Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/144909
Feed 'em and Reap IN THE SAME WAY that an army marches on its stomach, Canada's Olympic athletes compete in London thanks in part to the kitchen wizardry of Saskatchewan chef Anthony McCarthy. The Saskatoon Club's 42-year-old top toque represented his province at the Canadian Culinary Championships (CCC) in Kelowna in February, as a contestant in the finale to the Gold Medal Plates (above) Saskatoon chef cook-offs that have helped Anthony McCarthy; (below) his trout and raise more than $5 million baked-apple smoothie for Canada's Olympic and breakfast. Paralympic athletes. Although McCarthy did not make the podium, he more than held his own among such big-city heavyweights as Ottawa's Marc Lepine (gold), Vancouver's Rob Feenie (silver) and Montreal's Jean-Phillipe St-Denis (bronze). Head judge James Chatto deemed the ex-Brit's wine pairing of duck breast with Nichol Vineyard's 2007 Cabernet FrancSyrah to be one of the evening's best matches. During a morning challenge, the gastro guru also praised McCarthy's clever decision to serve Lake Diefenbaker steelhead trout as breakfast with a baked-apple smoothie and wild-ricepotato pancake. (The other contestants served dinners to the bleary-eyed judges in the pre-noon fog.) Competition rules will sideline McCarthy for the 2013 CCC, which gives him some downtime to watch Canadian athletes chase gold on the world stage. —Rob Howatson On the Right Path Without a single formal trail on its movie-set landscape until 2010, Grasslands National Park finds itself in a unique position. Where most parks inherit existing trails built without much forethought or planning, Parks Canada staff here started from scratch and are doing it right. The gentle initial route, the family-friendly 500-metre Top Dog Town Trail off Ecotour Road, was finished two years ago. A two-kilometre trail looping around Eagle Butte was completed in 2011, with an adjoining loop around 70 Mile Butte planned for the future. The goal with these West Block trails is to preserve the park's views and ecology in the most sustainable, low-impact ways possible. The wide-open landscape, of course, is a unique variable. While trails and humans disappear in a forest, they stand out in bold relief on the prairie. The decision was made to build trails with local materials to help them blend with the setting. Routes would meander lazily rather than follow a straight line, creating a feeling of solitude. The park is carrying over its minimal-footprint ethos to other areas too: a new campground, opening this summer, will be painted to blend into the prairie landscape. –Ryan Stuart The Top Dog Town Trail winds through a black-tailed prairie dog colony along the Frenchman River Valley. i pc.gc.ca/pn-np/sk/grasslands/index.aspx Bronze Rush DURING THE 2011 North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) Awards Competition, "Alaska, Ahoy!" by Westworld Saskatchewan editor Sheila Hansen took home Bronze in the Cruises — Print category. The feature on Disney's inaugural cruise to Alaska ran in the fall 2011 issues of Westworld Saskatchewan and Going Places, as well as in the September 2011 issue of Westworld Alberta. i natja.org/awards/2011/winners, caask.ca/digital_edition.html (McCarthy) Courtesy Gold Medal Plates, (breakfast) Brian Chambers, (Frenchman River Valley) Rolf Hicker/All Canada Photos p12-13_Up_Front.indd 13 WESTWORLD >> S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 13 4/12/12 5:14:14 PM