Bistro 28

More and more, young chefs are taking the plunge, opening up their own place, cooking food they'd like to eat, in a place where they'd like to eat it in.

Such is the case with Sam Chalmers, chef and owner of Bistro 28.* "We're a little laid back but, we take our food seriously," says Chalmers of his 34-seat bistro he opened two years ago at age 28.

"Everyone has their own niche," he says, "and I wanted to cook what I would want to eat if I was dining out. Everything on the menu is there because I want it to be there. I like seasonal and local but I will outsource for the best ingredients."

A lover of blues and a collector of hats - he currently owns 30 - Chalmers's Bistro 28 has a kind of an understated elegant feel: blues playing in the background, custom recycled wood tables, candlelight and abstract paintings.

Housemade chips are presented for each table and formidable cocktails set the stage perfectly. Hello, bourbon sour!

A quick read through of the menu and you'll realize that Chalmers is a shameless carnivore. "I don't have the obligatory vegetarian item on the menu," he says, "so I ask that people phone ahead if they have dietary restrictions." That way he says he can make something creative and fresh for the customer. That means you, vegetarian.

While everyone and their uncle has pork belly on the menu, Chalmers sets his apart by roasting it, deep frying and tossing it in a mixture of black pepper, sea salt and star anise. A shot of lemon juice brightens up the whole thing, making it sheer delicious evil.

Hello, coronary care unit!

Chalmers also digs global cuisine. Dishes from New Orleans and Spain - two cuisines sorely lacking in Victoria - make appearances on the menu.

With spot prawns in season, Chalmers makes a punchy and luscious Spanish-influenced prawns pil pil with olive oil, chiles and garlic finished with a lemon-parsley gremolata.

And spot prawns also feature prominently in the New Orleans-style boudin blanc, Bistro 28's version of summer sausage. The classic rice, ground pork and shrimp sausage finds basmati rice - first cooked in spot prawn stock - with a gentle spicing of allspice, fennel, celery seeds and a bit of duck fat accompanying the pork and spot prawn chunks. Quickly pan roasted, it's served over greens in a chile-lime-cilantro vinaigrette.

That addition of a hit of salt on top adds balance to the whole dish, a plump and juicy little number.

Another unusual dish I enjoyed recently was the pan-fried pork loin, breaded and fried schnitzel-style, served with milk-braised fennel and onion and mustard herb cream sauce. The fresh fennel and baby spinach salad provided a refreshing counterbalance, and the big Spanish white anchovy, a salty-fishy hit.

Wow!

*Update: Bistro 28's website is apparently being revamped. Meanwhile, Sam Chalmers has opened up a new restaurant, downtown, Black Hat by Bistro 28. That website is operational.