Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010

Photos courtesy of Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver

After a lifetime of cooking at restaurants around the world, Oliver Beckert can sum up his appreciation of the Pacific Northwest in just two words: bison meatballs. “We serve them at lunch with pasta, and they’re really popular,” says the jovial 37-year-old chef over the phone from Canada. “But really, the range of ingredients I have to work with here is the best I’ve ever seen.”

Eighteen months into his stint as executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver, Beckert is having the time of his life. The native of Nuremberg, Germany, oversees the hotel’s entire dining, catering and banquet operations, including Yew, the 200-seat restaurant-bar that debuted to great acclaim in December 2007. Featuring ingredients from the entire Pacific Rim but focusing on British Columbia—fresh halibut, plump oysters, seasonal game and a range of locally grown produce—Yew has been named one of the World’s Best Places to Eat by US gourmet bible Food & Wine.

Now, diners in Tokyo can get a taste of Beckert’s cooking during his visit to the Four Seasons Hotel at Marunouchi. Dubbed “With Love from Vancouver,” the event kicks off tonight with a reception for the chef and “tête-à-tête” dinner. Over the next two weeks, Beckert will offer selections from Yew’s current menu at lunch, brunch and dinner at the hotel’s classy Ekki Bar & Grill. Among the dishes on offer will be scallop crudo with watermelon-sesame dressing; nut-crusted flounder with new potatoes, morel mushrooms and English peas; and a “surf & turf” of beef tenderloin and crab-flavored macaroni and cheese. The food will be complemented by a selection of wines from well-regarded Canadian vintners like Mission Hill, located in the Okanagan Valley about five hours from Vancouver.

“I’m really excited,” Beckert says. “This is a fantastic opportunity to promote the cuisine of British Columbia, along with wines that match really well.”

Like many chefs, Beckert started cooking at an early age—in his case, as a 4-year-old in his grandmother’s kitchen. He spent most of his teenage years apprenticing at local restaurants before working his way up to Bammes, a Michelin-starred eatery in Nuremberg. “It’s not like in the US, where you spend a few years at a cooking school and then one year on the job, and suddenly you’re a chef,” he says. “For three years, I spent six days a week doing things like cleaning vegetables, and one day a week in school.”

The chef’s career took off in earnest at the five-star Bellevue Palace in Berne, Switzerland, but it wasn’t until a fateful trip to New York in 1996 that he began his long association with the Four Seasons. “I was so impressed with the city that I knew I had to get back,” he says.

“So I picked up a guidebook, found the names of ten hotels, and sent my resume to all of them. Two of the places contacted me, and I wound up getting the job at one of them.”

Prior to Vancouver, the highlight of Beckert’s career was his stay on the tiny Hawaiian island of Lana’i (population: 3,000). There, accompanied by wife Yvonne and son Rafe, he helped open two new Four Seasons properties. “That was a great time,” he says. “The work was challenging, and my son was still really young and could spend all day at the beach.” Apparently, though, even an island paradise eventually loses its appeal. “We had to fly to Maui just to go shopping. That got old after a while.”

For all of Beckert’s wanderings, Tokyo is unchartered territory—this will be his first visit to Japan. Yet the chef says he has enormous respect for the local food culture, so much so that on the eve of his trip, he still hadn’t finalized the details of the menu. “I want to use the same preparation that we do here in Vancouver, but I don’t want to offend anyone. I think I’ll take a quick look around after I get there and then decide on the final presentation.”

“With Love from Vancouver” runs until June 23 at Ekki Bar & Grill in the Four Seasons Hotel at Marunouchi. Three-course lunch & weekend brunch: ¥3,900; four- & five-course dinner: ¥8,800 & ¥10,800. 1-11-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku. Tel: 03- 5222-5810. Nearest stn: Tokyo. www.fourseasons.com/marunouchi