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Tales from the dish pit Dishwasher Fernando Camacho. Photo by A.A. Scott McClellan.
FOOD MATTERS: Restaurants and sustainable systems
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A day in the
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From grower to plate, ARN takes a look at some of the faces and places along the supply chain process.
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By Jonathan Zettel, assistant editor ST. JOHN’S—An online interactive documentary takes a look at the lives of 10 Newfoundland and Labrador dishwashers. Bubble Dancers, a Mad Mummer Media production, was filmed in St. John’s and released online through the National Film Board’s interactive platform on June 21. “Dishwashers often come from all walks of life and have very interesting stories beyond the mundane duties of their job,” Mad Mummer Media cofounder Mark Hoffe told ARN.
“Restaurant chefs always get the glory and the servers always get the tips, so it was time to shine the spotlight on the dish pit.” Hoffe also acted as creative director and writer. Annette Clarke and Nicholas Klassen of the NFB and Brad Gover, co-founder of Mad Mummer Media, were producers for the project. The project also received support from the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation. “Brad Gover and I both worked in the restaurant industry and began as dishwashers before moving up the
Tim Hortons unveils future concept store TORONTO—Tim Hortons unveiled a full-scale concept store at a company convention in mid-July at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. According to the Canadian Press, the concept store was set up to allow suppliers and franchise partners to imagine what could someday be possible at a local Tim Hortons. Some of the more striking ideas included coffee-flavoured beer on tap, a unisex washroom and a completely redesigned brand logo featuring a bright red coffee bean. The concept store also featured digital interfaces on the table, which would allow customers to order their food and have it delivered. A staff
mixologist would create smoothies and health drinks to order and a variety of omelettes, crepes, cupcakes and poutine pretzels could also find their way onto shelves in the future. The unveiling also showcased upgrades to the company’s Timmy Me application for smartphones. According to CP, the app will remember the users’ names and favourite food items, which could potentially reduce wait times. A grab-and-go section of the Restaurant of the Future would allow customers in a rush to grab from a selection of sandwiches, salads and hot food items. Continued on page 10
kitchen hierarchy to become cooks,” said Hoffe. The interactive framing allows users to choose which dishwasher they want to see. “It’s kind of degrading, really, because usually people will come in and throw crap down and expect you to do everything,” Sean Issac Harris told filmmakers about his job as a dishwasher. The film also features John Hines, Matthew Malone, Tony Johnson, Leslie Wagner, Ashley Dunn, Fernando Camacho, Pete Löfstedt, Cyril Hynes and Kayode Arowolo.
Tim Hortons’ future concept.
“I think there’s a general belief that dishwashers are unmotivated, uneducated individuals, but as Bubble Dancers proves, that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Hoffe said. “It’s not like we hand-picked the people to profile. They were the first 10 people to say yes.” Hoffe said dishwashers play a pivotal role in the restaurant: “Who wants to eat off a dirty plate or receive a fork caked in yesterday’s brunch egg yolk?” To see the film visit: bubbledancers.nfb. ca
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Canada’s minimum wages set to increase October. Newfoundland and Labrador last saw a minimum wage increase in 2010 to $10. In October, the province’s rate will increase to $10.25 with another 25-cent hike the following year. In the Yukon, minimum wage increased from $10.54 to $10.72 this year. In 2012, the territory saw two bumps, bringing the minimum wage to $9.27 and then $10.30. Minimum wage in Nunavut, British Columbia, New Brunswick and Northwest Territories will hold at $11, $10.25, $10 and $10, respectively. Minimum wage rates in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut have not changed since 2011. The last increase in B.C. was in May 2012 from $9.50 to $10.25. In New Brunswick, minimum wage has not moved since April 2012, when it saw a 50-cent hike. A lower minimum wage exists in some provinces for liquor servers or employees who usually receive gratuities: Alberta ($9.20), B.C. ($9), Ontario ($9.55) and Quebec ($8.90).
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Provincial minimum wage at year’s end in 2011 and 2014
TORONTO—Minimum wage has increased or is set to rise in nearly every Canadian province this year. In Alberta, it will increase to $10.20 on Sept. 1 following annual hikes since 2012. On Oct. 1, Saskatchewan and Manitoba’s wage will increase to $10.20 and $10.70 respectively. The most recent rise in Saskatchewan was in 2012 from $9.50 to $10. Manitoba saw wages increase in 2012 and 2013 to $10.25 and then $10.45. In Ontario, minimum wage increased in June to $11. The previous rise was in 2010 to
$10.25. Quebec’s minimum wage workers saw an increase to their base rate in May to $10.35. In la belle province, hourly wages increased in 2012 to $9.90 and in 2013 to $10.15. Nova Scotia saw its minimum wage increase by 10 cents to $10.40. It has seen slight raises for more than three consecutive years, increasing from $10 to $10.15 in 2012 and to $10.30 in 2013. Prince Edward Island will incur two increases this year. In June, minimum wage increased from $10 to $10.20 and will be set at $10.35 in
New StatsCan study According to Statistics Canada, the average national minimum wage amounted to $10.14 in 2013. In a study released on July 16 entitled The ups and downs of minimum wage, 1975 to 2013, analysts looked at “real minimum wage” over the years by translating the average of provincial wages over the time period into 2013 dollars to
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account for inflation and allow for comparison. According to the data, real minimum wage was “almost identical” last year and in 1975 at $10.13, but it varied within the time period. The real minimum wage declined to $7.53 in 1986 and increased to $8.81 in 1996. Up until 2003, it remained stable at about $8.50. Since then, real minimum wage has increase by almost $2, from $8.27. Last year, the proportion of Canadian workers earning minimum wage was 6.7 per cent, up from five per cent in 1997. According to StatsCan, the increased proportion—which mostly occurred between 2003 and 2010—was to some degree a result of increases in minimum wage rates in many provinces. According to StatsCan, 17 per cent of employees in the retail trade and 27 per cent of those in the accommodations and foodservice sector were paid the minimum wage rate in 2013. These sectors accounted for more than 60 per cent of those earning minimum wage in Canada. The proportion of employees paid at minimum wage varied by province in 2013, led by Prince Edward Island (9.3 per cent) and Ontario (8.9 per cent). Alberta had the lowest rate at 1.8 per cent.
Dalvay chef makes the switch to historic P.E.I. property By Colleen Isherwood, senior contributing editor DALVAY BY THE SEA, PEI—It’s been a big shift coming from the 197-room Hilton Saint John to a small, historic lodge with 33 rooms, but four months into the job, chef Allan Chapman is enjoying his work. “At Hilton, we had the capabilities to prepare food for up to 1,100 people in our banquet facility,” he said. Chapman added a 150-person banquet is the most the Dalvay kitchen could handle comfortably. “At Hilton, I was limited to what I was able to do in the kitchen as far as cooking. At Dalvay, I can participate in the everyday prep and
Chef Chapman
the actual cooking of meals for our guests.” Built as a summer home in the 1890s, Dalvay by the Sea is a national historic site in Prince Edward National Park. It has been operated as an inn for the past 40 or 50 years. Television viewers might remember it as the White Sands Hotel in the 1990s series, Road to Avonlea. Prince William and his wife Kate also visited the hotel on their tour of Canada in 2011. Chapman, who started at Dalvay in late March, has 31 years of experience and has worked in seven provinces at properties including the Chateau Bromont in Quebec. “There has been lots to do to get things in order and planned for the season, including
Chef Chapman’s revamped menu includes a lobster, scallop and shrimp dish.
menus and re-organizing and changing the layout of the kitchen for faster service,” he said. One of the best things about working at Dalvay is access to locally grown products. “Our local purveyors are fantastic,” said Chapman. “It is great to see the passion these folks have in growing their products. BlueField Natural Products supplies us with our beef products and Cranbush Farms will supply us with produce once it is available to us. Our seafood is often just hours out of the water and is supplied by MR Seafood. And the Cheese Lady supplies us with a variety of Gouda cheeses that are just incredible to work with. I feel I have the freshest of fresh products to work with, which makes it that much
Dalvay dining room.
more fun to create different dishes. Thank you P.E.I.”
