Home and branching out
Sunday, February 11 - Ottawa
Yesterday, I met the infamous Bruce and Nicole of the Branch restaurant in Kemptville (www.thebranchrestaurant.ca). If you have been following my previous blog entries, Bruce was formerly sous-chef with Millennium restaurant in San Francisco for numerous years, actually seven I just heard from him and some of the best years of his life. A native Texan, he arrived in Ontario as his now wife, from Ontario, was working front-of-house at Millennium and they both wanted to come to Canada after getting married and leaving Millennium.
I met him actually via Dave who had mentioned that I was working at Millennium to a friend at work, blah, blah, and the end of the long story is that I end up helping Bruce at his grand reopening reception, with free food samples, on Saturday afternoon. So, from San Francisco, to Ottawa to Kemptville within a few days.
It was nice to finally meet Bruce and Nicole, a young spirited couple who became restaurant owners sort of by accident and almost overnight, when the place they were working came up for sale and they decided to dive in and become the new owners. Well, they did some renovations and moved into the large upstairs apartment and the rest is history. They had wanted to open up something in the near future and the future became the present.
So, on Saturday morning, I put on my chef whites, which I didn't think I would wear for awhile again, brought in my knife case and started helping Bruce in the small kitchen space where all moves and items for storage have to carefully orchestrated. He kept on saying that it's not like the Millennium kitchen, which is true, but the advantage is that you're only one step away from finding anything and the chef is right there to help you if you can't. So, advantages and disadvantages to everything. We worked on a number of items for the reception in the evening and it was like watching an artist at work as he pulled out different items and ideas of his hat and started creating a number of dishes for the evening, some which I helped him with including spring rolls from wholewheat filo pastry and stuffed with onions, cabbage, shrimp, and ginger, drizzled with a raspberry chili sauce.
Being from Texas, he loves working with different kinds of chili peppers and incorporates them into most of his dishes and sauces in varying degrees, sometimes shocking the palate right away and other times creeping up on you at the back of your tongue and awakening your senses slowly. I am slowly but very excitedly learning about the world of chili peppers through Bruce and Eric used them a lot in his cooking as well. Bruce also continues the love he and Eric had of interesting mushrooms and uses them as much as possible in his recipes. Tonight's dishes had shitake and portobello mushrooms. At Millennium, Eric would have boxes and boxes of different types of mushrooms in his walk-in fridge and there were the famous mushroom and wine pairing dinners of course. Bruce said Eric is quite the expert and they would go out on wild mushroom hunting excursions in local forests with much success.
Bruce has always wanted to open a restaurant that was in line with his philosophy and principles of using natural, organic and seasonable ingredients when possible, encouraging sustainable agriculture and supporting local farmers. He said that he didn't think the Kemptville marketplace was ready for an "organic" restaurant, with people often correlating this to vegetarian and healthy food only, and needed to appeal to a wider audience. So, he is offering meat and fish and he isn't promoting the use of organic as yet, although he is practicing this, which he said is often the other way in restaurants. Most restaurants in cities like Ottawa are telling customers they are using organic ingredients as more of a promotional opportunity and way to entice customers in, however they are using no or limited organic ingredients, and this isn't controlled as yet so no one knows. He knows this as he has and continues to have a lot of contact with local organic farmers and suppliers and their connections. He is also always on the look out for new and unique suppliers in the green area. For example, he just found an interesting supplier in Toronto who has a business of supplying green products to restaurants such as take out containers and utensils that are biodegradeable. I'll find out much more through working with him and through my own research and connections. This is all very interesting stuff!
I helped prepare and plate a number of dishes, from beef skewers with a peanut chili dressing, to good old macaroni and cheese (yum!), to beef chili, to a lovely vegetable potato potage, to a smoked tofu stir fry, to a roasted garlic crostini (he bakes all of his bread) with a blue cheese spread and smoked portobellos on top, and the spring rolls. One of his other loves is simple food, comfort food, done simply, very well, and with the best ingredients. His menu and what he cooks demonstrates this from the organic greens with "really good olive oil" and "really good balsamic vinegar", to spagetti with tomato sauce with the second serving free, to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with homemade bread, organic fresh ground peanut butter, homemade jelly, banana slices, and you can have a second sandwich for free. He has on tap some organic beers and a variety of organic beverages.
There were all thumbs up to the food that was sampled by guests, and my guests which included Dave and friends, and me. Nice to share some of the good food with friends at home at last.
So, my next shift will be a special gourmet Valentine's dinner that Bruce has planned and is already sold out. He says that he really enjoys the special dinners as he can be creative and put in new items for people to try and they have no choice to try them and usually love them. It's just like Millennium, where he was always trying to surprise guests and keep them guessing and coming back for more. Also, Eric explained that creating dishes was like creating music with the many different layers. I heard often there the relationship between creating food and music, and music was an essential component in the background to cooking, and now I know why. Eric is a guitarist and used to be in a band, and Bruce is a singer and his new restaurant encourages and promotes local musicians through different nights and events. Bruce would have sung at the party on Saturday but he had a cold and he said his voice was not in shape unfortunately. I'll wait for a rain check.
So, I didn't think I would have much to write upon returning home, but then again as I've said before, you never know what will happen. I'll keep on writing as long as I have interesting things to share and I am inspired, which I hope is a long time...
