Cava Cuisine

Responding to the needs of Saskatoon's home chefs and foodies

The Cava group of stores is expanding as rapidly as Saskatoon’s food culture. What started out as a wine club and retail store has expanded to include Cava Wines and Spirits, Cava Cuisine and Cava Café.

Cava Cuisine has three separate outlets offering a wide range of gourmet food, glassware and kitchenware.

133-21st Street East (half block from Midtown Plaza)
The downtown location of Cava Cuisine opened in December, and it’s immaculately laid out with elegant displays of glassware and china.

I was immediately drawn to the display cabinet offering a mouth-watering range of Harden & Huyse chocolates. Then it was time to browse the assortment of oils from Turkey, Morocco, Crete, Italy and France as well as the balsamic vinegar from France and Italy.

There are whole truffles, truffle-infused oils and cream and truffle sauces.

There is a small, but intriguing selection of cookbooks, and espresso/cappuccino machines were waiting to be unpacked when I dropped by.

“What’s exciting is the rotation of products. There’s always something different; it’s never stagnant,” says James Rayner, the store’s manager. James was a chef for 10 years in Alberta and uses his contacts to research new products. He also visits trade shows, meets with food producers and chefs, and does lots of online research.

Espresso bar
The 23rd Street store has an espresso bar with organic Arabica coffee and serves fresh pastries every morning – a useful thing to know if you work downtown.

Three locations
Each of the three outlets of Cava Cuisine has a slightly different focus. The downtown store is the flagship location and displays the full range of products.

The store inside the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market is devoted to food – from 36 varieties of mustard to sauces and cheese.
The neighbouring outlet in Ideas Inc. is undergoing changes and by late spring or early summer will house a delicatessen with specialty meats and cheeses.

Tastings and classes
Cava Cuisine hosted an olive oil tasting in January and is planning a balsamic vinegar tasting. Once the delicatessen opens, there will be cheese tastings, and cooking classes will be offered in the future.

You can follow Cava Cuisine on Facebook or on the web.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flavourful Saskatoon, August 28, 2017

Image
The Next Great Food Business Public Tasting, Sept. 7 The Local Kitchen is hosting a public tasting with samples from each of the finalists in the Next Great Food Business competition. Finalists are: King’s Jerky, Kind Condiments , Smoke and Salt BBQ, Bannock Express , and Voodoo Van . Wine Tastings Guess the most expensive wine (Sept. 8), sample some Rhône wines (Sept. 22), or attend the 2017 Premier Showcase Wine Dinner (Sept. 28) sponsored by Saskatoon Co-op Wine Spirits Beer. Premier Showcase is also offering a Portugal with a Splash of California wine seminar (Sept. 29) and a Women & Whisky seminar (Sept. 30). Refresh and Renew I had a chat with Trent Loewen about his plans now that he has sold Earth Bound Bakery. He is heading east to visit chef friends in Ontario and then off to New Zealand to explore what's happening there. After 9 years with a single focus, it's time to explore new ideas. Interestingly enough, the bakery's new owner is a business...
Read more

Flavourful Saskatoon, August 21, 2017

Image
Prairie Harvest Café I was sad to learn that Prairie Harvest Café has closed its doors. It’s been one of my favorite Saskatoon restaurants since day one, and I really appreciated the fact that the chefs focused on cooking with local ingredients, many supplied by the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. All the best of luck in your new adventures. We’ll miss you. Hug a Farmer This has been a tough summer for many farmers. Prairie Sun Orchard lost their entire cherry crop to insects. Drop by their stand at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market, tell them you care, and have an ice cream. My favorite is the chocolate cherry fudge, but Clare Pearson, the principal ice cream maker, says her new favorite is the salted caramel. Peppers If you’re like me, you assume that all small, skinny peppers are super hot and avoid them like the plague. But that’s a big mistake. Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens is offering two long, skinny peppers – one can be hot, but the other isn’t. Padron chile pepper...
Read more

Saskatoon's Persian Store

Image
Mulberries, Pomegranate Sauce, Dried Lemons, Kashk and Doogh From the outside, it looks like an old-fashioned corner convenience store. But step inside, and you quickly realize that you’ve discovered a Middle Eastern treasure trove. The Persian Store at 223 – 25th Street West is operated by Mahyar Behnami, who has been in Saskatoon for two years. The store serves an Iranian/Persian community of approximately 500 people, but it’s an opportunity for all of us to try new things. Mrs. Behnami kindly gave me a tour of the store and explained how the different dishes and ingredients would be served in Iran. Canned Goods There is a large assortment of ready-made, canned dishes. (The stews are always served over rice that is dry, not sticky.) Ghormeh sabzi is often considered the Iranian national dish. It contains herbs, dried lemon, onion and red beans – you can add your own meat. The herbs usually include parsley, leeks/green onions, cilantro, spinach and fenugreek, and the...
Read more

Artisan Cheese-Making in Saskatchewan

Image
Travel in Europe and you are immediately struck by the number and variety of local cheeses, but then you come home to Saskatchewan and there are next to no local artisan cheeses, but that situation is about to change. ( Salayview Farm south of Regina has just started making an excellent fresh goat cheese.) The Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre Inc. (Food Centre) held a two-day cheese-making workshop this past week, and it was filled to capacity with people who were eager to start making cheese as a hobby or to sell commercially. The course was led by Margaret Morris of Glengarry Cheesemaking and Erin Hiebert, the Food Centre’s Manager of Skills Development and Food Safety Programs, while Brev Chesky, the Centre’s Processing Director, assisted with the hands-on portion of the workshop. I was fortunate to join the class at the end of the workshop and to get a first-hand glimpse at the cheese-making process as well as to meet some of the participants. The Course Margar...
Read more

Petra Market: A Mediterranean Grocery

Image
Tucked away in a strip mall on Primrose Drive (north of Lawson Heights Mall) is Petra Market, a treasure trove of food products from the Arabic countries in the Mediterranean. I’m fascinated by grocery stores full of unknown-to-me products but also a little nervous about trying things, so I was really happy when Nour Dabbour, the owner of Petra Market, showed me around and told me about the different items. Nour is trying to stock products from as many Middle Eastern countries as possible. He even stocks the same product from a number of different countries because he says that each country’s product tastes slightly different. Za’atar , a spice mix, is a prime example with packages from Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, and each one is a slightly different colour with a slightly different taste. The most popular areas of the store are the nut and treats bars with an amazing assortment of Middle Eastern candies and mildly spiced nuts. Nour gave me a variety to try and I’m real...
Read more