Menu changes The MacMillan Room, the dining room at Dalvay, seats 85 people. It is a room with a rounded side that gives everyone a view of the grounds and Dalvay Lake. Chapman said he has rewritten all of the menus to showcase his repertoire of dishes, but he has kept a few Dalvay classics. One is the sticky date pudding. “I once said, ‘that sticky date has to go.’ Jaws dropped faster than ants on a Smartie. Then I just started chuckling and walked away.” Dalvay is open from late May until the end of September. During the winter months, Chapman has other projects with Dalvay owner D.P. Murphy Inc. He will return to Dalvay in the spring. One of the benefits of the job is “watching our team learn and become a small family. They are energetic and passionate about our vision for guest service and satisfaction and just plain great people. “My team are young folks who have gone to or will return to culinary school in September,” said Chapman. Sous chef Dylan Baird and demi-chef Hailey Byrne are returning team members and graduates of Charlottetown culinary programs.
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kitchen managers and processors, talking to the unsung heroes that may not make headlines of magazines about food, but are crucial to its delivery. Like many of us, their day starts before they even get into the office, checking smartphones and tablets to put out fires before setting foot in the door. Keeping a 9-to-5 schedule is a shared impossibility for many of our interviewees, as well as an expanding job description that encompasses doing more with less. And yet, thriving on the pressure and unpredictability of the job is a highlight for some of the people we talked to; whether it’s coordinating 15 departments before the lunch rush or ensuring no detail gets overlooked in a 1,000-cover day. Regardless of whether they’re new at their job or have worked in their roles for over three decades, all of them demonstrated an enthusiasm and care for their work that shows in every word. And since no one knows what today’s job may look like in the future, perhaps that is the most essential career skill of all.
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Editorial Director Leslie Wu ext. 227 lwu@canadianrestaurantnews.com Senior Contributing Editor Colleen Isherwood ext. 231 cisherwood@canadianrestaurantnews.com Assistant Editor Jonathan Zettel ext. 226 jzettel@canadianrestaurantnews.com Assistant Editor, Digital Content Kristen Smith ext. 238 ksmith@canadianrestaurantnews.com Senior Account Manager Debbie McGilvray ext. 233 dmcgilvray@canadianrestaurantnews.com Account Manager Kim Kerr ext. 229 kkerr@canadianrestaurantnews.com Production Stephanie Giammarco ext. 0 sgiammarco@canadianrestaurantnews.com Circulation Manager Don Trimm ext. 228 dtrimm@canadianrestaurantnews.com Controller Tammy Turgeon ext. 237 tammy@canadianrestaurantnews.com
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n the race to the bottom line, a chain in the U.S. has created a new role designed solely for profit. Noodles & Co. is experimenting with “upsell waiters”; floaters whose goal is to boost the average check. “The server will stop at guests’ tables when they’re nearly done with their meal, ask if they’d like to order anything else, and bring the extra items to the table—no gratuity required,” according to Bloomberg Businessweek. As chefs become brand managers, maîtred’s shift to “experience co-ordinators” and roles combine and transmute in new ways, thinking about what we do and how we do it is becoming increasingly important. A decade ago, social media managers would have been deemed ludicrous for a large-scale restaurant, let alone a small independent. Yet
today, they are vital to the marketing strategies of some tech-savvy eateries. Although attention has moved to the back of house in recent years in the rush to spotlight the chef, many silent and supporting roles go unnoticed but are essential elements of the dining experience. Consumers may not appreciate the multitude of steps that it takes to get an item to their plate—even as they become more attuned to the farm-to-table cycle—but should any of those stages get interrupted, they would definitely notice an item’s absence as the entire process grinds to a halt. This month, we take a look at some of those silent but essential figures along the supply chain process in “A Day in the Life” (page 7). Using a simple loaf of bread as an example, we follow a path through the daily routines of
Leslie Wu, Editorial director
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MONCTON, NB—A 17-year-old entrepreneur has helped open New Brunswick’s first bitcoin machine inside a Freshii location in downtown Moncton. “I’d love to see other businesses in Moncton say, ‘Hey, we want to accept [them] too, [it] could be cool,” Raphael Paulin-Daigle, chief executive officer of DucatFlow told the CBC. DucatFlow helps companies who want to buy or sell using bitcoins. Bitcoins are an unregulated digital currency introduced in 2009 as an alternative payment system to paper currencies. Bitcoin machines allow users to exchange currency for cash. The value of a bitcoin has recently been trading around the US$600 range.
Ray’s returns DARTMOUTH, NS—Ray’s Lebanese Cuisine has reopened in Dartmouth, NS, after closing in downtown Halifax to make way for a $3million makeover of the food court complex that had been home for 31 years, the Chronicle Herald reported. “It’s been very busy,” owner Ray Khattar told the Chronicle Herald. “We have pretty much the same menu, but we have lots of space and places for people to sit and enjoy their meals.” An online petition received 5,700 signatures after word circulated that Ray’s Lebanese and A Taste of India would have to vacate their long-held positions in the food court.
MTY makes acquisitions MONTREAL—The MTY Food Group Inc. announced in early July it had acquired Café Dépôt, Sushi Man, Muffin Plus and Fabrika concepts. The company also gained two buildings in the $14.8-million deal. The deal includes 102 stores in operation, 90 of which are franchised and 12 corporatelyowned. All of the stores except for one are in the province of Quebec and produced $42 million in sales in 2013. “We expect that the 102 stores will be a good fit with MTY’s existing network,” Stanley Ma, chief executive officer of MTY, said in a
a nd
statement. “The combination of those strong brands with MTY’s expertise will create exciting synergies.”
TouchBistro adds PayPal NEW YORK—TouchBistro has announced the integration of PayPal with its mobile point of sale system. Customers will be able to use a PayPal app on their smartphones to purchase products from businesses that use TouchBistro without having to ask the server for the bill or wait for transactions to process. “There are two pain points that we have identified in the dining experience—ordering and paying—and we are now solving both with the use of mobile technology,” Alex Barrotti, chief executive officer and founder of TouchBistro said in a release. “Restaurants that are using TouchBistro POS solutions across North America and have a PayPal account can immediately enable and begin using the integrated Pay at Table service.” According to a release, the first restaurant to use the new technology was Boëhmer in Toronto.
Denny’s blasts into retrogaming VANCOUVER—Denny’s has released three iOS and Android mobile titles based on classic arcade games. Hashteroids lets smartphone users blast hash browns from a ketchup bottle and is based on the classic Atari game Astroids. As a take on Atari’s Centipede, users shoot ketchup at eggs in Centipup and in Denny’s game Take-out, based on arcade classic Breakout, users bounce a ball off a plate, smashing through bacon and eggs.
Bautista boosters juice TORONTO—Toronto Blue Jays’ all-star player José Bautista is looking to hit a home run in the foodservice industry. Booster Juice handed over the keys to a location at 2420 Bloor St. W. to the Major League Baseball player. “I love Toronto and I love Booster Juice, so to have my own store right here in the city that has been so good to me is a natural fit,” Bautista, who has been part of the company’s promotion for some time, said in a statement. “I look forward to getting to know my new
Bit e s
neighbours in Bloor West Village and I hope everyone will swing by for a smoothie!” In celebration of the takeover, the company donated all sales from June 30 to the Bautista Family Education Fund, with a goal of $10,000.
