breaking the mould - Foodservice and Hospitality Magazine

Transcription

PERCOLATING
TRENDS
CANADIAN PUBLICATION MAIL PRODUCT SALES AGREEMENT #40063470
Retail and
foodservice
blend to create
new synergies
in the coffeeand-tea
market
BREAKING
THE
MOULD
Maison Publique’s Derek Dammann shares
his secret to success as part of a series of
independent restaurant profiles
foodserviceandhospitality.com
YOU GET
WHAT
YOU GIVE
Remembering
the value of
community service
FRENCH
GLAMOUR
Inside Toronto’s
luxurious new
Colette Grand Café
PLUS
THE 2014
EQUIPMENT
TREND
REPORT
$4 | SEPTEMBER 2014
PHOTOS: DREW HADLEY [DEREK DAMMANN COVER], THIS PAGE STARTING AT TOP LEFT: DREW HADLEY [INTERIOR], URSA [FARM DRESS], OX AND ANGELA [HEART LOGO]
VOLUME 47, NUMBER 6 SEPTEMBER 2014
CONTENTS
Features
18 FUTURE FORWARD The OHI’s
J. Charles Grieco wins an honorary
doctorate and welcomes a new generation to the foodservice-and-hospitality
industry By J. Charles Grieco
36 HOLY OLÉ Calgary’s Ox and Angela
Restaurant brings Spanish tapas, Latin
libations and a whole lot of fun to town
By Lindsay Forsey
Ursa’s
business plan continually evolves while
a unique food philosophy wins the
Toronto restaurant critical acclaim
By Laura Pratt
40 DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
Ethnic
food has become part of Canadian culture, with dishes from Asia and Latin
America winning attention in 2014
By Mary Luz Mejia
22 GLOBAL COMFORT FOOD
Successful restaurant
owners are committed to the communities in which they operate
By Brianne Binelli
45 GIFT IN KIND
Introducing a
series of profiles about independent
restaurateurs By Brianne Binelli
31 GENERATION NEXT
32 PUBLIC APPEAL Maison Publique
brings the British gastropub experience
to Montreal, with a Canadian twist
By Rebecca Harris
FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM
Departments
2 FROM THE EDITOR
5FYI
15 FROM THE DESK
OF ROBERT CARTER
16 NOW OPEN: Colette Grand
Café, Toronto
The 2014 Coffee
and Tea Report
61EQUIPMENT: The 2014 Equipment Trend Report
52POURING:
72 CHEF’S CORNER:
Wing Li, Linda Modern
Thai, Toronto
FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY SEPTEMBER 2014
1
FROM THE EDITOR
For daily news and announcements: @foodservicemag on Twitter
and Foodservice and Hospitality on Facebook.
MAKING A STATEMENT
A
“
A new breed of
restaurant operator
has emerged, one who
wants to educate and
change consumer
perceptions, not only
about what food is,
and what it can be,
but also to show how
restaurants can
contribute to a
stronger sense of
community
”
2 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY SEPTEMBER 2014
sk most restaurant operators
what the true measure of success is and invariably many will
tell you it’s cold, hard cash. But, while
commercial success is always the goal
of any business venture — after all, you
can’t succeed if your business doesn’t
make money — today, there are many
restaurateurs who see critical success as
a validation of their skills. Others, still,
are more intent on wanting to expose
restaurant-goers to a new cuisine and
to new ways of thinking about food. It’s
clear that in these days of ethical and
corporate responsibility, a new breed of
restaurant operator has emerged, one
who wants to educate and change consumer perceptions, not only about what
food is, and what it can be, but also to
show how restaurants can contribute to
a stronger sense of community.
What a difference a few years can
make. Take, for example, this month’s
profile of three successful independent
restaurant operators (see stories starting
on p. 32). These three operations are true
reflections of the times in which we live.
Calgary’s Ox and Angela is looking to
find success with a Spanish eatery that
promotes a fusion of vegetarian and
carnivore eating, while also focusing on
a strong beverage program; Montreal’s
Maison Publique is looking to make
pub food more appealing by promoting
quality ingredients sourced responsibly;
and Toronto’s Ursa is looking to educate
consumers about how functional foods
can make our bodies feel and perform
better. Are they all driven by wanting
to make money? Of course, and no one
would tell you differently. But these
owners are also intent on improving
their culinary communities while making a personal statement.
Clearly, community involvement is
central to today’s operating principles.
It’s no longer just enough to succeed;
it’s equally important to give back. This
month’s story about community involvement, (see p. 45) perfectly illustrates the
extent of this phenomenon. For example, the genesis of Toronto’s Paintbox
Bistro owes much to wanting to employ
disadvantaged Regent Park residents
with the help of the government and
employment agencies. “[Paintbox] was
born of a plan for a business with a
social mission of training and career
development for marginalized individuals,” explains Chris Klugman, owner.
Similarly, Toronto restaurateur Anjan
Manikumar recently made headlines by
opening Canada’s first restaurant completely staffed by deaf servers. Sound
implausible? Not in this new millennium where anything goes. Manikumar
told the CBC that a deaf customer at
another restaurant, who used to point
at what he wanted to order, inspired his
business plan. Customers coming into
his restaurant place their orders by using
sign language, which is illustrated in a
cheat book provided.
Will these restaurants succeed? Only
time will tell. And, like most, they’ll only
succeed if their staff deliver good food,
offer respectable service and are blessed
with a little luck. But, in some ways,
they’ve already succeeded by changing our perceptions of what today’s
Canadian culinary scene is all about.
Rosanna Caira
Editor/Publisher
rcaira@kostuchmedia.com
PRESIDENT & GROUP PUBLISHER MITCH KOSTUCH
mkostuch@kostuchmedia.com
EDITOR & PUBLISHER ROSANNA CAIRA
rcaira@kostuchmedia.com
ART DIRECTOR MARGARET MOORE
ideas@margaretmoorecreative.com
MANAGING EDITOR BRIANNE BINELLI
bbinelli@kostuchmedia.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR HELEN CATELLIER
hcatellier@kostuchmedia.com
ASSISTANT EDITOR JACKIE SLOAT-SPENCER
jsloat-spencer@kostuchmedia.com
WEB COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST MEGAN O’BRIEN
mobrien@kostuchmedia.com
MULTIMEDIA MANAGER DEREK RAE
drae@kostuchmedia.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNER COURTNEY JENKINS
cjenkins@kostuchmedia.com
SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER/U.S.A. WENDY GILCHRIST
wgilchrist@kostuchmedia.com
ACCOUNT MANAGER/CANADA STEVE HARTSIAS
shartsias@kostuchmedia.com
ACCOUNT MANAGER/CANADA MARIA FAMA VIECILI
mviecili@kostuchmedia.com
SALES & MARKETING ASSISTANT CHERYLL SAN JUAN
csanjuan@kostuchmedia.com
ICONS AND INNOVATORS
BREAKFAST
SPEAKER
SERIES
CIRCULATION PUBLICATION PARTNERS
kml@publicationpartners.com, (905) 509-3511
DIRECTOR JIM KOSTUCH
jkostuch@kostuchmedia.com
ACCOUNTING DANIELA PRICOIU
dpricoiu@kostuchmedia.com
OFFICE MANAGER TINA ALEXANDROU
talexandrou@kostuchmedia.com
ADVISORY BOARD
BOSTON PIZZA INTERNATIONAL KEN OTTO
CORA FRANCHISE GROUP DAVID POLNY
CRAVE IT RESTAURANT GROUP ALEX RECHICHI
FAIRFAX FINANCIAL HOLDINGS LIMITED NICK PERPICK
FHG INTERNATIONAL INC. DOUG FISHER
FRESHII MATTHEW CORRIN
HEALTH CHECK CANADA I HEART & STROKE FOUNDATION KATIE JESSOP
JOEY RESTAURANT GROUP BRITT INNES
LECOURS WOLFSON LIMITED NORMAN WOLFSON
NEW YORK FRIES & SOUTH ST. BURGER CO. JAY GOULD
SCHOOL OF HOSPITALITY & TOURISM MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY
OF GUELPH BRUCE MCADAMS
SENSORS QUALITY MANAGEMENT DAVID LIPTON
SOTOS LLP JOHN SOTOS
MANITOWOC FOODSERVICE JACQUES SEGUIN
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS JUDSON SIMPSON
THE MCEWAN GROUP MARK MCEWAN
UNILEVER FOOD SOLUTIONS NORTH AMERICA GINNY HARE
GUEST ICON & INNOVATOR
HOST
Mark McEwan
Rosanna Caira
Executive Chef/Owner
The McEwan Group
Editor & Publisher,
Kostuch Media Ltd.
TICKETS $135
October 1, 2014 | Toronto Region Board of Trade
PLATINUM SPONSOR
PRESENTING SPONSOR
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Volume 47, Number 6 Published 11 times per year by Kostuch Media Ltd.,
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For more information and to register please visit
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▼
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MONTHLY NEWS AND UPDATES FOR THE FOODSERVICE INDUSTRY
A LOCAL DILEMMA
FYI
Dan Barber’s The Third Plate challenges the concept of farm to fork
by examining it through the lens of agricultural sustainability
PHOTO: MARK OSTOW [DAN BARBER; HEADSHOT]
BY ROSANNA CAIRA
W
hat does the future
of food look like? Just
ask Dan Barber. The
award-winning American chef
answers that question, and many
more, in his 452-page book that
examines sustainable food, challenging many of today’s accepted
beliefs about farm to fork.
Barber, who was voted one of
2009’s most influential people by
Time magazine, was in Toronto
recently to promote his book,
The Third Plate, and to speak to
Alison Fryer, instructor at Toronto’s George Brown College, who interviewed him in front of
an audience of students, foodies and media at the school. His impassioned and compelling
Q&A with Fryer challenged the audience to look at food differently.
At the heart of his philosophy is the belief that the local-food movement hasn’t changed
the way we eat. As promotional materials for his book state, “It’s also offered a false promise
for the future of food.” He adds: “Farm to table may sound right — it’s direct and connected
— but really the farmer ends up servicing the table, not the other way around. It makes good
agriculture difficult to sustain.”
Barber believes local food can be detrimental to the environment, unless it is cultivated
in a way that promotes the long-term sustainability of the farm. “Farm to table allows, even
celebrates, a kind of cherry picking of ingredients that are often ecologically demanding and
expensive to grow,” writes Barber.
The title of his book, The Third Plate, refers to a new approach to eating. In the past
we tended to eat a “first plate” — a classic meal centered on a large cut of meat with few
vegetables. Over the past decade, the local-food movement has promoted a “second-plate”
approach, featuring free-range animals and locally sourced veggies. Barber maintains that
while the second plate is better tasting and better for the planet, its architecture is similar to
the first. He proposes a third plate, which includes vegetable, grain and livestock supported
and dictated by what we choose to cook for dinner.
The toque implores his peers to advance the notion of what he classifies as truly sustainable food. “Chefs are at the forefront of the movement. We shouldn’t say we can’t make it
better. We can translate the natural world through great flavour and technique,” he said.
BRIDGE
THE GAP
Dan Barber, co-owner and
executive chef of Blue Hill
restaurant in New York’s
West Village, takes his role
as a connector between the
farm and the plate seriously.
In addition to running his
Manhattan eatery, he can
be found at Blue Hill at
Stone Barns, located at the
site of the non-profit farm
Stone Barns Center for Food
& Agriculture in upstate
New York. It features a
multi-course farmers’
feast inspired by the
week’s harvest.
THE EXPERIMENT Dan Barber, chef and author of The Third Plate, got rid of his restaurant menus to show patrons how farmers
can set the program. “Diners were presented with a list of ingredients. Some vegetables, like peas, made multiple appearances throughout the meal,” he explained at a recent Toronto event. “Others, such as rare varieties of lettuce, became part of a shared course for the
table.... The list was evidence that the farmers dictated the menu. I was thrilled.” But, Barber realized that abandoning the menu wasn’t
enough. He was more interested in an organizing principle — a collection of dishes (or cuisine) instead of a list of ingredients reflecting
a whole system of agriculture. He argues that the third plate is where good farming and good food intersect.
5
FYI
COMING
EVENTS
SEPT. 21: Cardinal’s 6th Annual
“Fore the Kids” Golf Tournament,
Glen Eagle Golf Club, Caledon,
Ont. Tel: 905-841-1223; email:
trodrigue@friendsofwecare.org;
website: friendsofwecare.org
SEPT. 21-23: FSTEC Foodservice and Technology
Conference, Sheraton New
Orleans, New Orleans, La.
Tel: 480-337-3409; email:
jpinson@cspnet.com; website:
fstec.com
SEPT. 28-29: Alberta Foodservice
Expo, BMO Centre, Calgary.
