Avenue Magazine Calgary

There is something comforting about an airport hotel dining room.

It has a sense of “vacation,” with kids jumping into the pool, groups of tired-looking travellers sporting Mazatlan T-shirts and tans, the lilt  of international languages in the air and the feeling that no one’s in their own time zone.

Such is life at the Delta Calgary Airport (the hotel right across from the Departures level at Calgary International), where almost no one stays for more than one night — and where many Calgarians have never set foot. Why would we, when there are so many other airport hotels in other cities in which we’ve had to while away our time?

There’s one very good reason — North 51. That’s the hotel’s higher-tone, but still-casual dining room. Earlier this year, executive chef John Maclean decided to take an all-Alberta (or almost all-Alberta) stance with his menu.

Maclean is a local boy who has cooked his way around the hotel scene in Canada and abroad. He knows his food.

So you’ll find the typical Alberta beef, pork and lamb, of course, but there’s also Alberta wild rice, white fish, barley (for risotto), rainbow trout, bison, duck and a wealth of fresh produce, much of which is organic.

The list goes on: watercress, lemon balm, goat cheese, Gouda, elk, wild mushrooms, honey, saskatoon berries.

In Maclean’s hands, these ingredients become a stunning collection of classically prepared dishes: free-range rabbit confit with wild mushrooms; tomato, basil and mozzarella terrine topped with canola oil; arugula and duck confit salad with dried cherries and a black-cherry vinaigrette.