FINE DINING: Secrets to Success

from Whistler Magazine Summer/Fall 2022

ARTS SCENE: Global Events Inspire

SECRETS TO SUCCESS

WHAT’S BEHIND THE INCREDIBLE LONGEVITY OF WHISTLER’S FOREMOST CHEFS AND RESTAURATEURS?

STORY BY BRANDON BARRETT | PHOTOS BY DAVID BUZZARD

By almost any standard you can think of, the restaurant industry is a fickle one, to say the least. Just look back on the past two years of constantly changing health protocols and COVIDrelated closures that have forced even some of the most popular restaurants pre-pandemic to shutter once and for all.

In Whistler, with its seasonal rhythms and years-long labour shortage, navigating the churning waters of such a volatile market can be an even tougher task.

That’s what makes the success and longevity of Whistler’s foremost chefs and restaurateurs so incredible. In a fast-growing town where change is one of few constants we can rely on, this trio of chefs and restaurateurs have defied the odds. And they’ve all done so in their own distinct ways, proving there isn’t one single key to success in Whistler’s world-renowned fine dining scene.

So what’s their secret? Well, we’re glad you asked. >>

RIMROCK OWNER BOB DAWSON WITH HIS FAVOURITE DISH, DUCK TWO WAYS.

MELISSA CRAIG | EXECUTIVE CHEF OF THE BEARFOOT BISTRO You could call Melissa Craig something of a culinary prodigy. At just 20, she became the first woman to win the Canadian National Apprentice Competition. Then, after a stint at the famed Sooke Harbour House, she joined the Bearfoot Bistro as a sous chef, and just a year-and-a-half later, at the tender age of 25, she was promoted to executive chef. She followed that up in 2008 with a win at the nation’s most prestigious event, the Canadian Culinary Championships, vaulting herself—and the Bearfoot—into the stratosphere of the Canadian restaurant scene as Whistler readied to welcome the world for the 2010 Olympics.

Craig doesn’t get too caught up in her own individual achievements. In fact, she’d be the first to admit she relies on the youthful energy and fresh ideas of her kitchen team to keep her hungry after nearly two decades at the helm of Whistler’s home for epicurean indulgence.

“I know that turnover isn’t a great thing, but the amount of young cooks that come through the kitchen, just seeing their motivation and their ideas is definitely inspiring,” she says. “It’s inspiring working with them and teaching them and moulding them into something that fits the Bearfoot.”

What’s so fascinating about Craig’s longevity is her steadfast refusal to rest on her laurels. The Bearfoot sits at the cutting edge of the culinary world, constantly evolving, while still maintaining Craig’s penchant for decadence.

“We’re always trying to do something different,” she says. “It’s pretty much a playground, the Bearfoot. I’m able to do anything I want and I’m very thankful for that. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. We can go any direction with our food and the clientele lets us do that.”

Anyone who has sampled Craig’s cuisine knows her food is an experience unto itself, but another key to the Bearfoot’s success is recognition that dining in its purest form is entertainment. After all, where else can you have liquid-nitrogen-cooled ice cream served tableside? Where else can you sample from more than 15,000 bottles of wine, the largest selection of any restaurant in B.C., and follow that up by sabering your own champagne with an honest-to-goodness sword? Where else can you sample from dozens of imported vodkas while donning a parka in the world’s coldest ice room?

“We need to provide good service but at the same time, being in a resort, people are here to have a good time and what they’re looking for is to be entertained—and we’re in the entertainment business,” says Marc Des Rosiers, Bearfoot’s director of communications.

BEARFOOT BISTRO EXECUTIVE CHEF MELISSA CRAIG, AND HER FAVOURITE DISH, ROSSINI-STYLE CARIBOU WITH TRUFFLES AND FOIE GRAS.

FAVOURITE DISH: ROSSINI-STYLE CARIBOU WITH TRUFFLES AND FOIE GRAS You could not come up with a dish more exemplary of the Bearfoot than the one Craig has selected as her all-time favourite: a fall-off-the-bone rack of caribou served with a heaping helping of truffles and seared fois gras.

“It’s very extravagant,” Craig says. >>

IL CAMINETTO EXECUTIVE CHEF JAMES WALT, AND HIS FAVOURITE DISH, LIGHTLY GRILLED BRANZINO.

JAMES WALT | CULINARY DIRECTOR FOR IL CAMINETTO AND SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER FOR TOPTABLE GROUP-WHISTLER

By this point in his career, James Walt’s accomplishments are almost too long to list: award-winning chef, critically acclaimed cookbook author, farm-to-table pioneer, B.C. Restaurant Association Hall of Fame member, and the only Whistler chef to cook at the iconic James Beard House in New York City.