Tel: 416-512-8186 x227; email:
chuckn@mediaedge.ca; website:
albertafoodserviceexpo.ca
OCT. 1: Icons and Innovators
Breakfast Series featuring Mark
McEwan, Toronto Board of Trade,
Toronto. Tel: 416-447-0888 x236,
email: talexandrou@kostuchmedia.
com; website: kostuchmedia.com
THE FUTURE
OF FARMING
Ruth Klahsen is at it again. The
Stratford, Ont.-based cheesemaker, who
created a community supported agriculture (CSA) program to build her dairy
five years ago, is working on her next
project — a Monforte farm. “It’s the last
piece of the puzzle,” she said recently
as media gathered at a dinner hosted at
Edulis in Toronto. The $1-million farm
on Highway 7/8, just outside Stratford,
Ont. (pictured), will close Oct. 1 and will
eventually be transformed from a GMOengineered 40-acre corn field to a new
home for eight to 10 farmers chosen by
Klahsen in partnership with FarmStart,
a Guelph, Ont.-based initiative created to provide support to farmers. The green pocket could be
used to develop anything from hops to water buffalo at a time when the cost of land has created
ongoing challenges for a new generation of farmers. To help finance the project Klahsen is once again
selling cheese futures through a new CSA program. Three cheese subscription plans of $200, $500
or $1,000 (purchased via monfortedairy.com), will give buyers access to Monforte products for five
years. “We hope the farm will be where our community comes for sustenance, for learning and for
revitalization,” reads a declaration on the Monforte site. “Ultimately, we hope the Monforte Home
Farm model is one others will replicate, especially around preserving land for farming.”
— Brianne Binelli
NOV. 3-4: 2014 Connect Show,
Vancouver Convention Centre
West, Vancouver. Tel:
604-628-5655; email:
samantha@connectshow.com;
website: connectshow.com
For more events, visit
SWEET TOOTH
The Grand Marais, Man.-based Canadian Birch Company
is capitalizing on the nostalgic scent of Birch bark and
firewood with its Amber and Dark Birch Syrups. Made
from Birch trees found on Lake Winnipeg’s South basin,
the products add sweet, rich and fruity flavours to dishes.
Recently, a new Amber Gold syrup was added to the
company’s collection. Offering a light colour and decadent taste, Amber Gold can be used as a drizzle, glaze
or flavouring to complement a variety of fare, including
ice cream, sweet sauces or chicken, fish or pork dishes.
A HUMBLE TALE
Alister Mathieson, VP of Advancement and External Relations at Toronto’s Humber
College, has expanded his influence, penning two childrens’ books describing Canada’s
rich history and culture. “I wrote Canada: Our Road to Democracy from the perspective
of an immigrant and citizen, wanting children and adults alike to know and understand
the foundational values of our democracy,” said Mathieson of the A-to-Z journey through
Canada’s history of democracy. “Grandma and Grandpa’s Toronto Adventure was inspired
by a book I saw in the Auckland airport, published by Kangoo Press. Working with
Kangoo books, tourist Boards and Humber Press, we will now be publishing a Canadian
series.” Mathieson’s net royalties and proceeds will benefit students facing disabilities and
mental illness.
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FYI
WINE AND DINE
Toronto’s Canoe, Harbour Sixty Steakhouse, Opus Restaurant; and
Banff, Alta.’s Banffshire Club each received the highest ranking of
three stars on U.K. publication The World of Fine Wine’s World’s
Best Wine Lists. “They are the first awards to acknowledge the
importance of a good wine selection, as distinct from a massive
compilation, in the modern dining experience all over the world,”
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Canadian consumers are setting new
standards for menu
innovation — that
was the message
at the Canadian
Trends & Directions
Conference, held
recently at the Westin
Prince Hotel in
Toronto.
The annual
event, organized by
Toronto’s Kostuch
Media and Chicagobased research firm
Technomic Inc.,
began with a talk by
Benjamin Tal, CIBC
World Markets deputy chief
economist. He honed in on the
North American market. “Interest
rates will be rising — that’s the
main issue that’s going to impact
your business in the next two to
three years, as people spend more
on their mortgage and less on
restaurants,” warned the economist, who also added the consumer debt-to-income ratio currently sits at 165 per cent. And,
since the global economy is moving at a much slower pace than
before the recession, he warned
attendees not to expect the rising
interest rates to increase as quickly as they have in the past.
Later, Technomic execs Darren
Tristano and Patrick Noone
spotlighted Canada’s foodservice
industry, noting that it has grown
by 4.1 per cent in 2014. Leading
the charge in growth is coffee
cafés, which account for $8 billion in sales, followed by burger
concepts in second place with
$6.5 billion in sales.
And, according to an afternoon panel, stealing share will
require foodservice operators
to appease consumers who are
demanding a menu that supports flavour cravings and value.
“While some want healthy foods,
one of our most popular menu
items is the Maple Cheddar Beer
Burger,” laughed Corey Dalton,
COO of Tortoise Restaurant
Group. Other trends noted
included the increased attention
to the story behind the menu,
including its origins, preparation and sourcing; incorporating
ethnic influences; and improving
restaurant ambiance.
The day wrapped with a salute
to Technomic’s consumer choice
award winners, including The
Keg and Starbucks (Pleasant
Friendly Service); The Works
Gourmet Burger Bistro and
Arby’s (Craveability); Cora and
Booster Juice (Availability of
Healthy Options); and Boston
Pizza and Tim Hortons (Social
Responsibility). For more details
from the conference, visit
foodserviceandhospitality.com.
— Jackie Sloat-Spencer
PHOTOS: DREAMSTIME.COM [CONFERENCE HALL WITH MICROPHONE], WESTIN PRINCE TORONTO [BALLROOM]
CHICKEN WINGS!
CONSUMER’S
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Mark Delany
FYI
Pizza Fabrika
RESTO
BUZZ
Customers face a unique challenge at Toronto’s new Signs Restaurant where a sign-language cheat
book is provided at the table to facilitate communication with the deaf servers...Toronto’s new Portland
Variety features a trio of offerings, including a café by day and cocktail bar by night, alongside a
150-seat shared plate-style restaurant. Café specialties include grab-and-go items such as baby shrimp
salad croissants ($7) and egg flan gruyère cheese brioche ($5)...Vancouver’s West End is the new
location of Pizza Fabrika, an edgy, 25-seat pizzeria inspired by a working factory. Featuring 12-inch
pies, D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes and its signature Fabrika cheese blend of full-fat Canadian mozzarella
and Danish Fontina, specialties include the Duck pizza, topped with duck prosciutto and fresh pea shoots
($18)...Just Falafel has made its foray into Toronto with a quick-service location on Bay Street,
serving its signature Falafel Burger on a toasted bun with cheddar cheese, dill pickles, lettuce, tomato
and mayonnaise ($7.99).
Opening a new restaurant? Let us in on the buzz. Send a high-res image, menu and background information
about the new establishment to bbinelli@kostuchmedia.com.
IN BRIEF
St. Laurent, Que.’s MTY
Food Group has snapped up
more restaurant concepts.
Its wholly owned subsidiary,
Tiki Ming Enterprises Inc.,
is set to acquire Café Dépôt,
Sushi Man, Muffin Plus
and Fabrika for $14.8 million...Toronto’s New York
Fries celebrates 30 years
this month. Over the years
it’s grown to include 115
locations in Canada and 29
in the Middle East, Turkey
and Asia...Best Bar None
reps celebrated the completion of the program’s first
year in Ottawa, presenting
five awards for responsible
alcohol service: Cornerstone
Bar and Grill (Best Overall
and Best Restaurant); Real
Sports Bar & Grill (Best
Bar/Lounge); The Great
Canadian Cabin (Best
Club); and Pub 101 (Best
Pub). Similar awards were
presented in Toronto, where
the Second Annual Best
Bar None Awards were
celebrated...Flex Appeal
(Whitecap Books Ltd.) is
a new cookbook targeting
flexitarians, vegetarians and
families with meat-eaters,
offering meat-free items
with a “flex appeal option,”
such as Zucchini Mushroom
Moussaka, with a lamb
option...Stratford, Ont.’s
Savour Stratford served as
the stomping ground for
150 chefs, farmers, producers and more in July. Guests
to the annual culinary festival included James Walt,
Araxi, Whistler B.C.; Paul
Rogalski, Rouge, Calgary;
and Dale MacKay, Ayden
Kitchen and Bar, Saskatoon.
PEOPLE
Denis Richard has left his
post as CEO of Moncton,
N.B.-based Imvescor
Restaurant Group to pursue
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U N M AT C H E D Q UA L I T Y ° U N PA R A L L E L E D F L AVO U R
Scan to hear Chef Dave Cuntz’s take on
the satisfaction of serving Sterling Silver .
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cuntz.sterlingsilverstories.com
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FYI
Karan Suri
Alex Svenne
other opportunities. Yves
Devin, the company’s
COO, will take charge
until a successor is
named...Matthew Batey,
former executive chef at
Mission Hill Winery in
Kelowna, B.C. is heading
east to serve as execu-
tive chef at The Nash
in Calgary’s Inglewood
neighbourhood, expected
to open in October...
Executive chef Karan Suri
has joined the team at
The Fairmont Vancouver
Airport. Suri was previously group executive
chef for Fairmont Hotels
in Nairobi, Kenya, overseeing The Fairmont
Mount Kenya Safari
Club and The Fairmont
Mara Safari Club....Alex
Svenne is the new executive chef at Winnipeg’s
Inn at the Forks. The former chef and co-owner
of Winnipeg’s Bistro 7
1/4 will be responsible
for the property’s restaurant, which is being
rebranded; it will open in
September.
SUPPLYSIDE
Barry Reid is now leading
sales at Kitchener, Ont.’s
Flanagan Foodservice as
its new VP of Sales and
Marketing...Menomonee
Falls, Wis.-based AltoShaam’s new 300-TH/
III Cook & Hold oven
features Halo Heat technology...Toronto’s Neal
Brothers have teamed
with celeb toques Chuck
Hughes and Vikram Vij
to introduce ‘Srirachup’
and ‘Delhi-licious’
chips...Mississauga,
Ont.-based Sol Cuisine
launched gluten-free
Meatless Chicken with
High-moisture Extrusion
Technology, which gives
the product a meaty texture...Toronto’s Canadian
Linen and Uniform
Service’s new web-store
platform, store.canadianlinen.com, streamlines linen and uniform
orders...Toronto-based
TouchBistro’s self-checkout/mobile payments
function saves seven
minutes per table by giving customers the option
to view their bill on their
smartphone and check
out with PayPal...Cintas
Canada, based in North
York, Ont., has added a
new signature series of
designer restroom accessories, in “Earth,” “Steel”
and “Bold” designs...
Kitchener, Ont.-based
Dare Foodservice rolled
out two new bite-size
items, Boulangerie
Grissol Baguette Bites
in Garlic Parmesan and
Homestyle Croutons...
Sacramento, Calif.-based
Almond Breeze introduced a new refrigerated milk product in
two flavours: Original
and Unsweetened
Original; and Vanilla and
Unsweetened Vanilla...
Basic American Foods,
based in Walnut Creek,
Calif., is now serving
Brilliant Beginnings
Recipe-Ready Mashed
Potatoes, featuring whole
U.S.-grown potatoes.
FROM THE DESK OF ROBERT CARTER
VISION 2020
A window into the next seven years in
the quick-service restaurant industry
W
hat will the quick-service restaurant landscape look like in 2020?
Many influences will shape the
way restaurants in Canada evolve over the
next seven years. With that in mind, NPD
has harnessed its historical CREST consumer information to predict future trends and
macro changes that will create opportunities
and challenges in the foodservice industry.
This first instalment of a two-part series,
will examine key findings from NPD’s latest
report “Vision 2020: The Future of QSR in
Canada.”
INCREASED COMPETITION
The restaurant market in 2020 is going to be
much more competitive. Since the dawn of
the economic downturn in 2008, restaurant
visits per capita declined by 12 visits a year
from 198 restaurant occasions in 2008 to
186 in 2014. That number is expected to further decline to 185 in 2020. As a result, the
volume of overall restaurant customer traffic is not expected to increase dramatically
in the next seven years. Customer traffic to
restaurants in 2020 is forecast to be more
than seven billion annually, which is only
approximately 400 million more than today.
What’s more, the number of restaurant units
will be developed faster than the increase
of customer traffic from now up to 2020.
The most dramatic unit development will
be seen in the fast-casual segment, which
will most likely see unit counts double in
Canadian Restaurant Industry and
Segment Forecast
ACTUAL AND PROJECTED ANNUAL RESTAURANT VISITS (000s)
7,025,797
6,611,478
6,360,212
2006
2013
2020
total from 542 today to more than 1,000
units in 2020. The result will mean more
restaurateurs will be competing for the same
customer.
ETHNIC INFLUENCE
An influx of South-Asian and Chinese
immigrants will affect the growth of the
Canadian population over the next seven
years. The influence of this ethnic consumer,
as well as the expanding global taste profile
of boomers and millennials, will result in
ethnic food becoming the fastest-growing
menu category, with consumption increasing by 31 per cent leading up to 2020.
Expect to see ethnic menu items appearing
in all restaurant segments, with the greatest
growth coming from quick-service restaurants and fast-casual restaurants.
THE RESPONSE
As a result of an increasingly competitive
market, more restaurateurs will focus on
strategies such as innovative menu development, menu extensions, limited-time offers
and loyalty programs to establish a key point
of difference as well as to retain their existing customers.
Next month’s column will offer a final analysis of “Vision 2020: The Future of QSR in
Canada.” l
Robert Carter is executive director, Foodservice Canada, with the NPD Group Inc.
He can be reached at robert.carter@npd.com for questions regarding the latest trends
and their impact on the foodservice business.