Quiznos’ financial restructuring complete DENVER, CO—Quick service restaurant chain Quiznos announced that the company had completed its financial restructuring and emerged from Chapter 11 on July 1. Quiznos chief executive officer Stuart K. Mathis said the restructuring “marks a new chapter for our company.” He noted the company appreciated the support of its franchisees, employees and vendors throughout the process. “With our financial restructuring behind us, we now have a stronger foundation to execute our comprehensive plan to strengthen performance, revitalize the Quiznos brand and reinforce its promise as a fresh, high-quality and great-tasting alternative to traditional fast food offerings,” Mathis said in a statement. The chain filed for bankruptcy protection in March and agreed on a restructuring plan to reduce debt by more than $400 million. Quiznos has about 400 restaurants in Canada, with all but three owned and operated by franchisees. According to a Quinzos spokesperson, none of the Canadian operations were included in the financial restructuring process.
Pita Pit opens 500th KINGSTON, ON—Pita Pit celebrated the opening of its 500th store in late June at 7925 McLeod Rd. in Niagara Falls, ON. “We’ve come a long way since our first opening in Ontario almost 20 years ago,” Pita Pit founder Nelson Lang said in a statement. “We’ve experienced outstanding growth in the past few years, and I am extremely excited about the opening of our 500th store worldwide.” Multi-unit owners Alan and Rana Matukaitis, who joined the brand in 2012 and have two other locations in St. Catharines, ON, operate the 500th unit.
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BY S . P E L L E G R I N O
Meet Chef Grant van Gameren, the culinary pioneer and driving force behind Toronto’s Bar Isabel, named as Canada’s Best New Restaurant in 2014. We asked him to reveal his sources for inspiration and ingredients, and tell us what’s on his radar for the future. CAPTURE THE ESSENCE O F W H AT ’S H A P P E N I N G IN THE CANADIAN C U L I N A R Y S C E N E.
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Orphans cooking with orphans. In Toronto, the people opening restaurants now are in their late 20s, early 30s who haven’t been slugging it out in a brigade-style kitchen for years like the founding fathers. There’s a generation of us rebellious teenagers just opening up restaurants, hiring our friends and taking risks. Hopefully, these young chefs grow into the leaders of Canada’s modern culinary movement. HOW DO CULINARY T R E N D S I M PA C T YO U R MENU?
I’m too busy to concern myself with trends. Evolution is made, not speculated. If there’s anything I’m into, it’s about finding something new. Maybe not something new to the world, but new to me. That’s my food trend. W H AT I S I N S P I R I N G YO U RIGHT NOW?
Gooseneck barnacles-pre-historiclooking crustacean creatures, super tasty. Only in season for about a month. When I sourced some, I was so excited that I posted a photo on
Instagram. 48 hours later there was an article about how these are the “next new thing.” ASIDE FROM THE F O O D , W H AT M A K E S A G R E AT R E S TA U R A N T EXPERIENCE?
Everything you put on the table matters. The details can dramatically elevate the dining experience—like a good quality napkin, artisanal bread or a bottle of S.Pellegrino. Even the bottle itself is beautiful; it’s like a bottle of wine. Water is the first thing served at the table and the last thing that remains. So it only makes sense that the kind of water you serve is considered. If you think about it, filtered water or tap water—it’s only as good as its source. GIVE US A HINT ABOUT
GRANT VA N GA M E R E N
W H AT ’S O N T H E H O R I Z O N F O R YO U ?
I’m excited about a new venture I’m working on inspired by the Pintxo bars of San Sebastian. It’s a completely different way of eating, very social and a new style for Toronto. It’s food-at-your-ownpace that takes traditional tapas to a whole new level.
“E V E RY T H I N G YO U P U T O N T H AT TA B L E M AT T E R S . T H E D E TA I L S C A N D R A M A T I C A L LY E L E VA T E T H E D I N I N G EXPERIENCE, LIKE A GOOD QUALITY NAPKIN, ARTISANAL BREAD OR A BOT TLE OF S.PELLEGRINO.”
For more inspiration visit
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Rime’s with restaurant LUNENBURG, NS—A newly opened eatery is paying homage to local food and culture with a poetic name and menu. Rime Restaurant Bar and Grill was opened on May 31 at 9 King St. in Lunenburg, NS, with a menu divided into poetic sections including prologue, intervals and opus. “We’re just trying to pay as much attention to Lunenburg’s culture as we could,” chef and owner Jeffrey MacNeil told ARN. The name, he said, comes from the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, using the line “The guests are met, the feast is set: mayst hear the merry din,”
Chef and owner Jeffrey MacNeil.
as a company tagline. According to MacNeil, the 75-seat, threelevel space is “like stepping into a little piece of heaven.” The menu includes seafood chowder with scallops, shrimp, haddock, mussels and bacon; grilled duck breast with duck confit, carrots, white bean purée and juniper gastrique; and beef tenderloin with a shallot purée, sautéed greens, red wine reduction, tomato confit and fries tossed in aged cheddar. For dessert, the menu includes vanilla cheesecake and lemon curd, chocolate and red wine ganache torte. “We’ve definitely stepped into an area where people know their food and know what they like and they’ve got a really good grasp on what the value of the food should be,” MacNeil said. According to MacNeil, he received a lot of support from mentors and investors Karen and Mark Gabrieau of Gabrieau’s Bistro in Antigonish, NS. When MacNeil was 14, he worked for the couple as a dishwasher and climbed the ranks, eventually honing his trade in Toronto and Australia. He attributes the restaurant’s extensive international wine list to the Gabrieaus and several local selections will also be available. “No one can ignore the up-and-coming wine region of Nova Scotia, and we’re proud to promote from a few different wineries,” MacNeil said. “I think it comes from treating the terroirs as truly as possible and it’s nice to see Nova Scotia going that way.” The bar will also sell local craft beer from Garrison Brewing Co. and Propeller Brewery in Halifax. 9 King St. Lunenburg, NS, (902) 640-3112 Rimerestaurant.ca. @RimeRestaurant.
AT L A N T I C R E S TAU R A N T N E W S
Interior of the Appleseed Modern Diner.
Diner opens alongside amusement centre NEW GLASGOW, NS—The Appleseed Modern Diner has opened alongside an amusement centre in hopes of establishing a familyfriendly dining destination in New Glasgow, NS. Appleseed owner David Cohen said the restaurant takes up 3,000 square feet of the 8,000-square-foot building at 33 MacGregor Ave., just off the Trans-Canada Highway. “It’s a one-stop shop of family amusement and family dining in the same building,” Cohen told ARN. “We’re a restaurant, but we’re also a destination.” The restaurant opened on July 18 in a new building also housing Sparkles Family Fun Centre. Cohen said the nearby Pictou County Wellness Centre will also draw people to the business. Cohen—who comes from a sales and marketing background—said the menu is a twist on traditional diner food with many of the items being made fresh-to-order and locally sourced.
