Eric Robertson, the chef with an international reputation whose fine-dining restaurant in Niagara is ranked No. 1 in Canada, plucks an orange pepper from the soil.

“I promise it’s not a prank, it’s not spicy — I’ll eat it first, OK?” he says, tearing it in half. “It’s from the habanero family, but bred for its sweetness.”

Vegetable and herb gardens sit next to Restaurant Pearl Morissette, a barnlike structure on 17 hectares in the hamlet of Jordan Station, about a 30-minute drive east from his home in Hamilton.

On this day in late October, the land is framed by fall colours ablaze in the trees.

Indeed, the pepper tastes like a fusion of fruit and flowers.

“It’s from a seed breeder out of Cornell University.”

Eric Robertson inspects vegetables in the on-site garden that supplies fre

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