Making Mooncakes for the Media with Pastry Chef Hans Pirhofer

This afternoon, I got a chance to hang out with local media and watch Pan Pacific Pastry Chef Hans Pirhofer show-off his very unique Canadian Moon Cakes for this year’s Chinese Moon Festival.

On September 19 the Pan Pacific Vancouver will recognize one of the most important dates in the Chinese calendar, the Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This harvest festival dates back over 3,000 years and is also celebrated in Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

To celebrate this year’s festival, the Pan Pacific’s Sunday Brunch will take on an Asian theme, highlighted by specially created Canadian Moon Cakes, the must have delicacy of the Moon Festival.

This afternoon, Chef Hans walked us through what goes into making a Canadian Mooncake  – On hand was Stephanie Yuen, Richard Wolak, the North Shore News and City TV.

This afternoon’s demonstration will air Friday morning (September 10) on City TV’s Breakfast Television between 6am-9am.

Here’s a peek!

To make this treat, Executive Chef Daryle Nagata, together with Hans and Christopher Sham of the Pastry Team use an original recipe developed by one of Beijing’s leading cooking schools as well as the experience gained by Daryle when he was sent to China on behalf of the federal government to represent Canadian food exports.

“We were one of the first teams in Canada to celebrate the bounty of our great land by using Canadian ingredients in making Moon Cakes.  From late harvest wines to regional fruits, berries and nuts, our Moon Cakes are an authentically Canadian representation of the Moon Cake.”

For all the info leading up to this year’s Moon Festival – follow me on twitter @ twitter/panpacificvan

Moon Festival Celebrations at the Pan Pacific Vancouver
Sunday Brunch, September 19, 2010 at 11:30am – 2:30pm
Entertainment: The Golden Pearl Trio

Brunch: $49 per person, taxes additional

For reservations and more information, call 604-895-2480.