The décor of the 80-seat restaurant includes green-apple coloured booths, a traditional lunch counter and a checkered floor. The menu offers a variety of burgers made from local beef ground in-house and toppings including home-style chili, grilled apples, grilled crab cake and an over-easy egg, all served with hand-cut curly fries, soup of the day or a garden salad. Appleseed also sells an assortment of sandwiches and salads alongside milkshakes, floats, house-made sodas, espresso-based beverages, several dessert options and a kids’ menu. According to Cohen, the restaurant will also serve several Nova Scotian wines and craft beers including nearby Uncle Leo’s. “Our most important customer is the locals; we feel there’s a need and a demand,” Cohen said. “We don’t want to be a flash in the pan.” 33 MacGregor Ave., New Glasgow, NS. (902) 616-7333 @appleseeddiner
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Day in the Life:
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From plate to grower, Atlantic Restaurant News follows the path of a loaf of bread through the supply chain, taking a look at some essential people along the way. By ARN staff
1. Equipment Manufacturer
2. KITCHEN MANAGER
1. EQUIPMENT MAN UFACTURER
Corporate chef and product development manager Rational corporate chef and Fredrik Rasmusproduct development manager son has been with Fredrik Rasmusson. Rational for five team years, starting with the of more company at its headquarthan 100 ters in Germany and moving to restaurant certihis role in North America in Februfied chefs who carry out the ary 2013. Originally from Sweden, where he did minimum four hours of training included his culinary training, Rasmusson moved to with the sale of each piece of equipment. Rasmusson says restaurants are taking Germany in 2001 and worked in two and baking bread very seriously for which Rathree Michelin-starred restaurants. After completing food and beverage tional has incorporated a new baking secmanagement training, he took a position tion in the May release of SelfCookingCentre 5 Senses. at Rational. The redeveloped baking application Rasmusson starts each day by responding to client queries. “That’s always my first was the result of baking a vast number of priority, to get the customer the answers goods from scratch in a recently created they need so I can help them through the bakery section of the food laboratory in Germany. day,” he says. Part of Rasmusson’s team is in GermaRasmusson says training is one of the most important aspects of his job, which ny and they test all the cooking processes applies to new customers, but also to a before a new product is released. “We have the final word to say ‘well, this is the way team of internal sales staff. “I make sure that they have the best the chef would like it’,” he says. Rasmusson’s job involves a fair bit of possible knowledge about our equipment; so I visit them in Canada, I visit them here administrative work—it’s not just cookin the U.S. and we have training a couple of ing and testing food, but also documenting and writing reports, he says. times a year,” he says. “I think the amount of work that Rasmusson gets support from Guerin Sykes, Canadian corporate executive chef doesn’t have to do with any cooking would be a little bit surprising for most people,” and key accounts manager. Rasmusson also manages and trains a he says.
Jay Arumuganathan, a kitchen manager at The Pickle Barrel, spends his day overseeing a high volume output at the chain’s location at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue in Toronto. Arumuganathan started out his career as a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant, working his way up through prep and cook positions. Before his move to management, he was a line cook at two Pickle Barrel locations. “Since I know the line, I didn’t need that training when I moved to the kitchen manager position,” he says. “Instead, I took a month-long training course for the kitchen which involved ordering, scheduling, portion and cost control, labour and food costs, purchasing prep and inventory control.” Arumuganathan starts each day with a quick walk around with his team. “I ask about opening and closing, how they’re feeling and if there are any issues,” he says. Part of
Arumuganathan’s duties also include a taste and temperature checks to ensure products are up to par. Items such as bread will be received and go to the different lines in the restaurant, such as challah and English muffins to the breakfast side, or onion buns and rye to the deli bar. Due to the busy nature of the Yonge and Eglinton location—a weekend night can see 500 to 600 covers—Arumuganathan says much of his concentration is spent on how the food is plated and how quickly it goes to the customer. “We’re located in a business area, so we need to stick to that 30-minute window for service,” he says. With 15 to 20 staff members in the kitchen per shift, Arumuganathan emphasizes that team involvement is crucial to being prepared for high volume times, such as the lunch rush. Arumuganathan also takes over expediting, checking chit times and presentation for consistency. After lunch, ordering, spot checks, portion control and scheduling occupies his time. “Keep in mind that it’s the team that helps you run the restaurant,” he says. “Treat them in a way that indicates that they are the boss of their station. Listen to the staff to get an idea of the product and they will provide food that comes from their heart.”
Jay Arumuganathan, a kitchen manager for The Pickle Barrel.
2. Kitchen Manager
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5. MAN UFACTURER
For Jeff Silverstein, making bread is in his bones. Along with brothers Mark and Brian, and father, 83-year-old Sonny, Jeff is a third-generation to take on the family bread making facility Silverstein’s Bakery in downtown Toronto. Officially, his title is vice-president of sales and marketing, but “each day is almost like a different hat you put on,” Silverstein says. Silverstein, who has been with the company for almost 40 years, says he worked his way through the operation to learn the business, spending time in production and delivery as well. “We work with a philosophy of ‘whatever it takes’,” he said, adding
he had to make deliveries recently because three of the company’s drivers were off for various reasons. “Each day is really different in our business and we operate 24-7,” Silverstein says. His primary role is customer service, which he says is key to standing out from the competition. Silverstein says he meets with many chefs and foodservice professionals across the industry. “These guys all have a real passion for what they do, and part of what makes it so very rewarding, is dealing with them because anybody who’s got a passion makes the job easier when they love it as much as you do,” he says. Silverstein says he is a member
of the Les Toques Blanches’ Toronto branch and says it’s a good group to socialize and network with away from work. The bakery, he says, has flour delivered and bakers make the different varieties of dough, which are proofed, baked and packaged onsite. Silverstein’s products include bagels, buns, baguettes, challah and rye breads. According to Silverstein, the operation is mobile enough to accommodate many special requests from foodservice professionals. “When I meet a new chef and say, for example, he’s from Switzerland and he’s got an old family recipe, we’ll try and duplicate that for him,” Silverstein said.
5. Manufacturer
3. PURCHASING MANAGER
3. Purchasing Manager
4. DISTRIBUTOR
4. Distributor
4,000 covers. His day includes dealing with requests from the catering manager, such as product specs and availability, as well as managing seasonality and coordinating with the executive and sous chef on the culinary team. On an average day, he interacts with 15 differKal Kopman, purchasing ent departments within manager at the Metro Toronto the MTCC, ranging from Convention Centre. accounting to parking and technology services. “One thing that may be surK a l prising about this job is how vast it is: Kopman, I could be coming out of a meeting for purchasing manager at the Metro Toronto Convention requirements for fine dining and go right Centre, describes his typical day as one of into talking about upgrading toilet cleanconstant motion. “I spend a lot of the day ing programs and from there to discusrunning from department to department, sions about new ideas for tabletops,” he says. “It’s a renaissance man’s dream job.” like a hamster on a wheel,” he laughs. In addition, he is constantly co-ordiKopman, whose background includes eight years of buying experience for nating with the MTCC’s 100 suppliers, event-based catering companies and re- making sure the supply chain is running tail purchasing, has been responsible for smoothly. Due to the sheer size of the all purchasing requirements for the Metro 14,000-square-foot kitchen space and the Convention Centre since November 2013, fact that on any given day, there are up to from food and beverage to china and uni- 18,000 meals being served in the convenforms. His education includes a three-year tion centre, Kopman’s job involves a lot of Purchasing Manager’s Association of Can- careful planning. “We currently deal with about four ada certification and a four-year bachelor bakeries and all our bread comes in fresh of e-commerce from Ryerson University. Along with a purchasing administra- at 5 a.m. the day of, requiring certain stantor and a co-op student, Kopman facili- dards that I need to establish with suppliers tates the flow of product throughout the about receiving,” he says. “Due to the large MTCC’s massive kitchens. One of his first volume, I can’t call in and ask for 4,000 events included simultaneous occasions in mini pretzel wiener rolls to be delivered in the north and south buildings, each with two hours.”
Jeff Silverstein, vice-president, sales and marketing for Silverstein’s Bakery.
Flanagan Foodservice distributes to more than 5,000 restaurants and foodservice operations across the province of Ontario. Ruth Doig is the company’s category manager for grocery and frozen food and it is her job to orchestrate the delivery of products from suppliers to restaurants. “We’re really the logistics person and the conduit between those two,” says Doig. “We look at developing a comprehensive product offering that will support our sales team in meeting whatever our customers needs are currently and into the future.” In order to get information about products to the customer base and the sales team, Doig says the company hosts food shows, produces a publication highlighting new and existing products, produces flyers and calendars and holds sales meetings on how to sell the product at a customer level. Customers can also view products on the company’s website. According to Doig, she is always on the lookout for new products. “We want to see what’s new, what will be a possible fit within our customer mix. We’ll often go out to our sales team and ask, ‘This is something that’s new, have you been asked for it?’” says Doig. “Or the vender community will come to us with a new product … so it really comes from both sides.” Doig says most of the bread distributed through Flanagan Foodservice is frozen and either proof-andbake, parbaked or fully cooked. “In most cases we find our customers are moving toward that parbaked/fully baked offering because it’s just ease of use and there is little or no waste,”
says Doig. Bread manufacturers, says Doig, have made great strides in created a variety of high-quality, gluten-free products to match customer’s demands. “We certainly see a continued interest in artisan breads and breads with benefits having such things as flax seeds,” says Doig. “We are seeing customers wanting a cleaner deck with less additives and preservatives and there was also a push for reduction in sodium levels.” Customers order product from Flanagan Foodservice and it’s delivered in company trucks, with supply replenished from manufacturers. “Most of our bread suppliers are right here in Ontario and they use Canadian wheat, so that really speaks to the local movement,” she says. One of the challenges is to manage through seasonal spikes in business, says Doig. “We have a purchasing system that assists in doing that to make sure that our service level is the best we can possibly offer,” she says.