15
NOW OPEN
FRENCH
FLAVOUR
A peek into Toronto’s new Colette Grand Café
AFTER MUCH FANFARE and
anticipation, Toronto’s Colette Grand Café opened
in July, giving the burgeoning King West neighbourhood a touch of Parisian flair. Located in the
Thompson Hotel, in the space that once housed
Scarpetta Restaurant, the 5,000-sq.-ft. resto features
150 seats divided among an upscale dining room,
café and bakery and a covered outdoor terrace.
Designed by Toronto’s Gianpiero Pugliese, with
architecture by AudaxArchitecture, the restaurant
features barrel vault ceilings, classic French caféstyle seating and hand-painted tile in traditional
Parisian hues of blues, yellows and whites.
Colette’s menu celebrates modern French cuisine with dishes such as Duck Magret with roasted
breast and crisp leg ($44); La Tour de Colette ($58
for two), comprising prepared and raw vegetables,
crab, shrimp, mussels with aioli and bread sticks; as
well as Shellfish Marinière ($34).
Owned by Chase Hospitality Group, partners
Steve Salm (right), Michael Kimel and chef Michael
Steh (far right) also operate The Chase, The Chase
Fish & Oyster and Little Fin. — Rosanna Caira
17
NEWSMAKER
T
FUTURE
FORWARD
The OHI’s J. Charles Grieco
earns an honorary doctorate
and welcomes a new generation
to the foodservice-andhospitality industry
BY J. CHARLES GRIECO
his past June, the
University of Guelph conferred an Honorary Doctor
of Laws degree to J. Charles
Grieco, the executive director of
the Ontario Hostelry Institute.
Grieco is a long-standing and
respected member of the foodservice-and-hospitality community,
having served as the former owner
of La Scala, one of Toronto’s preeminent Italian restaurants. The
eatery was founded by his father,
John Grieco, in the ’60s. The following is the text from Grieco’s
Commencement Address.
I am sincerely honoured and
humbled to have been recommended by the senate of this
institution to be awarded an
Honorary Doctor of Laws —
honoris causa degree — and to
share with you a few thoughts
on this commencement day, a
day I am told should empower
you, the graduate, to go forward
on the career pathway you have
chosen with confidence, determination and commitment.
This is graduation day,
your commencement day. You
have worked diligently; you
have achieved your goal and
you believe the world, and the
appropriately chosen business
pathways, are yours for the asking.
This past Sunday, while reading my favourite weekly email
newsletter called “Mindpairings,”
I read that the Commencement
Address is the secular sermon
of our time, a packet of timeless
advice on life, dispensed by a
podium-perched patronly shaman of wisdom to a congrega-
tion of eager young minds about
to enter the real world.
And, while The New York
Times has indicated that a
Commencement Address might
require “some poetry, some
stand-up comedy and a good
deal of truth,” you will find that
I will follow the latter suggestion.
Although my admitted bias
and theme today may be that of
hospitality, please understand
that it is about people and how
you and I, and our daily relationships to them, can mean the
difference between success and
failure.
Stop, take a deep breath, and
reflect seriously on the words
recently attributed to Col. Chris
Hadfield, our astronaut of
national renown. “If you view
crossing the finish line as the
measure of your life, you are setting yourself up for a personal
disaster.”
Perhaps disaster is too strong
a word; perhaps surprise, or
disillusionment are better ones.
You have arrived at a new starting point that comes with your
accreditation today.
Know that your real education is just beginning. Today you
have been handed the key to
start. I’m not telling you to make
the world a better place. I don’t
think that world progress is
necessarily part of your package.
I’m just telling you to live in it.
Not just to endure it, not just to
suffer it, not just to pass through
it but to live in it.
To look at it, to try to see
the whole picture, to live a little
NEWSMAKER
CELEBRATING SUCCESS
A pillar in the foodserviceand-hospitality industry for
nearly 40 years, Charles
Grieco is fêted by the
University of Guelph with
an honorary doctorate that’s
celebrated by his wife,
Margaret, and the school’s
Mike von Massow (top,
third from left) and Bruce
McAdams (top, far right)
recklessly, to
take chances
and expect
failures.
Embrace
them and,
yes, you may,
from time to
time, make
glorious,
amazing
mistakes
— the best
kind, by the
way.
Learn
from your
mistakes; don’t repeat them, and
do everything you can to make
others feel good and well served.
To make your life’s work
hospitality, take pride in it. Seize
the moment, and remember you
have chosen to embark on this
career track. You are now part of
the hospitality world, with all of
its many manifestations, options
and self-satisfying pathways.
Certainly the hospitality
industry has its challenges ...
but at its very core remains an
age-old fundamental: the art
of hospitality is not simply the
science of business theories and
practices or service. The art
involved with hospitality is the
understanding that at the end
of the consumer’s experience ...
there is a sense of feeling good.
It’s a feeling of extreme satisfaction — that we/they were well
served.
While service may be generally defined as the technical
delivery of a product or an experience, never forget service is a
part of your hospitality career.
Enlightened hospitality, or how
the delivery of that product or
service or experience makes
its recipient feel, is the crucial
aspect of its success.... You would
be well served to embrace the
concept and apply it to any and
all hospitality paths or to other
career paths you choose and
have gained accreditation
to follow.
It has been argued that hospitality is the distinguishing factor
of success in our ever-evolving,
multi-faceted industry. In the
information age, most competitors know how to offer similar
products, even better ones,
memorable tastes and experiences that exceed expectations.
But, overlay a heightened culture
of hospitality and the memorable experience created for our
properties, for your enterprises,
for your customers and clients
will always ensure you stand
out. It is your competitive edge.
As you have chosen a career
management track, you have a
responsibility that goes beyond
training for skills. It involves
the nurturing of this culture of
enlightened hospitality and an
attitude that dispels the idea of
perfunctory servitude.
I was reminded recently, on
the occasion of the passing of
cultural icon Maya Angelou, of
what is perhaps the best definition of hospitality. It was found
amongst her many memorable
writings: “People will forget
what you said before they forget
what you did, but they will never
forget how you made them feel.”
Smart hiring seeks out attitude
first and skills second. Smart
management understands that
the right attitude, and a commitment to mentoring, persistent
and consistent training, and
learning that enlightened hospitality can be achieved, accrues to
exceptional results in every sector of our industry.
I cannot stress enough that
the answer to a lot of your coming challenges is often found in
someone else’s face and in the
sound of their voice. Try putting
your smartphones and iPads
down; stop tweeting and texting,
and every once in a while look at
people’s faces and listen to what
is being said to you. The answers
and the solutions to those challenges are there for you to see
and to hear.
Don’t work for fools; it’s not
worth it. Getting paid less to
work for people you admire,
believe in, even envy, and who
are committed to, and who walk
the talk of excellence, is much
better for you in the long road
of hospitality.
Imagine the immensity of
what lies ahead: don’t compromise and don’t waste time. Start
now, not five or 10 years from
now, not two weeks from now.
Now. As a sage in our industry
once said: “The soup of civilized
life is a nourishing stew, but it
doesn’t keep bubbling on its
own. Put something back in the
pot as you leave for those in line
behind you.”
True success takes time, experience, patience and being with
the right people and the right
organizations. And, the right
mentors are critical to your next
learning pathway.
Hospitality is not a job, it is
a vocation. You have chosen the
best career there is. No day is
ever the same; no guest is ever
the same. Each day, be prepared
to wait for a new story to unfold.
Imagine how much more fun
and challenging that is.
If I can leave you today with
one thought that has served me
and many others well, it’s this: in
a business ruled by a passion for
people and hospitality, keep in
mind that success in this industry, and in any of the related
paths you choose and that may
be offered, is a careful journey,
not a destination.
Thank you. Good luck.
You won’t be disappointed;
I haven’t been. l
GLOBAL
COMFORT
FOOD
ETHNIC FOOD HAS BECOME PART OF
CANADIAN CULTURE, WITH DISHES FROM
ASIA AND LATIN AMERICA WINNING
ATTENTION IN 2014 BY MARY LUZ MEJIA
FOOD FILE
A WHOLE NEW WORLD
(clockwise from top left)
From empanadas to butter
chicken, amaranth, Chinese
spinach-infused pulled
noodles, Paneer Makhani
and Ceviche, culinary
delights from Asia and
Latin America are
influencing Canadian
menus
PHOTOS: DREAMSTIME.COM
It used to be that if you
craved Italian food, you’d
likely get a heaping plate
of spaghetti with meatballs slathered in tomato
sauce and a side of garlic
bread. Today, that same
dish might be dubbed
“Italian-Canadian” and
wouldn’t have the same
culinary cred as a plate
of Northern Italian wild
boar ragu served over
pappardelle. Canadians’
growing fondness for
“ethnic” cuisines continues to extend beyond the
better known, regional
borders of Italy, France
and parts of China.
Today, Canada’s shifting demographics mean
we’re enjoying waves of
new flavours from around
the globe, especially from
Asia and Latin America.
According to Joel Gregoire, account manager, Foodservice at the NPD Group’s Toronto
offices (until recently), Canada’s increasingly
diverse population means regardless of their
postal code, consumers will likely come into
contact with ethnic dishes. “Ethnic-inspired
food is now a standard part of consumers’ diets,
as it’s something they’ve grown accustomed
to,” says Gregoire, referencing NPD’s “Eating
Patterns in Canada” (EPIC) report, which
examines Canadian eating habits in and outside
the home. The report reveals that 82 per cent
of Canadians surveyed said they are game to
try ethnic-inspired foods outside of the home,
while 77 per cent of Canadians said they’d consider making it at home themselves.
But, there’s more. “Consumers who live in
regions containing large, densely populated
cities purchase ethnic food away from home
more often than consumers who live in characteristically rural territories,” says Anne Mills, a
consumer research manager with the Chicagobased research firm, Technomic. Further to
Mills’ point, NPD’s Gregoire notes that one of
the largest-growing ethnic groups in Canada is
from Asia; a fact largely noticeable in provinces
such as British Columbia and Ontario. What
does this mean for the food on our collective
dinner tables? “The more diverse the population, the greater the demand for adventurous
eating experiences. As our cultural mosaic
changes, our palates become more accepting,”
explains Gregoire.
AWESOME ASIAN
The cumulative culinary effect of the influx
of Asian immigrants, from China to Pakistan,
proves the “EPIC” report’s observations are
spot on. Chinese food, for example, is no longer
limited to chop suey or sweet-and-sour chicken
balls. Offerings now include regional specialties
such as northern bao or hand-pulled noodles.
23
FOOD FILE
INDIAN INFLUENCES Amaya’s prawns (above, left) and Kale and Paneer Masala (above, right) are
examples of Indian dishes gaining widespread acceptance among a range of Canadian consumers
For his part, Hemant Bhagwani brought
modern Indian fare to the Greater Toronto
Area via his Amaya Group of Restaurants
(which includes a higher-end establishment,
a sit-down restaurant, express take-out
spots and fast-casual eateries, with 15 units
in total).
While the ubiquitous and number-1 selling menu item, butter chicken cooked in
a tomato fenugreek sauce, reigns supreme
($7.63 to $11.95, depending on the Amaya
concept), other lesser-known dishes are
also big hits. Amaya’s Kathi rolls, which are
egg-washed layered paratha (whole-wheat
flatbread) stuffed with the customer’s choice
of meat or paneer (Indian cheese), pickled
onions and chutneys ($4.99 each) and the
Kale and Paneer Masala ($10.95, Amaya
Express), are fan favourites.
“When I first opened Amaya, the main
demographic was mainstream Canadian.
Over the last few years, other ethnicities have started to trust Amaya as their
restaurants of choice. Because we are in
food courts, and have street-side locations
as well, the visibility has helped us gain
acceptance. Now, we are also seeing a lot of
[other] Asian guests as well,” says Bhagwani.
His core demographic tends to be the
30-plus crowd with 20-somethings mixed
in as well.
This mirrors Mills’ findings that “Ethnic
food consumption is driven by millennials and generation-X consumers. Moving
forward, the preferences of an increasingly
diverse, globally aware, millennial population will lead the industry to focus more on
the authenticity of ethnic foods,” explains
the Technomic consumer research manager.
All sectors of the foodservice industry
are keeping a close eye on ethnic food
trends, and the street-food movement is no
exception, with pop-up markets and restaurants, Asian-style night hawker markets,
festivals and food trucks continuing to feed
the country’s appetite for global flavours.
In Western Canada, Browns Restaurant
Group, franchisor of 31 Browns Socialhouse
INGREDIENT OF THE MONTH: PURPLE CORN
Purple corn (or maiz morado in Spanish) is grown in the Andes throughout
Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, and is prized for various reasons. Firstly, the
juice of purple corn yields a fruity, rich flavour that’s described as tasting like a cross between sweet grapes, kiwi, peaches and prune juice.
Secondly, its deep purple hue is a result of anthocyanin — one of the
world’s most powerful antioxidants. The corn is used to make a popular
sweet beverage called chicha morada, which is prepared by boiling
ground purple kernels with pineapple, cinnamon, cloves and sugar. At
Hamilton, Ont.’s Culantro Peruvian Cookery, chef Juan Castillo makes his
in-house with a squeeze of lime juice; he also sells his brother’s bottled
version, Inca Blu. The maize is also used to make mazamorra morada (a
sweet gelatin or pudding dessert), purple tortillas, corn chips and cornbread.
®
®
®
®
®
“Packed from Fresh Tomatoes,
Not from Concentrate”...
