You would not have thought I’d still be hungry, but between rounds of judging I found time to have dinner at Lot 30 (151 Kent St., Charlottetown, PEI, 902-629-3030, lot30restaurant.ca). Charlottetown is not a big place (fewer than 35,000 people), but Lot 30 and chef Gordon Bailey could hold their own in Montreal, Boston, or Toronto. The restaurant is a spacious room with hardwood floors, wooden tables and chairs, and several pieces of Op Art on the walls. Since I was dining alone, co-owner Traci Bailey (Gordon’s wife) placed me at the bar in front of a video screen showing the kitchen’s plating station. Watching disembodied hands assembling each plate before it came out was as hypnotic as staring into an aquarium.

The décor is low key because chef Gordon Bailey’s cuisine is the star, and those plates coming out of the kitchen are full of drama. I opted for the five-course tasting menu ($65) and let Bailey call the shots. My meal included pan-seared scallops in carrot butter with a browned bearnaise with toasted pistachio nuts; seared halibut with roasted beets, butternut squash purée, and an olive-orange “vinaigrette”; lobster fricasee with field greens and foraged lobster mushrooms; a meat pairing of grilled ribeye with champagne grapes and maple-glazed pork belly with potato pierogi on crème fraiche; and a dessert plate with a sliver of nut-crusted flourless chocolate cake, burnt almond ice cream, and blackcurrant cassis sorbet.

Bailey wasn’t doing anything special for the visiting judge. Each of these dishes was on the menu that night. Lot 30 also has a remarkably good wine list, especially given all the tax and import challenges of the maritime provinces. It so happened that several of the chefs I was judging also went to Lot 30 the same night I did, and Bailey made a dining room appearance to greet them. He looked very much as shown here with an oyster knife (he was about to compete in an oyster-shucking contest). I think he maybe scared a few of them….

LOT 30 HALIBUT WITH ROASTED BEETS, BUTTERNUT
SQUASH PUREE, AND ORANGE-OLIVE VINAIGRETTE

Every dish on my tasting menu was a hit, but this one had some simple tricks of technique that will actually change how I cook from now on. Roasting the beets whole in foil makes them especially sweet, and the skins just slip off. Moreover, Bailey’s technique with the fish produces a moister fillet than cooking on both sides, then removing to a plate and holding it in a warm oven. I intend to sear all my fish this way from now on.

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 baby beets
canola oil
2 4-ounce halibut fillets, about 1 inch thick
juice from 4 Valencia oranges
2 teaspoons sugar
puréed butternut squash (warm)
12 kalamata black olives pitted and chopped
scallion greens sliced on diagonal for garnish

Technique

1. Wrap beets in aluminum foil and roast in 425F oven for 20 minutes. Let cool in foil. Unwrap and peel.

2. Grease heavy skillet or griddle with canola oil. Heat over high flame. Meantime, salt both sides of halibut fillets. Place on hot pan and sear until top is beginning to lose translucency. Remove pan from heat and set aside while finishing dish.

3. Combine orange juice and sugar and stir to dissolve. Place over high heat and reduce to one-quarter volume.

4. Paint hot plate with broad swash of butternut squash. Place a fillet on each plate, flipping it over so seared side is up. Place a beet at each end of fillet. Sprinkle chopped olives on top and pour reduced orange juice over the fish and beets. Garnish with scallion greens and serve.