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6. PROCESSOR
Arva Flour Mill owner Mike Matthews’ family has been running the mill since the 1910s. “I’ve been involved my whole life, but I’ve been the owner since 2005,” says Matthews. The mill itself dates back to 1819, when it was built on the banks of Medway Creek in what is now called Arva, just north of London, ON, and is Canada’s oldest continuously operating, water-powered mill. “I feel it’s a piece of history and I try to do it as authentically as possible.” “Our product is truly artisanal. There’s no computer or flashing red light if something goes wrong. You have to touch the flour and feel it to know that it’s being milled properly.” Matthews has taken business
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courses over the years, but learned most through experience. “It’s never really a typical day around here,” says Matthews. He noted it’s also not a typical mill— they maintained a number of practices that have died off over the years. The day often starts at 6 a.m. with some paperwork and invoicing. With one full-time time and seven part-time employees, Matthews takes on much of the work, including ensuring the equipment is working, contacting potential new clients, following up with current customers and dealing with distributors. Using equipment from 1903 means Matthews must check the equipment daily in case a piece needs to be fabricated. “I’m the grounds
crew as well, so I’ve got to make sure all the grass is cut and the gardens look nice,” he says. The mill produces a hard wheat, a soft wheat and a spelt flour. “I deal directly with farmers. All my grain, even my hard wheat, is grown locally—I source pretty much all my product within 20 kilometres of the mill,” Matthews says. He says 70 per cent of the mill’s business is through the retail store. “Our biggest clients are distributors, they’re the ones who can actually get it out to the restaurants,” says Matthews. “Up until about the time I took [the business] over, we didn’t have a distributor. People had to come here and pick it up or we delivered inside London.”
Mike Matthews, owner of Arva Flour Mill.
7. Grower
6. Processor
7. GROWER
Levi Wood, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association.
Levi Wood, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, is one of the more than 50,000 Canadian farmers growing wheat on more than 22.8 million acres of land. The 30-year-old grew up on a farm and has been actively farming since 2008. His family has been farming since 1887. He went to university for commerce and worked in the finance sector before the prospects in agriculture seemed sunnier. Since then, he has also completed an MBA at the University of British Columbia, which included a specialization in international business at Hong Kong University.
INDEPENDENT OPERATOR While much of the bread that lands on restaurant tables touches many hands throughout the foodservice industry, there are operators who cut straight to the chase. Carrie Surrette is the owner of Heartwood, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant that buys flour directly from a local mill—who also grow the grain, package the flour and distribute it—so her team can bake pizza crusts, sourdough and foccacia bread three times a week at her Halifax eatery. “For us, it’s extremely important: our focus is on quality products so we wouldn’t be able to find or purchase from a baker with the quality of a product that we make ourselves,” Surrette says. Many Heartwood customers have allergy and food sensitivity concerns and they want to know precisely which ingredients have been used and where they come from, she says. Heartwood has a wheat-free kitchen using only organic kamut and spelt flour purchased from Speerville Flour Mill in Speerville, NB. Surrette says the only ingredients in the house-made bread are flour, sea salt and some oil. The restaurant also adds onions to its focaccia bread. The bread is started in the morning, and it takes between three and four hours until it is ready to be worked with. The restaurant’s baker comes in around 3 p.m., bakes the bread and leaves it sit overnight so it is ready for sale the following morning. Heartwood uses the bread for all of its sandwiches and bread to go with soup. They also sell the bread in-store to customers. The starter for the sourdough bread was created by Heartwood founder Laura Bishop and has been used in the store for 17 years. Surrette bought the location from Bishop two and a half years ago after selling her health food store in Moncton and moving to Halifax.
Wood farms about 1,900 acres in Pense, SK, about one third of which is wheat each year. He says each day is different and depends on the time of year. The crop was seeded in May and will be ready for harvest from mid-August until October. Before harvest, he is checking the crop for progress and watching for threats that might reduce yield. “We’ve had more rain in the last five years than we think is sort of normal for this area, so there has been a lot more crop diseases,” he says. “There are two sides to it: one side is actually growing the crop and
the other side is figuring out when you’re going to sell it,” he says. He added you have to factor in a number of things including harvest times in other parts of the world. If the grain isn’t sold immediately, it is stored in bins before entering the grain handling system. “The more storage you have on your farm, the more options you have about how to manage your crop,” he said. From there, it is hauled by truck to a grain elevator, where is cleaned and sent out by rail. Wood’s grain could end up at a mill in Canada or the U.S. and he says much of it will be sent by train to a port and shipped to overseas customers.
HEALTHCARE Susan Bull, manager of nutrition and foodservices for Scarborough Hospital’s General and Birchmount campuses, tries to lead by example,down to the small details, such as not entering the kitchen without wearing appropriate footwear and headgear. “I walk the talk in terms of maintaining standards. If I expect the team to get here in a snowstorm, so do I. It goes a long way towards the staff feeling good about the relationship.” A manager at the hospital for the last 26 years, Bull oversees 110 people between the two campuses in shift work positions: a combination of foodservice co-ordinators who oversee the menu day to day, menu clerks, diet technicians, cooks, and dietary helpers. Bull and her team handle three daily meals for 275 people at the General campus, which is traditional hot plating and 215 at the Birch-
mount campus, which uses cold plating rethermalization. With a bachelor’s degree in science from Western University, Bull is a registered dietician with Dieticians of Ontario, and says she never stops learning. Whether it’s computer technology or new equipment, Bull must stay on top of technological advances and adapt to new programs such as a recently rolled out bedside ordering system where staff use a wireless system on wheels to ask patients daily what they feel like eating in an effort to avoid food waste. Bull oversees a complex ordering system that has unique demands due to hospital protocol. Although a twice-weekly bread order is contracted to big suppliers and is a standing order with quanti-
ties that do not fluctuate often, the hospital has gradually shifted its stocking system to a “just in time” model. The exception, says Bull, is that some bread is kept in the freezers to use for sandwiches in case of an influx of people from an external disaster. The stored bread is then rotated out and turned into toast after a certain period.
Susan Bull, manager of nutrition and foodservices, Scarborough Hospital.