President Tom Cortopassi (kneeling) and “Coach” Dino Cortopassi (standing) in one of our
Since 1942, our Restaurateur customers’ success
has depended on the superior taste of the food they
serve and of our products.
As a family-owned business, it feels good knowing
that so many of our customers have relied on our
“Packed From Fresh Tomato” products from
generation to generation.
Whether your restaurant has a long family history,
or whether you’re the founder, you can depend on our
family making the best “Real Italian” tomato
products...always Packed From Fresh Tomatoes,
Never From Concentrate...generation after generation!
Tom Cortopassi
President/Owner
Dino Cortopassi
Coach/Owner
Generation after Generation.
tomato fields in Stanislaus County, California
IT
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STANISLAUS
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The “Real Italian” Tomato Company
1202 “D” Street
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FOOD FILE
restaurants, including three in Washington
State, is keen to offer its own spin on global
favourites.
Jason Labahn, executive chef, notes
Browns Socialhouses are located in neighbourhoods that cater to everyone from the
business lunch crowd and young families
out for an early supper, to the after-work
dinner and drinks set. The chain’s overall
menu bestsellers are the Pad Thai noodles
($15.95), with 140 to 180 orders per week,
alongside the Asian-inflected Dragon Bowl
($15.95), which includes a bed of coconut
rice topped with teriyaki chicken or tofu
and stir-fried vegetables with a spicy yogurt.
“It doesn’t surprise me that these options
beat out burgers here, because they’re comforting and familiar in their own way. And
people feel like they’re eating lighter and
healthier,” says Labahn. “Once you eat the
Dragon Bowl, you’ll come back for it again
and again. It’s well-rounded and balanced.”
SOUTHERN COMFORTS
TAKE YOUR PICK Browns Socialhouse’s top
sellers are the Dragon Bowl (above) and Pad Thai
(above, middle). Meanwhile, the Western Canadabased chain’s chipotle and lime chicken tacos
appeal to a growing taste for Latin food
“Canadians with Latin-American origins
make up one of the largest non-European
ethnic groups in Canada,” according to
Statistics Canada’s website. This, coupled
with the notion of finding comfort in
ethnic dishes, which have become part
of Canadian culture, has led to interest
in Latin-American food, especially from
the up-and-coming culinary giant, Peru.
The country is known throughout Latin
America as having one of the best culinary
legacies that melds indigenous Incan traditions with immigrant European and Asian
cuisines. The result is a stunning array of
dishes that we’re just now starting to get a
taste for in Canada.
Toronto’s Celestin Restaurant owner
and chef, Ivan Tarazona, was born in Peru
and dedicates approximately 40 per cent of
his French bistro menu to Peruvian/Latininfluenced dishes, most of which have that
cosy comfort his diners prefer.
“The trend in Canada when it comes to
Peruvian and Latin food is comfort food.
We don’t push the envelope as much as our
neighbours in the U.S. What we consider
street or party food is still new to a lot of
Canadians, and they seem to enjoy it. I’m
talking about churros, tamales, tacos and
empanadas,” says Tarazona.
Empanadas are the bestseller at
Hamilton, Ont.’s Culantro Peruvian
Cookery, owned and operated by chef
Juan Castillo. His empanada special, which
includes a choice of two empanadas and
a side ($9), is as big a hit as Culantro’s
Peruvian-style Rotisserie Quarter Chicken
marinated with Peruvian spices overnight
and served with two sides ($10). “Back
home, there’s a rostiseria on every street
corner. My brother Martin has one called
Limon in San Francisco — the chicken and
all of my recipes are our family’s recipes,”
says Castillo.
At Celestin, the hands-down most popular Peruvian item is another classic, ceviche. Tarazona offers a rotating roster that’s
citrus-juice cured, fresh and flavourful. The
ceviche appetizer has included a three-fish
version with sea bass, fluke and red snapper
topped with native cancha (Peruvian toasted
corn), lime juice, garlic, and aji amarillo
(yellow chili), for $16. He also serves Aji de
Gallina — a shredded chicken simmered
in a nut, garlic and aji amarillo chili sauce.
Traditionally, this dish is served with rice
and/or potatoes, but Celestin’s version
refines the dish by sautéing potato gnocchi
with the aji amarillo sauce and mushrooms
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FOOD FILE
A FAVOURITE Ceviche is a winning
Peruvian dish at Toronto’s Celestin Restaurant
($12.50, appetizer). “We open people to
the flavours of Peru in a new, modern way.
Peruvian chefs combine European techniques and ingredients with traditional comfort foods. You’ll see Italian Peruvian and
French Peruvian fusions all the time, and it
works,” says Tarazona.
Both restaurateurs believe travel to South
America and exposure to its vast flavours
has opened a world of gustatory possibilities
for Canadian diners (and, Brazil’s World
Cup fever doesn’t hurt). Castillo adds that
Andean ingredients such as quinoa, purple
corn and amaranth are just being fully discovered by the rest of the world. “There are
so many health benefits that some of our
Peruvian food has and with people being
more health-conscious these days, it’s a natural fit.”
At Browns, Labahn and his team are keeping an eye on Peruvian food trends to see
how they’ll play out. “No matter what level
of service you’re in — casual to high-end —
the amount of attention that well-known,
prominent chefs are giving Peru has trickled
down through the industry and has made us
all look,” he says. The chain offers a spate of
fish and meat tacos with its house-made pico
de gallo and jalapeño lime dressing ($10, two
per order) and quesadillas ($12.95, appetizer) to satisfy Latin food lovers.
Meanwhile, Labahn sees regional
Vietnamese and Thai also gaining attention
on Canadian plates. It’s food he loves for its
balanced sweet, salty, bitter, sour, spicy philosophies. Castillo constantly gets requests
for Colombian and Venezuelan arepas — a
corn masa (cornmeal dough) that can be
stuffed like a sandwich or griddle-cooked
and served alongside anything from steak to
eggs. But Tarazona sees another hot cuisine
on the rise. “The next hot thing — finding
our own Canadian cuisine. It can be First
Nations and creating a Canadian cuisine like
Noma did — that’s something that will be
big throughout Canada.” He adds: “I’d love
to be a part of that movement, because we
take so much time to study everyone else’s
cuisines that we forget about our own.”
Tarazona would like to see more chefs using
products that are purely Canadian with
farmers pushing the envelope and growing
heritage breeds of Canadian produce. For
him, it’s about putting Canada on the map
and celebrating our rich culinary heritage. l
INDEPENDENTS
PHOTOS: COLIN WAY [OX AND ANGELA]; DREW HADLEY [MAISON PUBLIQUE]; MARGARET MULLIGAN [URSA]
GENERATION
THE PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL of major
quick-service chains across the country is omnipresent in our lives, building brand awareness
and customer counts, but what drives the success of small independent restaurants? Different
operating environments set these owners apart,
as they set to carve out their fan base. The pages
that follow offer a glimpse into the kitchens
and offices of three such establishments across
Canada. In Montreal, Maison Publique’s (p. 32)
British gastropub format creates a homegrown
Canadian experience; in Calgary, the renewed
focus on tapas at Ox and Angela Restaurant
(p. 36) is creating an interest in Spanish cooking, and at Toronto’s Ursa (p. 40) unique menu
options are being rejigged with an eye to the
customer’s idea of value. So, what else are these
innovative entrepreneurs doing? Dig in and find
out. — Brianne Binelli
31
INDEPENDENTS
PUBLIC
APPEAL
Maison Publique brings the British gastropub
experience to Montreal, with a Canadian twist
BY REBECCA HARRIS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DREW HADLEY
THE DETAILS
Seat count: 48 to 52 (extra
seats can be added to
the communal table)
Square footage: 1,240 sq. ft.
Restaurant designer: Welcome
Bienvenue, Norwalk, Conn.
(mynameiswelcome.com)
Average number of covers a night:
70 to 90 for dinner; brunch up to 120
Price point: Approximately $75 per
guest. Prices range from $6 to $26
Signature dish:
Beach Angel oyster ($10)
THE STORY OF HOW a Campbell River,
B.C.-raised chef came to open a British-inspired gastropub
in Montreal begins in November 2002, during the lunch
rush at Jamie Oliver’s newly opened Fifteen restaurant in
London, England.
Derek Dammann had arrived in the capital city a month
earlier and was running out of money. Deciding to cut
his trip short, he changed his plane ticket and planned to
spend his remaining funds eating at great restaurants.
Just before his departure date, Dammann was having
a coffee in the upstairs trattoria at Fifteen, since the restaurant was fully booked. “The hostess came upstairs and
said, ‘We just had a no-show if you want the table,’” recalls
INDEPENDENTS
Dammann. “I said, ‘sure.”’
A chat with the server led to a conversation with the sous chef and, to Dammann’s
surprise, the restaurant was hiring. After
reviewing his credentials, the sous chef asked
Dammann when he could do a kitchen trial.
“As soon as I finish my lunch,” he replied.
Dammann was hired as chef de partie
and, after just six months, he was named
chef de cuisine, a position he held for threeand-a-half years. He returned to Canada
when his visa expired — eventually winding up in Montreal — but remained good
friends with Oliver. “He said, ‘If you ever
want help, I know you’re capable of doing
it, and I know cooks have no money. So
if you want help, I’m willing to help you
[open a restaurant],’” recalls Dammann.
After four years helming the kitchen at
Old Montreal’s DNA, Dammann took
Oliver up on his offer and opened Maison
Publique on the Plateau Mont-Royal in
October 2012. Oliver is an investor in the
pub — his first North American restaurant
venture — but Dammann has full control
over the operation and menu. The location,
which sat empty for two years, is located in
Dammann’s neighbourhood. “I’d walk by it a
few times a week walking my dog,” he says. “I
had the idea for the pub [early on] and after
a year-and-a-half, took the plunge.”
French for “public house,” Maison
Publique is modelled after British gastropubs: relaxed pub dining with quality food.
“Ever since I lived in London, I thought a
gastropub is the way to go,” says Dammann.
“It’s casual, you can have fun and just do
good, responsibly sourced food.… And
there’s nothing like it in Montreal.”
Located in a residential area, just slightly
off the beaten path, Maison Publique has
the fixtures of an old English tavern. The
pub features a vast wooden bar, an open
kitchen, tin-tiled ceilings, textured wallpaper
and worn wooden floors. “We built everything new out of wood and distressed it so it
looks like it’s been here for a 100 years,” says
Dammann.
The walls are adorned with random pieces such as a deer head, framed photographs
and old books. “It was an organic process of
cluttering,” says Dammann. “You can’t force
it, it has to come naturally.”
Despite its British influence, you won’t
find fish and chips or bangers and mash
on the menu. Maison Publique serves up
Dammann’s take on Canadian cuisine,
including his signature dish: a single, giant
Beach Angel oyster from Quadra Island, B.C.
($10), which EnRoute magazine describes as
a “showstopper.” The oyster is steamed open,
sliced into three or four pieces and baked
with a sauce of chopped mushrooms, mayonnaise and marmite.
Other dishes include parfait de foie gras
($15), raw B.C. sockeye salmon with heirloom cherry tomatoes and basil ($26) as well
as Welsh rarebit with P.E.I. cheddar ($9).
“Canada is a melting pot of different cultures, so we’re not pigeon-holed into doing
just one cuisine,” says Dammann. “We can
draw from a lot of different cultures to make
Canadian food.”
Maison Publique serves only Canadian
wine and beer and about 95 per cent of the
ingredients in the kitchen are Canadian (salt,
olive oil and lemons are among the exceptions). During the high season, most of the
food is sourced from Quebec. “We do our
own butchery, we have farmers who grow
vegetables just for us, and we have farmers raising pigs and lamb just for us,” says
Dammann. “We don’t deal with any middlemen — we go right to the source.”
Dammann’s culinary philosophy stems
from working with his mentor, Peter Zambri,
at Zambri’s in Victoria, B.C., prior to moving
to the U.K. “He taught me to let the ingredients speak for themselves and take 10 steps
back before you [take one step] forward,” he
recalls. “For example, understand that maybe
you shouldn’t do too much to a really good
Swiss chard.”
Maison Publique opens for dinner at
6 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday and serves
brunch on Saturday and Sunday. No menus
are handed out — the dishes are all listed on
a chalkboard with two tasting menus ($55
and $70). And, if customers aren’t sharing
their food, they’re not doing it right.
Dammann’s vision was to shorten customer wait times by serving dishes meant for
sharing in the order they’re ready. “Just like
in Chinatown, the food comes to the table
when it’s ready,” adds Dammann. “At first
it was a tough sell…. but now [that people
are used to the service style], it’s amazing,
because we sell mostly the sharing meals.”
He adds: “When people share food, their
body language changes. They open up, they
start making eye contact, and the volume
goes up a little more. It’s more fun.”
Like any restaurateur, Dammann’s biggest challenge is dealing with all the moving
parts. “You have ovens, dishwashers, hotwater tanks, freezers and walk-in fridges, all
of which are expensive, all of which break,”
he says. “And when your compressor goes
on your fridge, it never goes at 10:30 in
the morning on a Wednesday… It’s tough.
There’s a lot to do. And if you want to be
consistent and offer the same thing to everybody, you have to be on top of everything.”
But that’s not going to stop Dammann
from growing the operation. “I’d like to
build a cookie cutter of this somewhere
else,” he says. “Maybe do another one or two,
maybe open a fish-and-chip shack. But I told
myself I wasn’t going to think about it too
much until I made it to the two-year point.”