Yesterday, I met the infamous Bruce and Nicole of the Branch restaurant in Kemptville (www.thebranchrestaurant.ca). If you have been following my previous blog entries, Bruce was formerly sous-chef with Millennium restaurant in San Francisco for numerous years, actually seven I just heard from him and some of the best years of his life. A native Texan, he arrived in Ontario as his now wife, from Ontario, was working front-of-house at Millennium and they both wanted to come to Canada after getting married and leaving Millennium.
I met him actually via Dave who had mentioned that I was working at Millennium to a friend at work, blah, blah, and the end of the long story is that I end up helping Bruce at his grand reopening reception, with free food samples, on Saturday afternoon. So, from San Francisco, to Ottawa to Kemptville within a few days.
It was nice to finally meet Bruce and Nicole, a young spirited couple who became restaurant owners sort of by accident and almost overnight, when the place they were working came up for sale and they decided to dive in and become the new owners. Well, they did some renovations and moved into the large upstairs apartment and the rest is history. They had wanted to open up something in the near future and the future became the present.
So, on Saturday morning, I put on my chef whites, which I didn't think I would wear for awhile again, brought in my knife case and started helping Bruce in the small kitchen space where all moves and items for storage have to carefully orchestrated. He kept on saying that it's not like the Millennium kitchen, which is true, but the advantage is that you're only one step away from finding anything and the chef is right there to help you if you can't. So, advantages and disadvantages to everything. We worked on a number of items for the reception in the evening and it was like watching an artist at work as he pulled out different items and ideas of his hat and started creating a number of dishes for the evening, some which I helped him with including spring rolls from wholewheat filo pastry and stuffed with onions, cabbage, shrimp, and ginger, drizzled with a raspberry chili sauce.
Being from Texas, he loves working with different kinds of chili peppers and incorporates them into most of his dishes and sauces in varying degrees, sometimes shocking the palate right away and other times creeping up on you at the back of your tongue and awakening your senses slowly. I am slowly but very excitedly learning about the world of chili peppers through Bruce and Eric used them a lot in his cooking as well. Bruce also continues the love he and Eric had of interesting mushrooms and uses them as much as possible in his recipes. Tonight's dishes had shitake and portobello mushrooms. At Millennium, Eric would have boxes and boxes of different types of mushrooms in his walk-in fridge and there were the famous mushroom and wine pairing dinners of course. Bruce said Eric is quite the expert and they would go out on wild mushroom hunting excursions in local forests with much success.
Bruce has always wanted to open a restaurant that was in line with his philosophy and principles of using natural, organic and seasonable ingredients when possible, encouraging sustainable agriculture and supporting local farmers. He said that he didn't think the Kemptville marketplace was ready for an "organic" restaurant, with people often correlating this to vegetarian and healthy food only, and needed to appeal to a wider audience. So, he is offering meat and fish and he isn't promoting the use of organic as yet, although he is practicing this, which he said is often the other way in restaurants. Most restaurants in cities like Ottawa are telling customers they are using organic ingredients as more of a promotional opportunity and way to entice customers in, however they are using no or limited organic ingredients, and this isn't controlled as yet so no one knows. He knows this as he has and continues to have a lot of contact with local organic farmers and suppliers and their connections. He is also always on the look out for new and unique suppliers in the green area. For example, he just found an interesting supplier in Toronto who has a business of supplying green products to restaurants such as take out containers and utensils that are biodegradeable. I'll find out much more through working with him and through my own research and connections. This is all very interesting stuff!
I helped prepare and plate a number of dishes, from beef skewers with a peanut chili dressing, to good old macaroni and cheese (yum!), to beef chili, to a lovely vegetable potato potage, to a smoked tofu stir fry, to a roasted garlic crostini (he bakes all of his bread) with a blue cheese spread and smoked portobellos on top, and the spring rolls. One of his other loves is simple food, comfort food, done simply, very well, and with the best ingredients. His menu and what he cooks demonstrates this from the organic greens with "really good olive oil" and "really good balsamic vinegar", to spagetti with tomato sauce with the second serving free, to a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with homemade bread, organic fresh ground peanut butter, homemade jelly, banana slices, and you can have a second sandwich for free. He has on tap some organic beers and a variety of organic beverages.
There were all thumbs up to the food that was sampled by guests, and my guests which included Dave and friends, and me. Nice to share some of the good food with friends at home at last.
So, my next shift will be a special gourmet Valentine's dinner that Bruce has planned and is already sold out. He says that he really enjoys the special dinners as he can be creative and put in new items for people to try and they have no choice to try them and usually love them. It's just like Millennium, where he was always trying to surprise guests and keep them guessing and coming back for more. Also, Eric explained that creating dishes was like creating music with the many different layers. I heard often there the relationship between creating food and music, and music was an essential component in the background to cooking, and now I know why. Eric is a guitarist and used to be in a band, and Bruce is a singer and his new restaurant encourages and promotes local musicians through different nights and events. Bruce would have sung at the party on Saturday but he had a cold and he said his voice was not in shape unfortunately. I'll wait for a rain check.
So, I didn't think I would have much to write upon returning home, but then again as I've said before, you never know what will happen. I'll keep on writing as long as I have interesting things to share and I am inspired, which I hope is a long time...
posted by Caroline at 9:00 AM
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