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BeverageNews A REPORT ON THE BEVERAGE INDUSTRY
Jost family moves into beer TATAMAGOUCHE, NS—Two years after selling the family business, former Jost Vineyards owner Hans Christian Jost and daughter Christiane Jost have turned their attention to brewing beer. Tatamagouche Brewing Co. opened in mid-June on Main Street in the Colchester County village. “During that transition, we realized that we wanted to carry on in the industry somehow or another,” Hans Christian Jost told ARN. “In my case, I have always very much enjoyed beer, as has my daughter,” he said with a laugh. Christiane Jost and her partner Matt Kenny are heading up brewing and operations of the new business. Over the course of a year, the trio converted the old butcher shop into a brewery, keeping the butcher block as a counter in the retail shop. The facility is about 3,000 square feet with the retail shop upstairs and production downstairs. Jost said the brewery was open
concept, with the brewing equipment visible from the retail shop and from the street by an open garage door. “We wanted to bring the brewery onto the street and the street into the brewery,” he said. Jost said the brewery is seeing a lot of interest from the foodservice industry, with about 20 licensees from around Nova Scotia carrying Tatamagouche beer. “We really wanted to start off as slow as possible, actually. It just kicked in very quickly, so we’re going wide open now,” he said. “For the time being, we’re just holding tight here and we’re not even selling to the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. or to any of the private wine stores,” said Jost. He said they hope to brew about 1,000 hectolitres in the first year and eventually double that number. The brewing is starting off with producing two beers: Hippie Dippie Pale Ale, using only the ahta-
num hop, which lends floral and spicy hints, and Butcher Block Red, named in honour of the location. Jost said the brewery is planning to offer three year-round staples and a fourth seasonal or one-off brew as it grows. Tatamagouche is selling beer to licensees in 20-litre kegs to make them easier to lift and, with the trend to carry more varieties, smaller kegs allow them to take up less room. Jost said an interesting difference between the beer and wine trade– “where you buy all your inputs in the fall to sell over the next year”– is that production of beer is year round and you can choose when to buy supplies. The brewery is using organic ingredients and awaiting its certification, said Jost, who is farming half an acre of hops. “I can’t get away from the land, considering what I did beforehand,” he said.
Planters Ridge winery owners John McLarty and Lisa Law.
Industry fires back at new TFWP rules New winery joins
Garth Whyte and Restaurants Canada board members are among the industry advocates against the changes to the TFWP.
OTTAWA—The federal government has announced changes to the temporary foreign worker program (TFWP), ending a moratorium placed on the foodservice industry in April. Minister of employment and social development Jason Kenney and minister of citizenship and immigration Chris Alexander made the announcement on June 20, stating that the changes will bring the program back to its original intent as a limited resource to fill labour shortages on a temporary basis. “Our government has been clear that Canadians must be first in line for available jobs,” Kenney said in a statement. “These comprehensive and balanced reforms restore the TFWP to its original purpose: as a last and
limited resource for employers when there are no qualified Canadians to fill available jobs,” he said. Under the new rules, employers in places with high unemployment will not be allowed to hire foreign workers in the foodservice and retail sectors. Companies will also have to re-apply annually to hire TFWs, instead of every two years, and the cost will rise from $275 to $1,000 per employee. Garth Whyte, president and chief executive officer of Restaurants Canada, called the program “a no-win situation” under the new rules. “We appreciate the TFW program will be technically available, but are concerned by the impact of these changes on our members, their employees and their customers,” Whyte said in a statement. “In areas of the
country where restaurant owners cannot find enough Canadian workers, there will be business casualties that will put Canadians out of a job,” he said. Restaurants Canada said the new changes will make the program unavailable or cost-prohibitive to many of its members and is urging the federal government to develop a national labour strategy to alleviate key problems with the job market. Paul Meinema, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada), called the TFWP “broken”. “[The] announcement does nothing to change a system that still allows irresponsible employers to exploit workers with impunity,” Meinema said in a statement. “There is no longterm strategy here. This is merely an additional bandage on a broken system,” he said. The government also announced it will introduce stronger enforcement and penalties for companies who misuse the program and fund two surveys to be conducted by Statistics Canada to develop a better understanding of the Canadian labour market. According to a government statement, the cost of administering the program will be entirely paid for by the companies using the program, and not the taxpayers. Last year, more than 200,000 temporary foreign workers sought employment in Canada.
growing N.S. industry PORT WILLIAMS, NS—Former Ontario residents John McLarty and Lisa Law opened the burgeoning Nova Scotia wine industry’s latest addition, Planters Ridge, in late June. The couple began looking for an established vineyard to purchase in 2010 and decided on a former hay farm on Church Street near Port Williams, NS. Starting from scratch, the couple enlisted the help of wine consultant Natalie Spytkowsky of Vines to Vintages and hired Travis McFarlane to make the wines. In the spring of 2011, 5,200 grape vines were planted on about six acres in loamy, sandy soil. The property boasts a 150-yearold home and a 3,000-square-foot barn housing the barrel cellars, which Law said have natural humidity and temperature control. Law said the barn needed a number of renovations, including new hemlock timbers. The main floor is home to the winery and retail shop, with 10-foot glass windows and pastoral views over the Canard River to North Mountain. The retail space makes use of a 60-year-old tree, which had to be cut down, for the tasting bar and for some wood details. “We tried as much as we could to use some of the original wood in the
retail section,” said Law, pointing to wood floor planks above the fireplace as an example. The winery produces L’Acadie Blanc, Quintessence White blend and a Tidal Bay (blending 52 per cent L’Acadie blanc, 20 per cent seyval blanc, 14 per cent Frontenac gris and New York muscat.) The 2012 red blend is made of Marquette, Castel and Lucie Kuhlmann. Aged in oak, Law said the vintage was a small harvest and produced 49 cases. The winery will be creating the 2013 red in the fall. “Each variety is in at least four different types of barrels, so it’s giving us a chance to see how they taste and how they develop in each type of barrel,” said Law. “When we’re ready to bottle, we’ll decide whether we have any single varietals or whether we make some blends or how we deal with the wines at that time.” The winery is also producing a German style Riesling, which has yet to be bottled. Planters Ridge is available onsite and the winery is selling to restaurants and resorts, including Digby Pines Golf Resort and Obladee Wine Bar in Halifax. Future plans include serving wine by the glass and offering a small menu of share plates, cheese and charcuterie.
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Algonquin Resort’s re-opening and 125th anniversary Braxton’s Restaurant and Bar at the Algonquin Resort.
Executive chef Lisa Aronson.
SAINT ANDREWS, NB—In a celebration commemorating the hotel’s 125-year history, the Algonquin Resort also marked its re-opening in June, following an 18-month renovation of the property. The Algonquin first opened in June 1889 and became Canada’s first Autograph Collection hotel—Marriott International’s portfolio of independent hotels—when it reopened this year following an 18-month “rafters to registration” renovation. Toronto designer Robynne Moncur of Moncur Design created the Algonquin’s guest rooms and public spaces. The hotel’s new décor reflects its Victorian origins and features a living room-style lobby with a two-sided fireplace.
The resort’s foodservice also got an overhaul with the renovation of the Clubhouse and Braxton’s Restaurant and Bar, named for one of the property’s first chefs. George Braxton is celebrated as the first African American man to lead a luxury resort kitchen and publish a cookbook, which focuses on simple, regional cuisine. This became the philosophy for dining in Braxton’s Restaurant and Bar. General manager Tim Ostrem said the 50-seat bar and 46-seat patio is an upscale-casual environment, with lobster sliders, charcuterie and cheese boards and the chef ’s signature seafood chowder. Its cocktail list is inspired by regional ingredients, such as honey produced on-property and herbs from executive chef Lisa Aronson’s rooftop garden. Aronson has been with the property for seven years and was acting chef during the renovations until being moved permanently into the role in January. The dining room, which seats 50, is a formal, intimate environment with a focus on regional cuisine, such as butter-poached lobster with sweet potato gnocchi, locally sourced scallops with a mushroom risotto and shrimp and grits with locally sourced medallion of halibut, Ostrem said. Ostrem noted The Clubhouse has some seafood items, but more of a farm-to-table focus. The restaurant seats 62, with an 18-seat bar and a patio overlooking the 18th hole of the seaside Algonquin Golf Course. Braxton’s bar accommodates up to 120 diners with the resort’s “anyplace dining,” which includes the lobby area, with its soft seating. Diners can also eat outdoors in a veranda, by
the fire pits, pool or in the second floor herb garden. “Because we’re licensed everywhere except our indoor pool, there is the opportunity to be able to sit and enjoy a glass of wine or a nice charcuterie plate anywhere,” Ostrem told ARN. “We had eight [dining] outlets in the past servicing a 233-room resort which, while it provided a fairly elaborate experience, it was inefficient,” said Ostrem. Everything was re-invented from “stunning design with a lot of bold, vibrant colours” to concept and layout. “There was this re-imaging of the food and beverage operations to ensure that they were much more efficient and effective,” he said. The location of the main restaurant shifted within the common space, the kitchen line was moved, the dining room moved closer to the kitchen, the bar was opened up and a patio was added. The resort also features 19,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space. Southwest Properties and New Castle Hotels & Resorts purchased the hotel from the province in 2012 with the intent of restoring the estate. “Throughout the renovation process, we were very cognizant of the fact that we had been entrusted with a piece of New Brunswick’s history,” Jim Spatz, chairman and chief executive officer of Southwest Properties, said in a release. “We set out to preserve the authenticity of this cherished hotel and simultaneously elevate it to meet modern expectations for a luxury resort.” Originally developed as a summer resort, The Algonquin is now a year-round destination.
