If you’re looking to get your Italian food fix, look no further.
On Sunday, September 7th, Cafe Brio will be hosting a seven-course pop-up Italian dinner, as local chef James Frost works to share his food and one day, open a restaurant in Victoria.
James Frost and his wife, Heather Dosman have been working for years to open a restaurant of their own, which is to be called Lumache.
Lumache origins
Lumache translates to snails in Italian, which Frost says is a nod to the traditional ways of cooking slow food—cooking things with intention, the right way, the long way.
Frost says his and Dosman’s motto for the restaurant is “piano piano,” which also means slowly.
“In Italy, if you have a pot of sauce bubbling on the stove, you get those little bubbles—that’s piano piano,” he explained.
Frost began his cooking journey at the now-closed Three Boars, in Edmonton, Alberta, before moving out west and working under some of Vancouver’s most influential Italian chefs at La Quercia and Livia.
“Working at La Quercia with Adam [Pegg], was where I first learned about regional Italian cooking, you know, learning that they don’t actually eat spaghetti and meatballs,” Frost laughed.
“That’s an Italian-American thing, they don’t really do that there.”
It was there that he fell in love with cooking regionally, which took him all the way to Italy for a four month apprenticeship at Osteria Morelli, in the Italian Alps cooking with his mentor’s mentor.
Following his four-month stint in Italy, Frost returned to Victoria, where Dosman had recently moved their household to, and together, the duo began making plans to open their own restaurant.
In the meantime however, Frost and Dosman have been hosting Lumache pop-ups.
Their upcoming pop-up is to be held on Sunday, September 7th, at Cafe Brio. There they will be serving food that is inspired by regional Italian cuisine, but using local farm-to-table ingredients.
“I’m pulling from the north of Italy,” explained Frost.
“This is something I learned from Adam at La Quercia. He told me the reason he cooks from the north is because it’s on the same latitude as where we are in the Pacific Northwest.”
He added that by looking at cooking through that lens, he is able to get the most fresh ingredients from small suppliers and keep things as local as humanly possible. This way he can use his knowledge of Italian cuisine and apply it to local ingredients.
“I’m not trying to take the dish that I learned in [Italy] and make it exactly like that here, because everything’s going to be different—the flour is different, cheese is different—but I’m thinking about what makes that food good at its heart and applying that here,” he said.
“It’s Vancouver Island ingredients, with Italian sensibilities and traditions—handmade pasta is huge and simplicity is huge.”
Frost admitted that the biggest thing he learnt about the secret to what makes Italian food so good in Italy, is that the ingredients are from up the road, they are fresh and that’s all there is to it.
To carry this notion, the upcoming pop-up menu was designed to showcase some truly unique produce, grown in small batches from Vancouver Island farms and gardens.
Included on the seven-course menu at the upcoming Lumache pop-up will be a little bit of everything one could hope for.
Three standout dishes on this menu will be Frost’s ‘Agnolotti del Plin’ with slow cooked beef, square root chard and sage from his father’s garden; ‘Cherry Bomb Peppers’ with tuna conserva and capers; and a ‘Square Root Melon’ dish with coppa and calabrian chili.
(More below)
Frost’s ‘Agnolotti del Plin’ with slow cooked beef, square root chard and sage from his father’s garden (Lumache)
‘Cherry Bomb Peppers’ with tuna conserva and capers (Lumache)
‘Square Root Melon’ dish with coppa and calabrian chili (Lumache)
Tickets for this pop-up event cost $120 a head for the entire seven-course meal with the gratuity included.
Additionally, Dosman has been applying her vast knowledge of all things wine to select an array of libation options, all of which have been selected to compliment the menu, though drinks will be an additional charge.
All past Lumache pop-ups in Victoria have been sell-outs thus far, and Frost says that there are only around 15 tickets left.
Those hoping to get one of the last tables at the upcoming Lumache pop-up, click here.
Follow Lumache on Instagram to stay up-to-date with all new developments in their search for a brick and mortar space of their own.
Dining and Cooking