Five Sails Restaurant at Canada Place heads in a smooth new direction
Bread from East Van, chocolate from France, and plates of art: it’s a gem revived
Now part of Glowbal Restaurant Group, Five Sails Restaurant is finding a new place in Vancouver’s dining scene.
IN ONE OF the local dining scene’s biggest announcements of 2020, Glowbal Restaurant Group took over Five Sails Restaurant at Canada Place. What a year to start anew: it wasn’t long after opening that the pandemic changed everything and we went into lockdown. Renovations later took place to modernize the space, with its extraordinary panoramic view of Stanley Park, Vancouver Harbour, the North Shore mountains, and those namesake landmark 90-foot white sails made of Teflon-coated fibreglass. The refreshed, contemporary look was unveiled just as summer approached, diners the world over still getting used to distanced seating and masked staff. Now, just over a year into COVID-19, the crack team that’s pushed through unimaginably choppy waters has found a place of smooth sailing.
Glowbal assumed ownership of the iconic spot after previous owners retired, and while many longtime staff members are still there—notably sous chef Masa Mabuchi, who has been with the restaurant for more than 18 years—three people took on key positions in the last year: General manager Christophe Chabre, executive chef Pascal Georges, and pastry chef Daria Andriienko. Chabre hails from Marseille, France, and got his start at age 15 at his restaurateur-sommelier father’s restaurant, eventually going on to work alongside Daniel Boulud at Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel before heading west. Georges, who’s originally from Caen, in Normandy, started apprenticing at 16 on the French Riviera. He worked at several Michelin-star restaurants throughout France, cooked for the Prince of Monaco, and held roles at five-star establishments in Taipei prior to relocating to Vancouver to work at Smoking Dog Bistro, headed by Claude Ramond, formerly of the acclaimed Restaurant Lassere in Paris. Pryluky-born Andriienko, meanwhile, was studying graphic design in her native Ukraine when she realized that pastry was her passion. She worked at small patisseries in and around Kyiv, building her skill base, and was later hired at a prestigious seafood restaurant. She came to Canada in 2018 to work at Coast Restaurant. (It is also owned by Glowbal, which operates Black& Blue, Trattoria, and Italian Kitchen, among others.). She’s in her early 20s and mark my words: she’s one to watch.
Five Sails Restaurant executive chef Pascal George (above) and pastry chef Daria Andriienko.
Together, Chabre, Georges, Adriienko, and their team are giving people plenty of reasons to visit Five Sails apart from its staggeringly beautiful view. Chabre has a goal of maintaining the quality of fine-dining standards without the pretention—something that has always appealed to him about his favourite restaurants in Vancouver and Toronto. So while he’s using fresh white linens on the tables, he wants people to feel as relaxed as if they were at a casual-upscale eatery.
“Fine dining is evolving a lot,” Chabre tells Stir in an interview at Five Sails. “A lot of fine-dining establishments still have the old-school type service, a bit stuffy. I’m trying to steer away from this. We want servers to bring their own personality to the table; the connection with the guests is very important.
“To be very honest I would rather dine in Vancouver than dine in France,” he says. “The only thing France could give me is Michelin-star restaurants….but I’ve always loved dining in Canada, and my best experiences have been here. Vancouver is very dynamic; people are always looking to the future, taking risks, and you feel it in the service: it’s very warm and well-executed. When you go into a restaurant that’s had a Michelin star for 20-plus years, you’re the guest but you often don’t feel like the guest. In Vancouver, I always feel at ease, I always feel comfortable. Here, we’re taking the same standards and techniques we use in France but applying them with a new mentality.”
Duo of Kampachi and Salmon is an example of the dishes on offer at Five Sails Restaurant. Photo by Gail Johnson
Chabre has introduced some delightfully surprising touches: after discovering Ubuntu Canteen, a community-oriented café and bakery in Fraserhood, for instance, he and Georges inquired about carrying its bread. Head baker Myra Maston uses ancient organic wheat, red fife, rye, and other varietals that are grown and milled into flour in Creston. Ubuntu delivers fresh loaves of sesame-oat loaf to Five Sails two to three times a week.
