invited to bring their own wine or beer and settle into Swallow Tail’s garden under the magnolia tree for a summer dinner built around smoke, seasonality and serious cooking.