Dammann also has a cookbook coming
out in the spring, which is about his way of
looking at Canadian food. No further details
could be revealed at press time.
There’s no question there’s a big audience
for Dammann’s Canadian gastropub experience. EnRoute named Maison Publique one
of Canada’s best new restaurants in 2013 and
Canadian Living recently named Dammann
one of “10 Canadian chefs you need to know
about.” Dammann’s Twitter feed (@maisonpublique) is full of praise from customers,
who gush, “I almost cried the first time I ate
at [Maison Publique], the food was THAT
tasty!” And “My recent trip to Montreal saw
me check out @maisonpublique — easily
one of the best meals of my life.”
Despite the praise, Dammann is hesitant
to call his concept innovative. “I didn’t reinvent anything. I wanted to do good food out
of a pub and build the kind of place I like
to eat at,” he says. “But there’s a reason pubs
have been around for hundreds of years, and
there’s a reason they’re called a public house.
They’re welcoming places.” l
INDEPENDENTS
HOLY
OLÉ
Calgary’s Ox and
Angela Restaurant
brings Spanish tapas,
Latin libations and a
whole lot of fun to town
BY LINDSAY FORSEY
PHOTOS: COLIN WAY [OPPOSITE PAGE: OWNERS JAYME AND KELLY AND FRAMED WALL. THIS PAGE, TOP RIGHT: CORNER TABLE, FAR RIGHT, MIDDLE, THE BAR]
WHOEVER COINED THE
PHRASE “good things come to those who
THE DETAILS
wait,” probably enjoyed paella. Like soufflé or
risotto, the traditional Spanish dish comes with
about a half-an-hour wait time when ordered
in a restaurant. Build that sort of anticipation
in hungry diners, and you’d better deliver an
authentic, mouthwatering meal. Calgary’s Ox
and Angela Restaurant and Tapas Bar, does
just that.
“People don’t seem to mind waiting for
paella. They just order some tapas to share
in the meantime and socialize,” says Andrew
Moore, executive chef. “The whole vibe of the
food and the restaurant itself is inspired by that
easy-going and fun attitude you find in Spain.”
Ox and Angela’s Paella ($36, serves two to three
people) is made-to-order using traditional
bomba rice, thought by Spanish chefs to be the
90 with the patio in summer
Seat count: 75 people;
Restaurant designer: Kasey
Sterling, Calgary’s Korr Design Inc.
Average number of covers:
200 per day
2013 sales: Specific sales are
undisclosed, but 2013 sales saw
an approximately 50-per-cent
increase over the previous year
Price point: Approximately $50
per guest for dinner with
food and wine. Prices range from
$4 for nibbles to $67 for steak
Signature dish: Potatas Bravas
($7.50) and Paella
($36, serves two to three)
37
INDEPENDENTS
ideal grain for the dish since it can absorb
plenty of liquid without getting soggy; it
translates to big flavour. In this rendition,
chicken and Spanish chorizo mingle with
garlic, onion, peppers, tomatoes, beans and
rice, cooked down on the grill in a housemade stock. “We finish the dish in the oven
to give it a nice crust called the socarrat,”
Moore says, explaining that the crunchy
layer on the bottom and around the edge of
the pan is considered the best part among
paella aficionados.
Jayme MacFayden and Kelly Black, Ox
and Angela co-owners, opened the restaurant in August 2011, along with former
co-owner and chef, Stephen Smee, following
the success of their other neighbourhood
establishment, Una Pizza & Wine. (Smee
sold his share in the business in 2014.) The
restaurants are situated a block apart along
busy 17th Avenue, in the epicentre of the
city’s shopping and entertainment district.
“We don’t take reservations at Una, and we
always have a long wait list, even during the
week,” MacFayden says. “Our original idea
was to open a cocktail bar nearby where
people could go while they waited for a
table, but the space we found was too big for
that, so we decided to open another restaurant.” Opening costs were $440,000, including the purchase of the lease and assets from
the previous tenant.
From the street, passersby are drawn in
by Ox and Angela’s energy, with its convivial atmosphere and large bar. Inside, two
distinct spaces — one bright and windowfilled, the other darker, with wood accents
— inspired the restaurant’s name. “At first
we were going to call it The Ox, tying into
Spanish culture and the running of the bulls,
which worked for the more masculine side
of the restaurant, but we needed a female
counterpart,” MacFayden says. A Google
search for the word “ox” turned up a photograph of a couple named Ox and Angela,
and the moniker was born. “It was important for us to create a space people feel comfortable in,” she says. “It’s our mandate to be
very welcoming. There are no rules about
having dinner. You can come in for drinks
or dessert, make reservations or walk in, it’s
casual and fun.”
While the restaurant itself has remained
more or less unchanged since opening, the
menu has been reinvented. In its first incar-
nation, Ox and Angela was a Latin American
restaurant, inspired by fabulous iconic
cocktails such as the margarita, the mojito
and sangria. “We wanted to do something
the city hadn’t seen, but we were spanning a
huge [number] of countries, from Mexico to
Argentina,” MacFayden says. “The concept
was hard to convey to our staff and even
harder to convey to guests. It was a disaster.”
Una’s good reputation kept Ox and
Angela busy at first, but, six months after
opening, the crowds began to trickle off. “It
was evident we had missed the mark,” says
co-owner Black. “We had to check our egos
and admit that our great idea wasn’t working.” The Una menu was heavily influenced
by Spanish cooking, so the agile restaurateurs recreated their new venture as a tapas
joint. The response was immediate. “The
minute we changed the concept and focused
the food, people started talking, and Calgary
is the kind of city where word of mouth
means everything,” says Black. As a testament to the savvy owners’ ability to adapt
quickly, sales have nearly tripled since 2011,
although exact sales figures have not been
disclosed.
“Many operators will cling to their pride
to make something work, but Kelly and
Jayme found another way to make their idea
resonate with people,” says Justin Leboe,
owner and executive chef of Calgary’s
acclaimed Model Milk restaurant, also located on 17th Avenue. “I ate at Ox and Angela
recently, and the food is better than ever. It’s
been interesting to watch that evolution,”
he says. Leboe praises the menu for its balance of masculine and feminine dishes — its
focus on both meat and vegetables as star
ingredients, for example — and raves about
the Za’atar Fried Chicken ($15) with harissa
dip and kale chips.
“The food has really hit its stride, but the
restaurant’s strength lies in the whole package,” says the Model Milk chef. “The level of
service and attention to detail is a reflection
of their commitment and passion. They
aren’t just offering food but a rich experience, with a great room and an incredibly
well thought out beverage program. They’re
doing things that are unique, not just in
Calgary, but in Canada.”
Along with quaffable cocktails, such as El
Mojito ($13) made with spiced rum, mint,
brown sugar, white grapes, passion fruit and
muddled lime; and the Cava Sofia ($12) a
blend of pisco (South American brandy),
lemon juice, pear purée, Dibon cava and East
India solera sherry float, the beverage program showcases vermouth, with 11 choices
on offer ($4 to $15 for one ounce), a selection of 10 different sherries ($6 to $18.50
for two ounces), and, as an ode to Spain’s
current gin-and-tonic craze, 13 types of gin
($6.50 to $40 for one ounce).
“In Spain, there are bars dedicated to gin
and tonic,” explains MacFayden, who travelled this summer with Black and Moore
to the country that inspires their busy
restaurant. Moore was keen to explore his
culinary muse. “We visited Barcelona and
San Sebastian and got to see two different
versions of Spanish food,” he says, noting the
regional variations in cuisine. “It was great
to experience first-hand the places where
our dishes originate from.” The trio ate tapas
in both cities, gobbling up Ox and Angela
favourites, such as Patatas Bravas ($7.50),
which Moore describes as a turbo-charged
hash brown, made with baby potatoes, which
have been roasted, crushed and fried, then
tossed in a spicy-sweet tomato sauce and
topped with aioli and green onions.
“Eating tapas is entertaining and
approachable,” MacFayden says. “When
everything is shared, it breaks down barriers.
It forces people to get to know one another
and have conversations about more than just
the weather.” MacFayden, Black and Moore
are having just as much fun as their customers these days. The restaurant recently partnered with local urban farming company
Leaf Ninjas to transform a neighbouring
4,000-sq.-ft. piece of property into an edible
garden and, this month, MacFayden and
Black are opening a 65-seat taqueria (taco
shop) in Calgary called Native Tongues.
Three years after opening, the restaurant and
its owners have found their groove. Good
things take time, after all. l
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INDEPENDENTS
DARE TO BE
DIFFERENT
Ursa’s business plan continually evolves
while a unique food philosophy wins the
Toronto restaurant critical acclaim
BY LAURA PRATT
“GOOD COMMON SENSE, a good
mother and a good grandmother” — and not eccentric
and esoteric nutritional training — provided the foundation for brothers Lucas and Jacob Sharkey Pearce’s
unique restaurant, Ursa. The eatery, which has operated
from digs on Toronto’s hip Queen West since early 2012,
is celebrated for its experimental cuisine, which has been
hailed on best-of lists in EnRoute and Toronto Life
magazines, among others.
The concept, says Jacob, came about in response to
questions that were plaguing the siblings with regard to
food systems and restaurants. “We didn’t like that you
couldn’t go to a restaurant and have someone explain
the real purposes behind the choices they’d made and
THE DETAILS
Seat count: inside: 60; outside: 22
Restaurant Designer: Maris Mazulis, a
designer/photographer friend of the owners,
Lucas and Jacob Sharkey Pearce,
who were also involved in the design
Average number of covers: In the busy season,
Ursa could have 80 to 100 covers
Price Point: $75 five-course, $90 seven-course
and $105 nine-course tasting menus
Signature dish: homemade tofu
(high $20s to mid $30s as a main,
$14 as an appetizer)
PHOTOS: MARGARET MULLIGAN [JACOB SHARKEY PEARCE, OPPOSITE PAGE TOP LEFT]
INDEPENDENTS
the function and nutrition of the food they
served,” he said.
And so, drawing deeply from a stint
designing raw-food diets for pro athletes, the
brothers Sharkey Pearce opened a restaurant
that spotlights the link between the food you
put into your body and what you get out of
it. The result is a menu that has a healthfood influence, with such nutritionally rich
oddities as stinging-nettle spaghetti, sunflower milk and wild foraged greens ($17).
And, although the nutrition company the
siblings started (Two Brothers) still lives in
the background at Ursa, the older brother
is taking the lead on projects involving the
development of a food lab to showcase the
restaurant’s proven capacity to operate as a
commercial purveyor of functional foods.
Lucas, Two Brothers’ creative director, is also
overseeing Ursa’s participation in Culinaria,
a joint New York University/University of
Toronto program applying a multidisciplinary approach to food security, urban
agriculture, nutrition and cultural sensitivity, and developing the Salt Springs Seed
Sanctuary of Canada, an initiative to cultivate a seed bank on the West Coast.
Back at the restaurant, the majority of the
menu — which changes regularly — is based
on vegetables and grains, although meat has
its place, too. Since January, Ursa’s co-owner
and executive chef, Jacob, has personally
slaughtered all the four-legged animals
served on his plates. It is, he says, “One
more step in understanding the process.”
The first was hard, he admits. On the second,
he cried. And by the third, he says, “It just
made sense.”
But Jacob focuses his energy on vegetarian fare. And, in anticipation of a time when
there will be less access to “four-legged
animals” as a primary source of food, Ursa’s
menu spotlights protein alternatives.
In meat’s place, Jacob proposes insects
and mealworms, and he has taken on the
formidable task of indoctrinating the population to their palatability. “It’s uncomfortable how delicious they are,” enthuses the
32-year-old, who has a childhood memory
of sitting in front of his grandparents’ house
eating ants. “[They taste] like toasted nuts. If
you don’t like them, just close your eyes. You
have to take away the yuck factor.” It’s no
mean feat, concedes the man invited to cook
“future food proteins” at this year’s Mad
(the Danish word for “food”) symposium in
Copenhagen, Denmark.
Jacob has executed his unique food philosophy with an eyes-open appreciation
to the risks. “The first years were great,” he
says. Lucas adds: “We have guests coming in
from Sweden, Paris and London, and chefs
love it, but we’ve struggled for traction with
the local crowd. Toronto sometimes needs a
simple answer. Spaghetti. Tacos.”
But Jacob, who has worked at Toronto’s
Windsor Arms Hotel, Thuet Bistro and
Centro, says he’s found his calling. His experience with athletes trained him on causeand-effect eating. To witness the points
NBA players achieved after consuming highperformance foods compared to when they
were on long road trips, “eating like shit,”
was an awakening. “We all react like this. We
just don’t pay attention,” he explains.
It’s why much of the menu at Ursa —
named for a constellation, which resembles
a soup ladle, and because Jacob’s childhood
nickname was Bear cub, another name for
the Ursa Minor constellation — is conceived
with the food’s function in mind. Is it antiinflammatory? Does it have enough good
bacteria? Is the dairy probiotic? Is the turmeric a medicinal grade? Is the fibre in the
raw bread prebiotic? Are the dishes served in
an order that capitalizes on how the digestive tract absorbs them? Think root vegetable tartare with cocoa, house-made white
miso and shiso ($15), and walnut foie with
sprouted ancient grains, escarole, high bush
cranberry and orange ($27).
