{"id":3891,"date":"2026-07-06T19:49:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/?p=3891"},"modified":"2026-07-06T19:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:49:27","slug":"local-chefs-quinton-bennett-and-julien-lamrani-of-row-188-at-orourke-family-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/?p=3891","title":{"rendered":"Local Chefs: Quinton Bennett and Julien Lamrani of Row 188 at O\u2019Rourke Family Estate"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Chef Quinton Bennett<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Executive Chef Julien Lamrani<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The superstar chef duo of Quinton Bennett and Julien Lamrani want to take\u00a0<\/span><\/i>patrons of Row 188 at O\u2019Rourke Family Estate on a culinary journey.<\/i><\/h2>

From the vineyards, fields, pastures, hills, forests and waterways that fill their kitchens and dress their tables, Lamrani and Bennett cherish the bounty available to them, which is what drew them to the Okanagan in the first place.<\/p>

But they are also on a journey of their own. And that is combining this unique sense of place and putting it on a plate. They want visitors to experience the wow factor and leave the table with something uniquely memorable to the Okanagan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

They are off to an incredible start, and this new team is just getting started.<\/p>

Bennett is the newly appointed culinary director to the estate, overseeing the food programs that encompass O\u2019Rourke Family Estate and its sister winery Peak Cellars. At the time of this interview, he\u2019d been on site for just a week.<\/p>

Originally from South Africa, the hospitality industry is the only one he\u2019s known. He was basically raised in a culinary boot camp, starting out by washing dishes in a hospital kitchen at age 14 to eventually getting training and moving up the ranks in restaurants in Cape Town, Copenhagen and London. His experience in South East Asia opened his eyes to a fusion approach.<\/p>

\u201cMy foundation of cooking is French and British. That\u2019s my background,\u201d says Bennett. \u201cI\u2019m formally trained in French cuisine. But I love Asian cuisine \u2013 the balance of lighter, cleaner flavours. So I\u2019ve found a nice hybrid between the two. They work very well together.\u201d<\/p>

He spent a great amount of time in London, England, where he met his wife. But they weren\u2019t set on living there long term. They always thought they would make their way to Australia or Canada.<\/p>

\u201cWe applied to both. I came out to Canada when I was in my early 20s. I have family on the West Coast and when I landed I was like \u2018whoa, this place is amazing\u2019. There was just something about it. The open, vastness about it. Magical.\u201d<\/p>

They eventually got their permanent residency in Canada and moved to Vancouver, where Bennett worked at the renowned restaurant Hawksworth.<\/p>

\u201cBut before we decided to settle in a specific place, we wanted to explore the country.\u201d<\/p>

They travelled to the East Coast and spent several months in the Maritimes before Bennett got an opportunity to open a restaurant in Toronto. He was to run the whole program and create the standard that he said he was more accustomed to. That place was Enigma.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s more the discipline that I\u2019m used to,\u201d says Bennett. \u201cI come from countries where there are third, fourth and fifth generations of a chef, a butcher, a baker, grower or a cheese maker. There\u2019s generational wealth there, there\u2019s more pride in it, more heritage.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cFor example, in Europe you can go get birds, game meats, produce directly from the source \u2013 small producers who only sell to one or two restaurants \u2013 and put it on your menu. Whereas here, there\u2019s more red tape.\u201d<\/p>

He also says the palates of the average consumer in the \u2018Old World\u2019 tend to be more exotic compared to the \u2018New World\u2019 diner. He refers to it as the steak and chicken caesar salad culture.<\/p>

\u201cEvery restaurant has to have it on their menu. That\u2019s all good and fine, but it doesn\u2019t break through and create these culinary destinations here.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cBut the standard is definitely coming up.\u201d<\/p>

And to that he points to the Michelin Star program. While it has existed as the high bar for the restaurant dining experience around the world since 1900, Canada only made the grade in 2022. And his restaurant Enigma is one of the few that has met the standard and held a\u00a0Michelin Star\u00a0under Bennett\u2019s guidance.<\/p>

One might think this achievement would have been enough, but Bennett wanted more.<\/p>

\u201cWe never wanted to end up in Toronto. We always had our eyes on the West Coast.\u201d<\/p>

While their children were still young, Bennett and his wife decided the time was ripe to make the move before schools and sports and other activities locked them down. Still, leaving a Michelin-starred restaurant in a major city for the relative obscurity of the Okanagan Valley might have been a risky leap of faith for many. For Bennett, it was not. Each glance at the lake view outside the Row 188 kitchen convinces him of that.<\/p>

Meanwhile, Executive Chef Julien Lamrani, has his own convictions. A native of France, who grew up cooking in top hotel and restaurant kitchens in Paris, he says he was immediately \u2018blown away\u2019 at what the Okanagan Valley had to offer when he moved here 10 years ago. He followed his twin brother, also a chef and married to a Canadian, and established his own identity while working at Quails\u2019 Gate Estate Winery.<\/p>