“We wanted to support something small, something local, something different,” Chabre says. “We tried their baguette, their regular [Maritime] loaf, their focaccia, and we were blown away by the product. Guests are blown away by it, too.”
Georges’s seasonally changing menu also features items from Mikuni Wild Harvest, which specializes in rare and hard-to-find ingredients, from finger limes and wasabi rhizome to salsify root to stinging nettle.
Parsnip soup, a recent offering on Five Sails Restaurant’s seasonally changing menu. Photo by Gail Johnson
“We wanted to do something special here, and when people are enjoying the room, the atmosphere, and the view, we need to have also an outstanding menu,” Georges says. “We have beautiful products here in Vancouver.”
Ingredients are mostly local but not always: Georges imports Michel Cluizel chocolates from France, which he considers to be the best.
General manager Christophe Chabre.
Georges brings with him not only a sense of perfection that comes from working in top-level restaurants but also a creative streak, which he attributes to growing up in a place that values art. “When I’m plating, I always take time to see how I’m going to be putting the elements on the plate—what the colours should be, and what would match the dish itself,” he says. “You don’t want to put too much. When I lived in France I used to go to Picasso exhibits and all those art museums, the Chagall museum in the south of France… Pollack—I love Jackson Pollock... I love all of those creations and I love to be artistic. Our industry is full of creative people. You can create beauty on a plate.”
Consider the art in Duo of Kampachi and Salmon. Slices of the house-smoked fish lie atop a brick of Himalayan salt, topped with wild Japanese greens and edible flowers, accompanied by a mini muffin-like matcha pastry and a bright wasabi sorbet on a beach of mushroom crumble. It’s something else. The menu changes frequently, but other examples of recent offerings include Grand Marnier Duck Breast, with vegetable madeleines parmesan espuma, and fennel crème brûlée; and Cannon of Lamb, which comes with celery purée, confit artichokes, celery foam, and a lamb-and Cluizel dark-chocolate jus.”
Georges works collaboratively with Andriienko to create desserts; much of his role is coaching her the way so many of his mentors helped him early in his career. She has always been interested in the arts, having grown up singing, dancing, drawing, and baking.
“If you’re an artist, you can be an artist in any profession,” Andriienko says. “My education is in graphic design, so I know how to work with colour and contrast or nuances, like with chocolate, 50 colours of brown…In my third year of college, I changed my mind; I realized graphic design is not for me. It’s too boring to be at a computer all day; I need to move and be active.
“It was a dream,” she says. “I had a dream where I had my own pastry shop, and I woke up in the morning and said this is it. I don’t like my job.”
Her training has been all on-the job; both she and Georges say they’re part of a strong team at the restaurant, which is open for lunch and dinner. “It’s bringing basic, classic knowledge mixed with something new,” Andriienko says. “That’s why we’re here. He has crazy ideas, too.”
Before vanilla cream is poured over top, Douceur de Pomme Verte comes in a cloche billowing with smoke. Photo by Gail Johnson
One of those brainwaves has translated what’s currently among Vancouver’s best desserts, Douceur de Pomme Verte. When the cloche is lifted off smoke swirls up, revealing a green confit “apple” consisting of white chocolate passionfruit cake and vanilla mousse, complete with chocolate stem and decorative gold leaf; it rests on a sablé Breton (a French salted sugar cookie), and vanilla cream gets poured over top. Other options? Lemon and Rosemary Tart, with lime, an almond crust, lychee sorbet, and crispy merengue; and the Five Sails Grand Marnier Souffle; served with vanilla ice cream and orange zest, it takes 20 minutes to prepare.
“I feel like we’re all working for people—for their reaction, for this emotion,” Andriienko says. “We do it for that.”
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