If you ate at the restaurant regularly
“You’d be like LeBron James,” says Jacob.
Although he admits he hasn’t done enough
to inform the public about what to expect at
his special restaurant before welcoming them
into it. “The average person comes here and
expects an eight-ounce steak. They want to
know, ‘Why are you serving me kombucha
[a lightly effervescent fermented drink of
sweetened black tea]?’” he says.
So, although Ursa is primarily a spot for
special occasions, Jacob is planning a menu
shakeup to make the restaurant more accessible. “I’ve been told that our level of cuisine
is either suited for a $400 tasting menu to
make it sustainable for us and to give it the
cachet it needs to succeed, or to become a
little cheaper. So we’re doing both.” That
means opening up the $75 five-course, $90
seven-course and $105 nine-course tasting menus, which Jacob concedes are above
most folks’ price range, as à-la-carte options,
so now guests will be able to order a single
plate and a drink and spend just $25. It
might also mean serving exclusive offerings
from a dining room add-on to the fledgling
food-development lab under cultivation on
the restaurant’s second floor.
Either way, Jacob pitches forward,
although he’s aware of the toll it takes to run
a restaurant like Ursa. “I have worn myself
down,” he confesses. “You put so much
energy into every detail of this.” The “details”
include picking fish up personally from fishermen in Georgian Bay, Ont., and soy beans
from a Mennonite farmer near Orangeville,
Ont., making soy milk from scratch and
maintaining a garden and insect farm on the
restaurant’s upper level. Travelling that far
into your own supply chain, Lucas guesses,
adds about 200 hours a week to a restaurant’s operation.
It’s worth it, believes Terry Kobayashi. It’s
why he left his executive sous-chef post at
Momofuku this past spring to join buddy
Jacob as an Ursa partner. “We do things that
nobody else does, almost 100 per cent of the
time, anywhere,” he says.
“[You couldn’t guess] the number of
times I’ve been told that it’s going to be a
long, hard fight,” sighs Jacob. “But it needs to
happen. It needs to be demonstrated that a
small business can function under these constraints. I figured out a way to do that; I have
a model. Now I just need to make a little bit
of noise and get people’s attention.”
And, he’s got “a bunch of things”
planned to attract diners, including launching Monday dinners in the fall with the
Canadian Chefs’ Congress and Michael
Stadtländer to raise awareness for issues —
such as the news that pesticides are killing
Ontario’s bees — but also to bring people
through the doors. That’s the ticket. l
THE CANADIAN HOSPITALITY FOUNDATION BALL CELEBRATES THE PSYCHEDELIC 60s
Purchase your
table & tickets at
www.thechf.ca
Black Tie or
Groovy Attire
PLATINUM LEVEL SPONSORS
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CANADIAN HOSPITALITY FOUNDATION 300 Adelaide Street East, #339, Toronto, ON M5A 1N1
Telephone 416.363.3401 Fax 416.363.3403 Email chf@theohi.ca www.thechf.ca
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MEDIA
COMMUNITY SPIRIT
GIFT
IN KIND
Successful restaurant
owners are committed
to the communities
in which they operate
BY BRIANNE BINELLI
GIVING BACK
The Topper’s Pizza
team contributes
time and money to
various events and
promotions, including
the SickKids hospital
Halloween Parade,
Slices, in support of
breast cancer, and the
“Men-In-Red-Heels”
fundraiser for a local
women’s shelter.
In Vancouver, the
Hawksworth Young
Chef Scholarship
offers opportunities for
young toques
D
o unto others as you’d have
them do unto you.” That’s the
Golden Rule many children learn
growing up, and it’s a maxim an
increasing number of successful business people are now applying to their
operating budgets.
It’s an important step in a jaded world
where consumers don’t seem to trust the ethos
of leading corporations. In fact, 61 per cent of
respondents to the U.S.- and Denmark-based
Reputation Institute’s “2014 Global RepTrak
100” report are “neutral” or “not sure” if companies are good corporate citizens that support
good causes and protect the environment. This
is according to the Forbes-published study that
measures the reputation of 100 well-regarded
companies across 15 countries, including
Canada.
45
THE 26 ANNUAL
PINNACLE AWARDS
th
26
WHERE THE INDUSTRY COMES TOGETHER TO CELEBRATE EXCELLENCE
Last year, more than 500 industry executives came
together in December to celebrate excellence.
This year, on Dec. 5, at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal
York Hotel, Rosanna Caira and the KML team will
host the 26th Annual Pinnacle Awards, bringing
together leaders from a wide spectrum of sectors
in the foodservice and hospitality industry to celebrate
achievement. Awards will be presented in five categories for Foodservice and Hospitality including
(Company of the Year, Western Canada; Company
of the year, Eastern Canada; Independent Restaurateur;
Chef of the Year; and Supplier of the Year) and four
categories for Hotelier (Company of the Year,
National and Regional; Hotelier of the Year; and
Supplier of the Year). Additionally, KML will also
be presenting the newly minted “Rosanna Caira
Lifetime Achievement Award” to a shining industry
luminary.
HOSTED BY
Rosanna Caira
Kostuch Media Limited
Michael Bonacini
O&B Restaurants
DEC. 5, 2014
THE FAIRMONT
ROYAL YORK
RECEPTION AT 11:00
FOLLOWED BY LUNCH AND AWARDS
PRESENTATION
COMMUNITY SPIRIT
DESIGNING CHANGE
In some cases community outreach is
the crux of a business. Such is the case
for Chris Klugman, owner and executive
chef of Paintbox Catering and Bistro Inc.,
a restaurant, catering and entertainment
venue in Toronto’s Regent Park. Here
disadvantaged residents are hired with
the help of the government and employment agencies to staff Paintbox. Klugman
explains the concept: “[Paintbox] was
born of a plan for a business with a social
mission of training and career development for marginalized individuals.” Today,
the 167-seat restaurant and for-profit
certified B(enefit) Corporation — which
meets higher standards of social, environmental performance, transparency
and accountability — has its roadblocks.
“The biggest challenge has been retraining management staff; most are unable
to work within a new model, with routine
paradigms changed,” he explains. “The
business operates with limited management staff.” It’s a work in progress, but
Klugman hopes to define the concept as
a profitable and equitable B Corporation
of the future.
“Companies are facing major risks by not
telling their story,” says Kasper Ulf Nielsen,
executive partner, Reputation Institute, talking about corporate social responsibility
(CSR). “The mix of social media and critical
consumers is toxic, so companies need to get
their good stories out there as a buffer to the
negative claims.”
And customers are interested in socially
responsible businesses. In fact, results from
the “2013 Cone Communications/Echo
Global CSR Study,” produced by Boston’s
Cone Communications and the global Echo
Research company, show Canadians are
engaged in charitable work, and even if they
don’t assert their passions, they want companies to follow their lead. So, business leaders
need to get involved in their communities in
a clear and consistent manner.
Examples of such philanthropic endeavors are plentiful. Coffee behemoth Oakville,
Ont.-based Tim Hortons raised almost $12
million through fundraising activities this
year to send thousands of kids to camp;
Richmond, B.C.-based Boston Pizza has
donated millions to youth-focused charities, and community outreach is key at the
Oakville, Ont.-based Works Gourmet Burger
Bistro. “In today’s world where corporate
responsibility is often nothing more than a
line item or a budgetary item, which isn’t
taken very seriously, it’s something that’s
part of our DNA,” Bruce Miller, chief marketing & development officer for the burger
chain told F&H in 2012.
Community outreach remains integral
to a company’s success. “The more boxes a
restaurant can tick off ... the more likely they
can expand their base of customers,” affirms
Kernaghan Webb, a Ryerson University professor and director of the Ryerson Institute
for the Study of CSR in Toronto.
That’s the business case, but community outreach is indeed about more than a
company’s Excel spreadsheet. “We’re fortunate [that] our customers reward us with
their business, and we want to reward the
community back with some involvement
and support,” explains Keith Toppazzini,
president and COO, of Barrie, Ont.-based
Topper’s Pizza, which has raised $120,000 for
Toronto’s SickKids Foundation since 2012
and supports food banks, women’s shelters,
hockey teams and more on a store level.
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COMMUNITY SPIRIT
WHAT ARE ONTARIO’S TOP
SOMM’S COOLING OFF
WITH THIS SEASON?
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DID
YOU
KNOW?
Promoting community
outreach doesn’t have to
be expensive, says Mark
Wessell, principal of
Bullpen PR, who worked
with Topper’s Pizza executives on its company
plan. “Most companies
devote more time and
FEEDING THE SOUL Chives Canadian Bistro’s Craig Flinn (third
from right) and a team of chefs gather to contribute to the Slow
Food Spring Supper
effort promoting their
causes by leveraging
social media and other
cost-effective means,”
he notes, adding that
“That’s how the world should work, and
[it’s how] you become a good neighbour,”
he adds.
Of course, it doesn’t always start out
that way. “Initially there was somewhat
of a pragmatic reason for wanting to get
involved in the community,” admits Craig
Flinn, owner and chef, Chives Canadian
Bistro and 2 Doors Down Food + Wine in
Halifax. “It was a way for us to — for lack
of a better term — advertise that we wanted
to be an active member of the community
[and to] bring people through the door.”
But, Flinn quickly realized there were
many other benefits. “We stand for something now, and I’m very proud of that, and
I’m very proud of what we’ve done along
the way to help organizations,” says the
entrepreneur.
These days, Chives contributes $30,000
to $60,000 a year to charitable causes, and
that number will only grow as its one-yearyoung, casual sister, 2 Doors Down Food
+ Wine, builds roots in the community.
Topper’s promotes
SickKids on the landing
page of its website.
From working on the provincial organizing committee of the 2012 Canadian Chefs’
Congress in Nova Scotia to co-chairing the
Taste of Nova Scotia Board and contributing food, time and/or money to fundraisers
for Easter Seals (and soon Mealshare), Flinn
gives generously.
The challenge is deciding which organizations to support. Ryerson’s Webb
suggests leaders consider how they’d like
their brands to be perceived and create an
approach to giving that reflects the company and its customers. “No business should
be spending money in the community if
they can’t see how it aligns with their values,” he says.
Topper’s has defined its charitable demographic. “We naturally seem to be working
with children and younger adults,” explains
GETTING INVOLVED Topper’s Pizza (and the Toppazzini family) supports various Canadian Cancer
Society Relay-for-Life races throughout Ontario. This year, the chain has donated more than 500 pizzas
as well as pizza coupons for more than 3,000 participants
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COMMUNITY SPIRIT
SOUND BITE
Chef David Hawksworth’s Young
Chef Scholarship competition is
expected to air sometime this year on
Vancouver’s Telus Optik network as
part of a special five-part series. The
competition, which had Western and
Eastern heats this year, is judged by
elite chefs, such as Lynn Crawford,
Connie DeSousa, Normand Laprise,
Justin Leboe, Mark McEwan, Michael
Noble and Anna Olson.
the COO. “They’re a focused customer for
us. They pretty much make the decision in
the family on what they’re going to eat, so
it only makes sense that if they’re going to
support us, we need to support them.”
In fact, the pizza chain, with 35 units in
Ontario, centralized its community work
further by choosing to spotlight SickKids.
“We wanted the whole chain to focus on
a charitable organization so that we could
make a greater impact,” says Toppazzini,
who stresses that community giving on
the franchisee level is still encouraged.
Among other programs, the company also
has a “Raising Dough,” fundraising plan
that facilitates the collection of an average
of $7,000 per year for local organizations
through the sales of discounted company
gift cards.
In Halifax, Flinn often focuses on foodbased charities, but with an average of three
to six requests for charitable causes per
week, he doesn’t always have the time or
money to donate; instead he often alternates
his support between the bigger charities
from year to year.
David Hawksworth has a similar focus
and strategy at Hawksworth Restaurant
in Vancouver. He was inspired to encourage development of his peers while living
in Europe 10 years ago, and, last year, the
Hawksworth Young Chef Scholarship was
born. “Being a chef, it’s a low-paying job,
you work long hours, and this is a good
way of inspiring young people and hoping they can get something out of this,” he
says of the program, which offers a stage
and $10,000 to the winning cook. But the
toque’s charitable donations don’t end with
his eponymous scholarship program. In
fact, the restaurant has contributed to more
than 300 charities in the past year, especially
youth-based organizations such as B.C.
Children’s Hospital and Vancouver’s CKNW
Orphans’ Fund.
And, although many companies have
limited resources, there’s always something a fledgling restaurateur can do to get
involved. Hawksworth encourages potential
contributors to find something “meaningful,” while Flinn suggests chefs and foodservice operators give their time by sitting on
Boards or thinking creatively. “Sometimes
the meal for 25 that we donate to one of the
houses in town here is a cost of less than
$10 in ingredients — two pounds of mussels, milk and potatoes, and you’ve got mussel chowder with bread,” offers the chef. “It
hasn’t cost anything other than the cost of
the ingredients, a little bit of time, and the
reward is huge.”
When it comes to the bottom line, most
foodservice proprietors see the bigger picture. “We don’t track the return on charity,
simply because it’s just the right thing to do.
It’s like keeping track of a favour, you just
don’t do it,” says Toppazzini.