Would your kitchen pass the Clean test? Train your kitchen staff on: Preventing Sanitation and Food Safety risks Maintaining a pest-free kitchen environment Being ready for your next kitchen inspection
Tim Hortons unveils future concept store Continued from cover
Even employee uniforms were redesigned with a red-trimmed asymmetrical neckline. While some of the changes might be implemented in the near future, chief operating officer David Clanachan told CP some of the ideas may never see the light of day. After 50 years in business, the company’s “Store No. 1” located at 65 Ottawa St. N., Hamilton, ON, will be renovated to include some of the ideas unveiled with the Restaurant of the Future. “We wanted to create a showpiece here,” chief operating officer David Clanachan told reporters at the unveiling. “We wanted to see in this transformation of our Store No. 1 that it will pay homage to our history while embracing some of the new designs in technology and that you are seeing now in our restaurants as well as our Restaurant of the Future.” Two adjacent houses were purchased to make room for the new 4,000-square-foot building, which will be two-storeys and have two patios. The restaurant will act as a museum for
the company with memorabilia and a walkthrough section on the second floor showcasing the company’s progression. Clanachan also announced the company would host a block party before the end of the summer in collaboration with the Hamilton mayor’s office. The event will close the road and allow members of the community to share their memories of the brand, he said. “The past will meet the future,” said Hamilton Mayor Bob Bratina of the renovations. Bratina thanked the company for its continued support of the Hamilton community. “Our city is on the move,” Bratina said. “We are one of the poster cities for growth and rehabilitation.” In early July, Tim Hortons also launched a new CIBC Visa credit card with two active buttons. Cardholders can press one button to receive one per cent of each dollar spent in rewards redeemable at Tim Hortons. To redeem rewards, cardholders touch the second button when purchasing the company’s products. Each button is illuminated when in use and the card also offers payWave and chip-and-pin technologies.
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By Kristen Smith
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n chef Dan Barber’s book, The Third Plate, he discusses a cuisine going beyond raising awareness of the provenance of food in which food culture reflects the landscape. “The right kind of cooking and the right kind of farming are one and the same,” wrote Barber. During a talk at George Brown College in Toronto, Barber noted that growing good wheat is expensive from a biological perspective. “If we’re not supporting all the things that make wheat so delicious, we’re in big trouble,” he said. To demonstrate whole farm cooking, Barber created “rotation risotto” to be served at his restaurants Blue Hill in New York and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills. An ode to everything but wheat (and without rice), the dish featured other grains, legumes and a brassica puree. “The best flavours come from diverse systems,” Barber said. “The trick and the challenge is to support it—and support it means [to] eat it. We’ve got to eat the crops that support a truly sustainable landscape.” He thinks chefs are in an ideal position to be proponents of a sustainable system and many are putting the pieces together, but as a whole, there needs to be an understanding of what constitutes regional eating, which he says might result in thousands of micro-cuisines. “What we need to do is know the niche,” he says. Although farm-to-table can be an overused and perhaps abused descriptor, Barber points to the influence of chefs in helping to broaden the movement. “The promise of farm-to-table cooking is that menus take their shape from the constraints of local agriculture and cel-
ebrate them,” he wrote. He points out that a growing number of chefs are advocating for change in the food system. “As someone whose job it is to address the end result, how can you not care about the beginning?” he asks.
Back to the roots For decades, chefs across the Canada have committed to cooking with food that has been sourced sustainably. For chef Brad Long, this means being part of a sustainable cycle and putting his purchasing power toward those who are stewards of the land and treat livestock ethically. “You can’t just say ‘let’s do better’,” says Long. “If you want to change the process of how we treat animals, you have to actively support the ones who do it right.” Long says he has felt resistance to supporting local, sustainable food because some feel it sounds wishy-washy, unnecessarily complicated, expensive or impractical. “I’m a capitalist entrepreneur and I know—both at foundation and from end to end of process—that profit is the first priority of sustainability, which means I stand in a very complicated place each and every day,” he says. “You can’t haggle for price, or the great grower or artisanal producer, or they won’t be there for long. “I want to take care of my supply chain, I want to stabilize my supply chain, I want to love my supply chain,” says Long. After hearing that chefs and farmers wanted to work together, but were missing the time and resources, Paul Sawtell and Grace Mandarano started 100km Foods Inc. in 2007. “We’ve found that we’re selling more within each of our
accounts … in the beginning, I think we were more of a niceto-have, fringe item on some people’s menus, we’ve become a little bit more of a mainstay,” says Mandarano. She says source-identifying the company’s 75 producers is an important part of the business. “There is really a terroir to food. We don’t think of any kind of food as a commodity, because either the soil is different so it actually tastes different, or some farmers grow something larger than another farmer or differently than another farmer.” When it comes to sustainable, local and organic food, Mandarano says the question becomes: “Do you do imported, organic or conventionally grown, local? And the answer is you try to move as much as possible to local organic,” she says. Mandarano says the farmers are always paid a fair price, which 100km Foods marks up for its service. As she and Sawtell were planning the business, they “realized that we had a fair trade issue in our own backyard.” She says an important component of sustainability is financial viability. “It’s all fine and good to want to do the right thing, but the only way we can affect change in the world is to be part of it,” she says. Brent Preston and Gillian Flies run The New Farm, a 100-acre organic farm near Creemore, ON. “When we first started, we grew everything imaginable and we’ve whittled it down to the stuff that really grows well here,” says Preston. The couple’s salad mixes, beets, specialty potatoes and greenhouse cucumbers can be found in restaurants and some retail locations.
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www.atlanticrestaurantnews.com being a huge part of the province’s history. “People around here have been picking fiddleheads for years; our woods are filled with wild mushrooms,” Vergen says. “As chefs, we can put on the blinders and we see a beautiful, sexy product that we just have to work with and is inspiring us,” says Vergen, but for something to be sustainable, it’s necessary for the business model to work. Vergen pays $3.50 to the enthusiastic guys down the street, for a bundle of organic rainbow carrots, when he could get a bag for not much more. He says you have to consider how you use them—“you want to showcase them.”
Supply and demand
Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
“We wanted to do something that was going to have a positive impact environmentally,” says Preston, who uses little mechanization, minimizes the farm’s input and offsets electricity use with solar power. He says while many chefs have been leading the charge with respect to sustainable food, more restaurants are becoming interested because customers are demanding it. “Restaurant customers are asking about providence, asking about terroir, asking about where the ingredients are coming from and they want to know the stories behind the food, so that’s really driving our business and driving the demand from restaurants for our product,” Preston says. The more farmers and chefs understand each other, the better farmers can understand the supply needs (reliability and consistency) and chefs can figure out the best way to get local and seasonal products on their menus, says Preston. “I’m having increasing trouble with the emphasis on local as opposed to sustainable and organic,” says Preston, adding industrial, chemical-based agriculture is the dominant model in Ontario. He says people need to be thinking about what the terms sustainable, local and organic mean and asking questions. “Chefs are absolutely in the forefront of this whole movement and I think it’s a really important, broad movement that is developing around good food,” he says. “The power that chefs have in our society today is absolutely unbelievable.” Paul Rogalski, chef and co-owner of Rouge Restaurant and Rouge Bistro in Calgary, says there needs to be some collective work done toward some common solutions in the field of sustainability for the sake of
lasting food systems and the recovery of the oceans. “Sustainable is a very, very big word and I think a lot of people are viewing it as a trend, but it’s a reality more than anything else,” says Rogalski. When Rouge started its restaurant garden a dozen years ago, Rogalski says initially it was for the flavours. “I know food well enough to know that if you pick something, the sooner you eat it, the better it’s going to taste,” he says. “The garden really taught me a lesson that Mother Nature controls everything; we can react to it, but we can’t change what’s going on with the weather.” He thinks “farmers are, and should be, our new rock stars.”
