Snow West 2012 in Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland

by Keith and Heather Nicol

         On Friday, March 23, 2012 we decided to head to the Ocean View Hotel in Rocky Harbour in Gros

Steve Watson with his icy creation

Morne National Park to see executive chef, Steve Watson, do his magic with a block of ice and watch him in the kitchen preparing Newfoundland mussels. This event is part of Snow West 2012 which is running in various locations in Western Newfoundland from March 21-24, 2012. Steve Watson hails from St. John's and has been carving blocks of ice for the last 15 years. He uses an amazing collection of tools and in just 45 minutes he created a fish sculpture out of a 400 lb block of specially prepared ice.

       After that he led us upstairs to the Ocean View Hotel's kitchen where he cooked up a mountain of local scallops. His recipe included beer, garlic, onions, fennel and cream. "The cream really tops it off" said Steve Watson, grinning as he poured in a quart of cream. He then served up heaping bowls of scallops for all of those that turned up for the event.

"The cream really tops it off" Chef Watson told us

After lunch, we watched him create another ice sculpture for a group of school children before heading off to check out the ski trails near the Visitor's Centre. There we went on a fine cross country ski on the freshly groomed trails. For more information on Snow West 2012's events and activities check out the following web page: http://gowesternnewfoundland.com/snowwest/

Gros Morne National Park has groomed ski trails in Rocky Harbour, NL