Flinn, who’s been leading a well-known
business for 13 years, agrees: “For a business to really survive ... you have to be an
active member of your community, and
you need to support one another.” For him
quiet acknowledgment is enough. “That’s
sometimes all I need to sleep really well,” he
confides. l
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POURING FOR PROFITS
CAFFEINE
FIENDS
AS OPERATORS
DUKE IT OUT IN
THE BATTLE FOR
CUSTOMER LOYALTY
IN THE TEA AND
COFFEE MARKET,
THE REAL BENEFACTOR
IS THE CONSUMER
PHOTOS: DREAMSTIME.COM
BY JENNIFER FEBBRARO
The maple leaf on our Canadian
flag could easily be swapped
with a coffee cup silhouette,
since Canadians are so passionate about their ‘cuppa Joe.’ In
fact, according to the Torontobased Coffee Association of
Canada, our nation ranks
second only to Italy in terms
of cups consumed outside of
the home. “Great coffee is so
accessible these days that it
just becomes a habit for the
consumer to purchase it,”
explains Sandy McAlpine, president of the Coffee Association
of Canada. He adds: “Canada
has proportionally more coffeefocused outlets per capita
than the U.S.”
53
POURING FOR PROFITS
Whether it’s the unbearably
long winters or the need for
a quick caffeine fix, Canadian
consumers love to grab coffee
on the go, and they don’t mind
the occasional bump in price.
The Chicago-based research firm
Technomic’s 2014 Consumer
Trend report shows that the
average cup of coffee rose from
$2.55 in 2012 to $2.77 in 2014,
with nearly every other caffeinated drink — from teas to
frozen or espresso-based coffees
— also jumping in price by
approximately 20 cents.
The NPD Group approximates the number of coffees
consumed at foodservice operations to just about two-billion
cups a year. “Canadians drink
about two coffees per day on
average,” says Robert Carter,
executive director of the NPD
Group, based in Toronto. “That
breaks down to about 67 per
cent of people brewing their
java at home and 37 per cent
buying their coffee at cafés or
restaurants.”
So, home brewers have
become the coffee industry’s
next target audience. The
popularity of single-cup brewing machines, an increasingly
common wedding or graduation
gift, has consumers searching for familiar brands in the
supermarket aisles. This has led
foodservice operators such as
Tim Hortons and Starbucks to
market retail product lines. And
McDonald’s isn’t too far behind.
Tea consumption remains
consistently lower at just under
500-million cups. In 2013, the
NPD Group estimated that $415
million was spent on hot tea
servings. However, large chains
such as Starbucks and Tim
Hortons are banking on that
number to rise in the near future
given a recent ‘long-range’ consumer report commissioned by
Ottawa-based Agriculture and
Agri-Food Canada on Canadian
Food Trends. It states that tea
consumption is expected to
jump by 40 per cent by 2020.
Researchers attribute cresting
tea sales to consumer interest
in health and wellness and their
awareness of the benefits of various herbal fusions, particularly
green tea, which has cleansing
properties and purported healing benefits.
In the fight for every last customer, tea drinkers simply cannot be ignored. Nor should they
X
be — as the NPD Group’s Carter
notes that tea drinkers would
rather simply have water than a
substandard cup of tea. Perhaps,
that’s why so many tea lovers opt
to brew at home and to purchase
their tea at stand-alone specialty
shops such as Quebec-based
Davids Tea or Teavana (most
recently acquired by Starbucks).
Teavana outlets are springing
up everywhere, allowing for
cross-branding opportunities for
Starbucks.
As operators diversify their
coffee and tea menus, Canadian
consumers are reaping the
benefits. Not only are their palates evolving with the premium
quality of product offered,
but consumers are becoming
increasingly educated about
their beverages in general. In
turn, they are making even
greater demands on operators
and their suppliers. There’s
been a huge push, for example,
to offer free-trade coffees and
teas that are not only affordable
but also ethically harvested and
sustainably grown. For example,
Tim Hortons and Starbucks
promote economically, socially
and environmentally responsible
coffee sourcing.
In an already saturated marketplace, it’s crucial that operators pay attention to trends or
risk losing business. While customer loyalty remains durable,
it’s easily lured astray by the
newest, most authentic or free
coffee just around the corner.
TEALICIOUS
Tea purchases have been inching
up a few per cent per year. The
Toronto-based Tea Association
Coffee • Espresso • Cappuccino
1-877-Go-Latte (465-2883)
Bean to Cup
Coffee
on
Demand
Schaerer Coffee Press
Single Cup
or
Urn Batch
Brewing
Supramatic Inc.
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of Canada has gauged the
growth from 2013 to 2014 to
be approximately four per cent.
This makes tea the fastestgrowing beverage category and
the fifth most popular drink,
according to the association.
And while the Tea Association
cites Earl Grey to be the most
commonly ordered black tea
in the foodservice industry, a
recent 52-week study by Nielsen
Research, which concluded in
early 2014, shows green tea
accounts for one quarter of total
tea consumption in Canada.
In May, Tim Hortons took
the beverage to a new level by
creating a Frozen Green Tea
and Raspberry Frozen Green
Tea. “This is our first frozen-tea
beverage in Canada,” enthuses
Dave McKay, VP, Beverages, Tim
Hortons. “We know Canadians
love our frozen beverages, so this
offers them a new twist on a flavour they know and love.”
According to Nielsen Research
and the Tea Association of
Canada, specialty teas are driving the market, outselling regular teas by almost 30 per cent.
That’s why café and restaurant
operators can no longer afford
to make tea an afterthought to
their focused and extensive coffee product development and
marketing. As Canada witnesses
more immigration from places
such as Southeast Asia, India,
China and the Middle East,
where tea is a more popular
drink than coffee, operators
must ensure a selection of teas is
on the menu.
Immigration plays a huge role
in the demographics of the tea
market. In January, Starbucks
released a special, limited-time
tea latte in celebration of the
Chinese Year of the Horse; it was
only available in China, Toronto
and Vancouver since each of
those cities has dense Chinese
TEA TRENDS
With coffee being the
constant forerunner in sales,
tea often gets overlooked. Here
are some easy tips to boost tea
sales, as noted on the Torontobased Tea Association of
Canada’s website, tea.ca.
Go Sample Crazy: Offer guests
a sip of new blends and/or bring
in a qualified “tea sommelier”
(Yes, they exist!).
Cross-Merchandise Displays:
Combine specialty teas, coffees
and treats by country of origin
— say Kenya, India or China.
This may lure buyers into
multiple purchases.
Get Loose: Customers love the
visual effect of a transparent or
mesh teabag. Let them touch,
feel and smell the product. Tea
is meant to be sensual.
populations. The Blossoming
Peach Tea Latte combined an
aromatic, energizing blend of
Earl Grey and peach flavour,
which was inspired by a popular domestic tea developed in
Starbucks cafés in China.
Whipped cream and peach blos-
POURING FOR PROFITS
som sugar crystals gave the tea
a dramatic, almost dessert-like
presentation.
Starbucks’ expansion into
the tea market shouldn’t come
as a surprise. Its Chai Latte is
a top-five seller in Canada and
competes well alongside espresso-based specialty beverages. By
purchasing Teavana for a cool
$620 million in 2012, Starbucks
has further established its commitment to the tea market.
“We plan to do for tea what we
have done for coffee
through our Teavana
expansion,”
explains Carly
Suppa, senior communications manager at Starbucks
Coffee Canada, “especially with the launch
of our Teavana Oprah
Chai and most recently this
summer, Teavana Shaken Iced
Teas.” The seasonal hand-shaken
drinks were available in five
varieties, including Iced Green
Tea with mint, lemongrass and
lemon verbena. Suppa notes that
Starbucks took Teavana from 59
points of distribution in Canada
— which mostly existed within
malls in cities such as Toronto,
Vancouver and Montreal — to
nearly 1,400 points of distribution in Starbucks companyowned and licensed stores across
the country.
Looking to the future,
Starbucks will offer a Teavanacurated, loose-leaf tea selection for a more enhanced tea
experience. Combined with
the already-popular Tazo tea at
Starbucks, the company hopes
to ‘infuse’ the marketplace and
become the epicentre of
specialty teas. Executives
also hope to challenge
some of the share taken
by the aforementioned
Davids Tea, a business
with quirky tea flavours
that has garnered a large
following. A tea named “Movie
Night,” for example, combines
apple pieces, maple and popcorn
and the Halloween-themed
“Stormy Night” blends coconut, vanilla and chocolate. If
the popularity of Davids Tea’s
unusual brews proves anything,
it’s that there’s no limit to how
creative the beverage industry
can get.
THE BEAN SUPREMACY
Thinking of pursuing that
whimsical dream of opening a
small café? Well, beware your
competition. While Canadian
consumers can’t seem to get
enough java, big players such
as Tim Hortons, Starbucks and
McDonald’s make it all too easy
to avoid the small neighbourhood cafés.
And all brands are feeling the
crunch. May 2014’s Canadian
Business magazine featured
an interview with Marc Caira,
president and CEO of Tim
Hortons, in which he acknowledged the stiff competition in
the coffee industry. When asked
57
X
BEAN THERE,
DONE THAT
Sick of the standard Arabic
blend? Here’s a list of new
2013/2014 flavours from a
few popular quick-service
restaurants.
Orange Julius: The Moolatte
blends mocha, caramel,
cappuccino and French
Vanilla flavours to make a
cool frozen favourite.
Starbucks: New to the menu
is the Iced Caffe Americano,
the frozen Hazelnut
Frappuccino and the frozen
Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino.
Timothy’s World Coffee:
A twist on the standard latte,
the French Vanilla Lattebene
sweetens this old favourite.
which competing operator made
him nervous, Caira answered
“Nervous is not a good quality
in this job. The word I would
use is ‘respect,’ and there are a
number of competitors I really
respect. I respect McDonald’s
very, very much; a fantastic global brand.” But with more than
80 per cent of its restaurants in
Canada and 90 per cent of its
sales derived from the Canadian
marketplace, Tim Hortons’ global expansion remains second to
its commitment to the Canadian
customer.
As Canada’s biggest quickserve restaurant chain, the
company reports a leading
market share of 27 per cent in
customer dollars and 42 per cent
in customer traffic. To maintain
steady growth and innovation,
Tim Hortons has developed an
Food is our passion.
People our most valuable asset.
Trust our currency.
“innovation council” and lab
space to test new products, store
formats and marketing campaigns. Despite its impressive
3,600 Canadian locations, 859
U.S. outlets and 38 stand-alone
restaurants in the Persian Gulf,
Caira says there’s always opportunities for expansion and has
set a goal of opening at least 500
to 600 new Canadian restaurants in the next five years. He
also speaks to more small-scale
outlets such as kiosks. With the
introduction of Tim TV and
the new Double Double CIBC
Visa cards, the company has
expanded Tim Hortons’ culture
by merging it with technological
innovation.
Susan Bates, owner and
operator of the Toronto-based
Coffee Tree Roastery, admits
that small-business owners
must pay attention to the larger
competition. “McDonald’s, like
Starbucks, is a market leader,
and we should all pay attention
to what choices they make,”
says Bates. “It trickles down and
affects us all eventually, so pay
close attention.” She doesn’t disparage the coffee and retail wars,
but, rather, says it encourages
operators to step up to the plate
and offer the best product and
menu possible. “Ultimately, it’s
innovation and smarts that will
decide who remains a key player
down the line,” she says. “In the
end, it’s the consumer who wins
by getting a proliferation of
menu choices and a great consistent product.”
Take McDonald’s strategy of giving away free coffee.
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POURING FOR PROFITS
SINGLE SHOTS
SINCE APRIL 2009,
MCDONALD’S
HAS GIVEN AWAY
113-MILLION CUPS
OF COFFEE
despite McDonald’s coffee sales
tripling, its numbers didn’t come
close to encroaching on Tim
Hortons’ 77-per-cent market
share. But, the customer still
wins as the company continues
pouring for free. Since April
2009, McDonald’s has given
away 113-million cups of coffee.
Single-serve brewing systems are
both innovative and disruptive
to the coffee market. On the one
hand, they allow customers to
experience name brand coffee
with just the push of a button;
on the other hand, the single
cups sell for less than an in-store
purchase and could threaten instore sales. According to a 2013
study by Nielsen Research, the
Canadian single-serve market
accounts for 22 per cent of the
total roast and ground retail
sales dollars. And that continues
to grow in the double-digits
annually.
For this reason, companies
such as Tim Hortons, Starbucks
and Second Cup have expanded
into the K-cup market — as
well as the pods, cartridges and
other modes of packaging neces-
sary for at-home,
brewing-specific
technologies.
The Coffee
Association
of Canada’s
McAlpine says
the brand extension phenomenon
is a positive one. “Single-serve
products offer a unique savings opportunity for the consumer, but also benefit retailers,”
explains McAlpine.“The brands
get the benefit of being on grocery store shelves, so they get to
take on a new marketplace. But
the consumer also gets the coffee they desire, at a lower price
per cup.”
Though McDonald’s coffee
has not yet arrived on Canadian
supermarket retail shelves, an
April 2014 article in Business
Insider revealed that McCafé
bagged coffee is on trial in
U.S. supermarkets. The company is also testing single-serve
cups. Unlike other operators,
McDonald’s seeks to garner a cut
of the $3.1-billion single-servepod market in the U.S.