For the always-humble Walt, however, it’s not the industry accolades that have kept him going throughout his more-than quarter century in the business, but the people who helped him get there along the way.

“Investing the time in the people has been the most important thing I’ve probably ever done,” he says. “Especially when people are young and they don’t know a lot and they are relying on you for training and mentoring and so on, you put the time in initially, but it pays huge dividends.

“If it wasn’t for the people, I don’t think any success would have come.”

For Walt, who was hired in 1997 to head the kitchen in one of the first finedining establishments in Whistler, Araxi Restaurant, having the opportunity to invest in his staff and provide them with the kind of opportunities that make culinary careers thanks to Toptable Group’s rapid expansion in Whistler, has proven the fuel that has kept his engine revving. (The restaurant group, launched by Araxi founder Jack Evrensel and now owned by Vancouver’s Aquilini Group, today counts three establishments in Whistler: Araxi, Il Caminetto (the white-linen Italian restaurant where Walt serves as culinary director) and tapas bar Bar Oso—along with a still-unnamed fourth space expected to open later this year.)

It’s not just his staff that Walt has been eager to invest in, but the community of diners that make Toptable’s Whistler locations tick. As much as these wellestablished restaurants appeal to fine dining tourists, they are favourites with locals too. Among other things, the company has been committed to its anniversary deals, offering fine dining at reduced prices and making it more accessible for diners. Walt too has been committed to supporting the local economy by sourcing from regional farms.

“From Day 1, we were invested in the community because with the transience here, we needed the stability of the community, whether that’s local business or the people who live here,” he says.

FAVOURITE DISH: LIGHTLY GRILLED BRANZINO Walt’s current favourite dish—lightly grilled branzino and octopus with a Ndjua and root vegetable soffrito, gigante beans and roasted broccolini—is readily available on Il Caminetto’s renowned Italian menu. >>

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RIMROCK OWNER BOB DAWSON’S FAVOURITE DISH, DUCK TWO WAYS. BOB DAWSON | CO-FOUNDER OF THE RIMROCK CAFÉ There is a school of thought in the restaurant business that says you must adapt or die. But Whistler’s beloved Rimrock Café has clearly proven the exception to the rule. “We’re probably the perfect example of how that isn’t true,” says Bob Dawson, who founded the Rimrock with business partner and executive chef Rolf Gunther in 1987. Since then, the menu, known primarily for its fresh seafood and wild game, has remained nearly identical to what it was 35 years ago. “I think the secret to our success is our consistency and that our menu really hasn’t changed that much. It’s comfort food that people can rely on and enjoy,” Dawson says. “In the city, you see a lot of these new restaurants open that try to follow the market trends and they don’t last that long because people tried them and then

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But great food is only part of the Rimrock’s equation. The rotating carousel of employees that affects most Whistler businesses hasn’t had quite the same impact on the Rimrock, thanks to the lengths Dawson and his team go to to find the right staff.

“The food’s got to be good. That’s No. 1. But the staff have to be really good because they represent the interpersonal skills between the customer and the kitchen, your wait staff, host staff and bartenders. It’s the whole package,” Dawson says. “You’ve got to be good at everything, because you can go into a restaurant and the service can be so bad that you’ll never go back, even if the food was pretty good.”

Dawson tends to hire just as much for personality as he does experience and skill set—but that has proven more challenging in the pandemic.

“The last two years have probably been the toughest two years of my career in terms of staff. When the

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pandemic first hit, most of the foreign workers left. We were lucky we have such long-term staff, but we were also affected,” he says. “We’ve had this place for 35 years and it was the first time we were ever actually closed for days. We had to close one day a week at one point, two days a week at one point, because we couldn’t get staff. That was the hardest thing.”

To help weather the COVID storm, the Rimrock was able to rely on its loyal locals, who have long been attracted to the warm atmosphere and casual elegance it offers, all housed in a rustic, 1960s lodge that is among the oldest commercial buildings remaining in town.

“People feel very comfortable in the restaurant. It’s fine dining without the pretention or stuffiness,” says Dawson. “Plus the fact this building is one of the oldest buildings in Whistler. It feels like somebody’s home because it was somebody’s home.”

FAVOURITE DISH: DUCK TWO WAYS Dawson is the kind of person who doesn’t like to order something from a menu unless it’s a dish he doesn’t tend to make at home. That explains his affinity for one of Rimrock’s classic dishes (let’s be honest—they’re all classic): duck two ways. Featuring savoury duck confit and tender sliced duck breast, the dish is served with a cranberry orange chutney and pillowy, German-style boiled dumplings called knödel.

“I’m a sucker for our duck two ways,” he admits. “It’s something that I don’t cook. I’m not a big chicken eater but I love duck. You get the duck confit and duck the other way, and it’s just great.” W