Now, he\u2019s excited by the opportunities at O\u2019Rourke Family Estate, where he has been for about a year and a half building the team at Row 188, which opened in October 2025. And both he and Bennett have resources available to them that others in the same position would be exceedingly envious of.<\/p>

Firstly, is the stunning setting in which they find themselves. The site in Lake Country on the shores of Okanagan Lake is massive and offers up water views stretching as far as the eye can see, north toward Vernon and south toward Kelowna. It will take one\u2019s breath away. On calm days the vast expanse of lake sparkles like diamonds and reflects the surrounding hillsides that hug it. You\u2019d be hard pressed to find another location that matches it, let alone surpasses it.<\/p>

Secondly, is the fact that O\u2019Rourke Family Estate is a prestigious working winery renowned for setting a high bar for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay production. The slopes leading down to Okanagan Lake are arguably some of the best terroir in British Columbia for growing these two highly revered grapes.<\/p>

But there\u2019s so much more Lamrani and Bennett have to be excited about. In addition to an abundance of vineyard, the estate is also home to a bounty of other produce \u2013 everything from tree fruits, wild berries, white lavender, asparagus, and herbs of all kinds.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>

There\u2019s also talk of adding livestock in the future, raising poultry for meat and eggs, maybe pigs and other game. The space available doesn\u2019t take that out of the realm of possibility. Plus there are on-site luxurious accommodations; an underground cellar that is a kilometre in length; event halls and an amphitheatre. Additional plans in the works include a second restaurant, currently with the working name of the Granite Caf\u00e9, which will offer more casual, yet elegant cuisine with the same high standards.<\/p>

\u201cWhen I came and saw this place, I said to Julien, it\u2019s a behemoth and you look around and say, wow, this thing is crazy,\u201d says Bennett. \u201cBut I can see the potential here to build something like a culinary destination. For me, it\u2019s like The French Laundry. This could be an institution of culinary excellence. That\u2019s what we want. We want a one, two Michelin Star fine dining establishment. It would be awesome to have a cookery school. There\u2019s so many multi facets to it and we have the infrastructure to do it.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe are at the very beginning of something huge,\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i>adds Lamrani. \u201cEverything that we have done in\u00a0<\/span><\/i>our careers has led us to a place like this.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>

For now, the main focus is to develop an identity for Row 188.<\/p>

\u201cWhat do we want it to be? We want it to be Okanagan cuisine and that\u2019s working with the terroir that surrounds us. And then playing with our culinary strengths \u2013 French, British and Asian influences, a Pan Pacific kind of vibe. But we won\u2019t put a label on it yet until we figure out what it looks like,\u201d says Bennett.<\/p>

As culinary director, he also has to contend with the bigger picture which includes the farm-to-table Garden Bistro at Peak Cellars and the future Granite Caf\u00e9.<\/p>

\u201cWe want to get it all working together and build a team for that. It\u2019s already good, we just want to elevate it.\u201d<\/p>

Currently, Row 188 is open only three nights a week and offers three-course and five-course set price dinners with wine pairing options. A sample menu includes first course options such as a tuna and scallop ceviche, butter poached lobster, onion soup and burrata. The second course may be a chicken ballotine, miso-marinated sablefish, duck breast or Pinot Noir braised beef. For dessert, a lemon tart, croissant bread pudding, seasonal sorbet or salted butter caramel and vanilla cr\u00e8me could be served. The chefs are also playing with ‘amuse-bouche’ options that change weekly, depending on what is in season.<\/p>

For both, the goal is to provide a memorable fine dining experience that sets a high standard without being pretentious.<\/p>

\u201cOne of the words that comes to mind is \u2018honest\u2019 and cooking with your heart \u2013 having those values in mind,\u201d Lamrani says. \u201cTrying to impress is the least of my concerns. The best food I\u2019ve ever had in the world is the food cooked by moms. They don\u2019t try to impress. They cook with their heart, they cook to feed. I feel like sometimes we forget where we are from. I love a beautiful technique, I love a beautiful plate, but it\u2019s kind of like the last thing in consideration.\u201d<\/p>

O\u2019Rourke Family Estate is still very much a work in progress. The winery is open by appointment only and reservations are required at Row 188 for Friday, Saturday and Sunday dinner service.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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by Julianna Hayes, Photography by Spencer Borgeson and Develyn Barker\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chef Quinton Bennett Executive Chef Julien Lamrani The superstar chef duo of Quinton Bennett and Julien Lamrani want to take\u00a0patrons of Row 188 at O\u2019Rourke Family Estate on a culinary journey. From the vineyards, fields, pastures, hills, forests and waterways that fill their kitchens and dress their tables, Lamrani and Bennett cherish the bounty available […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-chefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guidetodiningout.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}