Warm, chilled, frozen or
frothed, coffee and tea flavours
are being reborn in every imaginable format. And it’s a marketplace that continues to reinvent
itself over and over again. l
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EQUIPMENT
LESS IS MORE
With labour, energy and space at a premium, today’s
operators are making smarter equipment choices
BY DENISE DEVEAU
W
hen it comes
to the bigticket kitchen
items, it’s all about
achieving more with
less. From fine-dining
and quick-service establishments to commissaries and convention
centres, equipment
buyers are looking to
save labour, energy and/
or space.
More and more, the
solution is to purchase
multi-function combiovens and kettles or
compact blast chillers
that speed production. And, monitoring
equipment performance
and temperature with
Bluetooth technology is
becoming increasingly
popular as safety and
energy usage concerns
become increasingly
important.
“People are looking for things that will
reduce their general
overhead. But it’s not
always about the cheapest. You have to look at
the long-term benefits,”
says Gary Lummis,
president at the Lummis
& Co. foodservice consultancy in Fredericton.
Bernard Casavant,
a chef and culinary
manager for Okanagan
College’s Culinary Arts
program in Kelowna,
B.C. agrees. “The equipment items that operators are really trying
to budget for are those
that enable less bodies
to do the same amount
of the work and deliver
consistent product,” he
affirms.
COMBI POWER
PREVAILS
THE EQUIPMENT
SHUFFLE Today’s
foodservice equipment purchasers are
looking to save space
and adhere to healthcode requirements
with machines such
as Irinox blast chillers
(far left), American
Panel’s HurriChill
line (above middle)
and Manitowoc’s
Convotherm gas unit
(above, right)
Casavant believes combi-ovens are the number-1 trend in foodservice equipment. “More
and more restaurants
are buying combi-ovens
as the price comes down
and they become more
user-friendly,” he says.
Okanagan College’s
61
EQUIPMENT
new six-tray ovens from
Germany-based Rational
(approximately $13,000
to $15,000 apiece) not
only grill, roast, fry, bake,
retherm and smoke, they
also offer the latest in
communication technologies. “They’re constantly
changing the computer
boards and upgrading them
in response to customer
demand,” Casavant says.
“The cumbersome part
of older models was that
banquet chefs had to leave
the machine to bring up the
information they needed.
Now it’s done on the
machine’s screen. And, with
the average student being so
computer savvy, they have
no fear of this technology.”
Lummis & Co.’s
Lummis also considers
combi-ovens to be the biggest contributor to kitchen
efficiency, since they can
replace five or six machines.
“You can even use them
to cook french fries. The
Convotherm [from U.S.based Manitowoc], for
example, has a feature
that combines steam, heat,
convection and crisping.
It’s hard to tell the differ-
ence from deep-fried,” says
Lummis.
When the team at the
Metro Toronto Convention
Centre (MTCC) purchased
12 Rational roll-in combis
at $45,000 each, it freed up
space and increased efficiency, says Richard Willett,
VP, Food and Beverage.
The machines were part of
a $6-million overhaul of
MTCC’s kitchen operations
in the summer of 2013. “We
didn’t have room to grow,
but we put technology into
play that helped use the
space better,” he says.
Combis were an ideal
choice to replace conventional ovens at MTCC.
“Not only were they
the best choice in
terms of the volume
of business we do,
but they [also] have a
[self-cleaning feature],
which saves labour.
And we can do so
much more. We’re
looking at smoking
with them as well. The
sky’s the limit,” says
Willett.
The ovens can also
be programmed in
multiple languages.
SPACE SAVERS
The Metro Toronto
Convention Centre
culinary team uses
12 Rational combiovens to save
space and increase
efficiencies in its
kitchen (below)
“We have up to 13 languages in the kitchen, so that
feature will come in handy,”
the VP explains. “We can
also record information on
client preferences and save
them until the next time, so
we can prepare things the
exact same way.”
EQUIPMENT
QSR GETS ON BOARD
It’s not just back-of-the-house equipment that’s capturing operator attention. The latest innovations in the quick-service
restaurant (QSR) world are in the front of the house, says Rob Fussey, senior director of Concept Innovation for Vancouverbased A&W Food Services of Canada Inc. “Digital menu boards and self-ordering kiosks are coming to the forefront. Their
time has come,” he says. Leveraging these technologies can create many in-house efficiencies. “You can communicate
offerings in a much less static way and ensure you’re filling orders correctly, which drives up the average check. I would say
you get your ROI within two to three years,” Fussey says. “For our industry, the focus is always on the need for speed and
customer convenience.”
PREP TIME
At large-scale operations,
puchasing decisions are
largely focused on equipment that allows cooks
to prep large quantities
of food ahead of time,
while saving on labour,
time and costs, says Luc
Bedard, former president
of Mississauga, Ont.based R.E.D. Canada
- Restaurant Equipment
Distributors of Canada
Ltd. “A lot are using
combi-ovens in combination with blast chillers to
prepare, chill and plate
food,” he explains.
Blast chillers not only
offer energy efficiency
and space savings, but
they are a must given
stringent health-code
requirements for advance
meal-prep activities.
“You’re not really compliant with HAACP if
you’re sticking cooked
food in the refrigerator,”
Lummis explains. “Blastchilling is becoming
almost mandatory for
advanced meal preparation, because you can
program it and set hold
temperatures. Several
manufacturers are doing
a decent job in this area,
including American
Panel and Traulsen.”
MTCC purchased two
Italian-made blast chillers from Irinox that are
large enough to accommodate roll-in racks.
The price per chiller is
approximately $120,000.
EQUIPMENT
TIME SAVER The Rational SelfCookingCenter 5 Senses
saves time with an iCookingControl function that learns
cooking preferences, among other functions
Introducing the New
Intelli Kitchen Master!
“It’s a huge space-saving
option, because we’re not
having sauces sitting out
in bain-maries [water
baths],” Willett says.
Blast chillers aren’t
just a necessity for
larger facilities. At the
newly opened Boulevard
Kitchen & Oyster Bar in
Vancouver, a HurriChill
blast chiller from Ocala,
Fla.-based American
Panel sits in the prep
hall and saves space and
labour, while eliminating the need for multiple
sinks, says Alex Chen,
chef at the Oyster Bar.
“The best part is food is
always at the proper temperature.”
Steam kettles with
chilling functions are
Are you cooking
SousVide yet
A NEW FIT
Chris Mills had to re-think his equipment choices while
preparing to open the Local Public Eatery concept with
a limited menu and smaller footprint than its sister chain,
Joey Restaurants. “Because the kitchens are smaller we
focus on just two to three quality items,” explains the executive chef. A central piece is the high-end, space-saving
double-copper-cored stainless finished grill from U.K.based Quest. It’s a step up from standard or water-steam
generated models. Depending on its size, each machine
costs between $12,000 and $16,000 (with three per location). Output is further optimized with Quest fryers that can
generate the highest BTUs at an average cost of $2,600.
“We looked at others, like Vulcan and Henny Penny, which
offered the digital and self-filtering features, but we would
have had to give up space or output,” explains Mills. The
most novel and biggest space and energy-saver is the
infrared broiler. The advantage with infrared is that every
square inch of the surface is usable, whereas conventional
gas radiant broilers have hot spots, the chef explains.
The broilers, from Baltimore-based Vulcan, cost between
$7,000 and $9,000, depending on their size. Mills admits
the demands of a smaller space require innovative thinking. “Joey’s [locations] are much more complicated, but
we have been able to draw what we have learned there to
come up with the equipment for Local.”
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66
M A S T E R the E L E M E N T S
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EQUIPMENT
also gaining popularity
at large-scale commissary
operations, says Lummis.
Some kettle models from
Cleveland, Ohio-based
Cleveland and Chicagobased Groen will cook,
then rapidly chill product
in the kettles via a chilled
water circuit in the jacket. Built-in agitators and
automatic tilt features
are not only convenient
but also help to improve
worker safety, because
the contents don’t have
to be stirred and the tilting function replaces the
need for lifting.
The kettles are also
increasingly being used
in healthcare facilities
and prisons where larger
quantities of foods can
be prepped, cooked,
chilled and packaged to
reduce on-site cooking
needs. “Making large
amounts of food and
freezing it ahead of time
means you only have to
cook two to four days a
week. Nursinghome staff, for
example, can
simply retherm
meals [using
rapid-cook
equipment] on
the floors. It’s a
big cost-savings,”
says Bedard.
WASH
‘N’ WARE
On the warewashing side,
expect to see
more lowtemperature
machines that
have less environmental
impact and use
less chemicals,
Okanagan
College’s
Casavant says.
“Footprints are
much better
now. They used
to be big threetray machines.
Now there are
a lot of corner
and single-rack
machines that
are very quick,”
he says. Where
space and
budget allows,
heat-recovery
[is] becoming
an increasingly
important feature.
Kitchen space
was reclaimed at
MTCC with the installation of an ergonomically friendly warewashing system — from
Burlington, Ont.-based
Halton Food Equipment
— which captures heat;
it’s complemented by a
turbo washer for pots
and pans from LVO
Manufacturing, Inc.
in Rock Rapids, Iowa.
“The turbo washer alone
shrunk our pot-washing
area in half,” Willett says.
Technology is creating
interesting synergies. For
example, operators are
investing in temperaturemonitoring systems for
coolers and freezers that
managers can access
remotely. “Some systems
will even ring a service
person if the temperature varies by five or 10
degrees,” Bedard notes.
“It’s mostly used by larger operations, like Tim
Hortons or St-Hubert,
because the cost of a mishap would be very high.”
USB ports and
Bluetooth offer operator
advantages, too. At the
MTCC, major appliances
are Bluetooth-enabled,
which means management can check the
performance at any time,
from any location. “The
industry is moving in a
different direction from
a health-and-safety and
risk-management perspective,” MTCC’s Willett
says, referring to more
stringent rules regarding
holding temperatures
and reporting requirements. “The capacity to
extract data quickly on
an as-needed basis is
essential.” l
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71
CHEF’S CORNER
SPICE
OF LIFE
Wing Li presents a modern
twist on authentic favourites
at Toronto’s Linda Modern Thai
BY JACKIE SLOAT-SPENCER
T
include the Tom Yung Garden Salad, featuring cheddar cheese (usually avoided in the hot Thai climate), topped with croutons and
tomato-based tom yum dressing ($7); a local whole Rainbow Trout
En Papillote (baked in parchment) with salted lime, minced pork and
long bean ($22); sweet Pandan Custard Cakes served with dulce de
leche ($8); and signature cocktails.
And although innovation comprises the backbone of the operation, Linda Modern Thai was the first in Canada to receive a Thai
Select Premium designation as part of a program introduced by
Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce. It recognizes restaurants with
authentic Thai food, preparation methods and ingredients.
“Chef Li has a lot of tricks up his sleeve,” explains Alan Liu, GM of
Linda Modern Thai. “One of chef Li’s fortes, and you’ll find it with a
lot of ‘old-school’ chefs, is they know how to get the most out of the
[ingredient], whether it’s through the equipment or cooking skill.”
But, there’s more to Li than guests might notice at Linda. When he’s
not whipping up street eats at Thai food festivals or surfing the net for
new ideas, the 57-year-old can be found mentoring culinary students,
demonstrating the most efficient preparation methods — such as
tossing ingredients in a wok using his pinky finger — and cultivating
the next wave of chefs. “I’ve [been working] a long, long time, but I
never stop upgrading,” he says. “I teach people. When I teach others,
I [improve] myself.” l

If you weren’t a chef,
what would you be?
“An artist, a painter”
Best culinary city:
Panyu district in
Guangzhou,
Guangdong,
China

Favourite kitchen tool: “The
cleaver.” Wing Li uses it to
dice vegetables and cut
ingredients into thin slices

BITS & BITES
Favourite dining spot:
Li is severely allergic to
MSG, so when he’s not
preparing food at Linda
Modern Thai, he prefers
to cook at home
PHOTOS: MARGARET MULLIGAN [WING LI], DREAMSTIME.COM [BITS & BITES]
hanks to chefs like Wing Li, Thai food doesn’t have to be
merely “cheap and cheerful.” Since landing at Toronto’s Linda
Modern Thai a decade ago, the Hong Kong-born toque has
ushered in an upscale iteration of the ethnic cuisine. It’s based on a
culinary style that stems from a passion born in the chef ’s hometown
of Kowloon in the ’60s, where, as a child, he would dine on simple,
rustic Chiu Chow fish ball soup with his neighbours.
At 21, intent on entering the culinary world, he took a job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. “I [was] thinking I cannot waste my time
[at culinary] school — there [is] no money,” he says, recalling how
he’d wake up early every morning to wash dishes and wait until the
chef was in a good mood for a culinary lesson. By 1981, Li had worked
under various mentors in China, so he moved to join his grandmother
who was living in Toronto’s Chinatown neighbourhood.
But Li soon realized he wasn’t content to settle down in Hogtown.
He travelled across the globe, taking a stint at the Four Seasons Hotel
in Cyprus before landing at Lai Wah Heen inside the Metropolitan
Hotel in Toronto.
In 2005, Li met the Liu family, owners of Toronto-based Salad
King and Linda Modern Thai, and soon after he became executive
chef of their Modern Thai concept. Located inside the trendy Shops
at Don Mills plaza, the 80-seat restaurant melds Chinese, Indian
and Malaysian culinary influences with a Canadian twist. Specialties

breaking the mould - Foodservice and Hospitality Magazine

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