Recipes from One of Penticton’s Best Long Table Dinners

Blow your dinner guests away with these Okanagan-inspired dishes.

Every Sunday from May to October, a room full of strangers gather for dinner at a table perched atop a mountain in Penticton. Joy Road Catering’s long table dinners at God’s Mountain Estate are legendary in the Okanagan for their locally sourced farm-to-table feasts—so much so, that they’ve developed a bit of a cult following.

At a dinner last September, a man across the table from me admitted that it was his third time travelling from Edmonton for one of their Sunday night soirees. “I think it really resonates with a lot of people,” says Joy Road Catering’s chef and owner Dana Ewart. “It reminds people that food is precious and we should honour it more.”

Ewart estimates about 90 percent of her ingredients are sourced from the Okanagan. A fact further reinforced when the woman sitting to my left told me that the squash blossom I was eating she picked herself from a farm she works at in Kelowna.

“You get to showcase all of these other vendors, and farmers, and people who work as hard as you do and who feel as passionate about what they’re doing and producing,” adds Ewart. “At God’s Mountain we get to show off all of those little things.”

Joy Road Catering’s Sunday night long table dinners usually sell-out for the season within a month or two of going on sale– and it’s not hard to see why. God’s Mountain Estate is a small boutique hotel that offers diners panoramic views of Skaha Lake and a sense of peace that only comes from the quiet you get when you’re surrounded by nothing but trees and grapevines.

If you’ve been lucky enough to snag a ticket and you’re itching to taste the beet apple soup again, or if you’re wondering what all of the hype is about, Ewart has shared with us three of her recipes for some of our favourite dishes, so that we can attempt to bring some of the joy of her dinners into our own homes.

Beet and Apple Soup

Beets and apples may not seem like the most logical pairing, but this soup recipe is the perfect marriage of sweet and tart.

Fried Ricotta Filled Squash Blossoms

These crispy squash blossoms are the perfect appetizers. One bite in and your mouth will be exploding with flavour thanks to the ricotta filling.

Green Goddess Sauce

This fresh sauce pairs beautifully with oven roasted chicken or salmon.