Rethinking local economy When it comes to running a restaurant, food needs to be consistent. “It comes down to, we’re all business people, but we’re also in a powerful position as the ones who are dealing with the food and that gives us the ability to share that message,” Rogalski says. “I think it’s powerful coming from us; as food handlers we’re looking at quality, we’re looking at travel times, we’re looking at flavour.” David Cohlmeyer, Cookstown Greens founder and sustainable good food consultant, is working on a study with the University of Guelph in an effort to determine which farming practices provide the best tasting and longest lasting carrots. Cohlmeyer has planted carrots on his property near Thornton, ON, and is comparing those grown with: high nitrogen and potassium used by conventional growers; compost used by most organic growers; additional micronutrients used by some growers; and using compost tea. The
harvested carrots will be analyzed for secondary metabolites, flavour profile, phytochemicals, yield and shelf life. Cohlmeyer uses an example of Cookstown’s leeks, which he sold for about $2 a piece, to demonstrate the divide between thinking about cost and plate cost. The way the controller looked at it, they could get three for $5. But from the chef ’s perspective, the more expensive leeks are clean, which Cohlmeyer says his staff took extra care to not let dirt splash in, and since the cook didn’t have to cut it down the middle to clean them, it increased the possibilities of how it could be used. “Bottom line is the chef said that the plate cost of these leeks is the cheapest, but on the surface they look like the most expensive,” says Cohlmeyer. He says the commitment needs to come from the restaurateur and must be part of the business plan. It should also be transparent. “What is local? Quite often, it’s ‘local, when possible’, which is code for when it’s cheap enough,” says Cohlmeyer. Jesse Vergen, chef and partner of the Saint John Ale House in Saint John, NB, says while part of the motivation to buy local is putting money back into the community, the appeal is definitely the freshness, flavour and nutrients. He says New Brunswick has one of the most interesting and diverse areas for local food, with oceans and agriculture
Leavoy Rowe Beef Co. partner Chip Leavoy said when they first started the business in 2005, there was a lot of demand from the foodservice industry for U.S. beef. “We take no small amount of pride in our role in developing a great local meat supply chain. It was, of course, spurred on by chefs,” Leavoy says. “The local, seasonal ingredient approach is classic cuisine.” He says the company’s local beef brand, Wellington Country Premium Beef, has grown over the years. “Unlike some other trends that have become more faddy, I think the local trend is here to stay,” Leavoy says. Earlier this year, McDonald’s announced it would begin sourcing “verified sustainable beef ” in 2016. Sherry MacLauchlan, director of government relations and sustainability for McDonald’s Canada, says without a working universal definition of sustainable beef, the company has to work with its
suppliers, with non-profits and with national associations, such as the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, to develop a global framework. The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef has drafted a definition, principles and criteria, which was out for public comment and is being reviewed. Jeffrey Fitzpatrick-Stilwell, McDonald’s Canada senior manager of sustainability, says the recently launched Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef “will take those high-level principles around treatment of employees, animal welfare and land those good things” and figure out what this translates to in Canada. “If you’re going to say that animal health and welfare is an indicator of sustainable beef, which everybody would, which indicators do you look to say this producer is producing beef in a sustainable manner?” explains Fitzpatrick-Stilwell. While they are doing a lot of work around indicator development, he says the roundtable—which brings together producers, provincial and national associations and agriculture ministries—is also looking at what is already in place. Fitzpatrick-Stilwell says the pilot group is looking to determine the Canadian method of verifying sustainable beef, which will end up informing other regions. He says it is important to have collaboration along the entire value chain. “When we get to the end state here, the goal is for everybody to understand … and be onside with the indicators.” The end goal, he says, is for everyone, not just McDonald’s Canada, to be able to use the term “Canadian verified sustainable beef.”
Chef Jesse Vergen’s greenhouse at his Quispamsis, NB, farm.
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AT L A N T I C R E S TAU R A N T N E W S
NRA Show 2014 products
PEoP L E Denis Richard resigned from his role as president and chief executive officer of Imvescor Restaurant Group and also as a director of the company, effective July 17. Richard will be pursuing other opportunities, but will still assist in the ongoing strategic review announced by Imvescor in April, according to a release. Chief operating officer Yves Devin, appointed to the chief operating officer position in April, will step in on a temporary basis until Richard’s replacement is found. Richard previously stepped aside as president and CEO in June 2013, but remained on the board of directors during the transition period. Chief financial officer Ming-Ming Wong was appointed CEO in the interim at that time. Richard was reappointed to the post of president and CEO in January 2014. Richard, who joined Imvescor in 2011, has a law degree from the University of Moncton, and was the founder and managing partner of Windward Capital, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm.
Before that, he was senior vicepresident of strategy and M&A at BCE Emergis. Moncton, NB-based Imvescor owns franchised and corporate stores throughout Canada under four brands: Pizza Delight, Mikes, Scores Restaurants and Baton Rouge.
CHICAGO, IL—Investment and interaction were themes throughout the 95th annual National Restaurant Association (NRA) Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show this year, with a new financial summit and hands-on area for chefs to experience different cuisines. The show and the concurrentlyheld International Wine, Spirits and Beer Event (IWSB), took place in late May at Chicago’s McCormick Place.
High-tech cooker Rational has announced the release of the SelfCookingCenter 5 Senses, calling it an intelligent cooking system that communicates with the chef and learns as it goes. The machine uses sophisticated sensors that can recognize size, load quantity and
Laura Bevan has joined the Tourism Industry Association of Prince Edward Island (TIAPEI) as human resource advisor. At TIAPEI, Bevan’s duties include maintaining and promoting the organization’s tourism website, coordinating workshops and seminars, delivering presentations to promote careers in the tourism industry and offering human resource guidance to tourism industry members. A graduate of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, with a bachelor of commerce degree and a certificate in human resource management, Bevan has worked at Halifax’s The Chronicle Herald in the human resources department and completed an internship with the provincial government.
condition of products to calculate appropriate browning.
All in one oven Combine a convection oven, kettle, steamer, fryer, smoker and dehydrator with the latest from Alto-Shaam. The CTPROformance Combitherm Oven helps expand menu offerings through a wide range of versatility. An innovative design includes a large touch screen and the machine includes the ability to determine precise humidity to optimize food quality, texture and yield. Also, the CombiSmoke feature allows for operators to smoke products whether they are hot or cold.
Clean up time Moyer Diebel has introduced the MD44 conveyor ware-washing
machine, which washes 219 racks per hour using 130 gallons per hour and 0.59 gallons per rack. Built-in diagnostics troubleshoot machine problems and an anti-jam feature shuts conveyors down. The electronic booster can be adjusted for a 40- or 70-degree farenheit rinse.
It’s freezing in here The MBCTM4-F countertop freezer adds to the Fusion Series line for Master-Bilt. The machine includes adjustable thermostat and three adjustable shelves. Fluorescent lighting provides product illumination and the heated door perimeter is a double pane of tempered glass with self-closing magnetic gaskets for lower operational cost.
NRA PRoducTs
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1. Rational SelfCookingCenter 5 Senses. 2. Alto-Shaam CTPROformance Combitherm Oven. 3. Moyer Diebel MD44 conveyor ware-washing machine. 4. Master-Bilt MBCTM4-F countertop freezer.
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