What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
I am good at conceiving dessert dishes, but lack the practice to always do them well.

Who or what got you interested in food?
I have enjoyed cooking since watching my mother make evening meals…it was my brother who said I should become a chef.

What inspires you?
Ingredients and where they come from.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
My mother’s lasagna…and yes, I still love it!

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Breakfast in bed for my parents when I was 10…scrambled eggs and toast.

Proudest food-related moment?
Representing Nova Scotia at the first Canadian Chef’s Congress in 2008 at Eigensinn Farm.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Rattlesnake…I had to spit it out.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
Deglazing a hot pan with wine.

Favourite cooking smell?
Frying onions.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Tourtiere pie.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
I think it is well done by only a few chefs around the world. Everyone else should just…stop it already!

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
Love it actually.

What local foods can’t you live without?
Maple syrup, lobster, oysters, potatoes.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
When I travel I spare no expense on food in restaurants. I will eat anywhere if I think it’s worth the experience. Money is no object.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Almost any hand-held knife sharpener. Only a whetstone works.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
My handmade wooden cutting board. Made by a Valley man at 88 years old. I hate chopping on plastic or glass boards, but the sentimental value is even greater.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
Kidneys.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
My Uncle John. He passed away before I became a chef and he loved to cook. He would absolutely be thrilled with my chosen career.

What would you prepare for him/her?
A 10-course tasting menu of my best dishes of the past 10 years…and lots of lobster, his favourite.

What  was the last thing you ate?
A homemade meatloaf and aged cheddar panini.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
I would be a very unhappy and hungry artist.

On March 1st, more than 400 chefs, food writers, food and beverage experts, restaurateurs and leaders in the hospitality field gathered at the Terroir Symposium in Toronto. While sessions ranged from steak tasting to social media, branding to (not surprisingly) terroir, the day opened with The Art of Hospitality. Chris McDonald of Toronto’s Cava Restaurant started the session with an informative and visually impressive presentation on restaurant trends. The “fireside chat” portion came from Craig Flinn of Chives Canadian Bistro in Halifax.

Flinn told the story of Chives in hopes of inspiring young, cash-strapped chefs. He made no promises, but instead explained the strategies and philosophy that worked for him. For those who couldn’t attend, here are the main points from Craig Flinn’s enlightening and humorous talk.

Background: Flinn loved good food and wine but not the pretense and expense of fine dining. To bridge the huge gap between high-end restaurants and the family diner, he opened a neighbourhood bistro that embraced high quality local ingredients from the Annapolis Valley, a growing winery scene, and artisan food. He also wanted to address the public’s needs, which included targeting students on a budget and people on time restraints wanting a quick bite before the movie. So Chives was conceived.

Today: Ten years in, Chives is doing well and Flinn has seen “a big shift in other restaurants to move towards the middle.”

Flinn on Building a Neighbourhood Bistro

• Remove the pretense. Chives has no linens, expensive cutlery, high-end microfiber chairs or costly printed menus. Flinn puts local art on the walls, posts a chalkboard menu — and his chairs? From Sears.

• Food and service before wine and ambiance: Flinn says educating your staff is a low cost way to improve the dining experience. Wine and decor are expensive, but if you provide good food, people will come. If they have a question, your informed staff will know the answer.

• Price just under the top: Flinn doesn’t price dishes based on food costs. Instead, he keeps prices below the top 5 restaurants in Halifax and crafts a menu $2 to $4 less on every item. If their soup is $12 his is $8.

• Push expectations: If an item isn’t being ordered, give customers a taste for free. The next visit, they might order it.

• Promote “Canadianness”: Although Flinn uses local ingredients from local farmers, he also embraces the culture of the region — Acadian dishes, French pates, Italian charcuterie — giving traditional European fare a Nova Scotian feel.

• Hold off on the advertising: Print, TV and radio are expensive and can easily eat up your meager profits. Initially, Flinn chose not to advertise, putting only his phone number in the Yellow Pages. In lieu of advertising, he focused on the community. He “earned media” by being present in the community, giving back, offering tastes, taking staff along to events. “Getting yourself out into the community builds more loyalty than advertising or 2 for 1 coupons,” he says. Of course, there is a time for branding and logos, but that comes later. Flinn began advertising on local radio recently.

• Have something people buy into: Flinn was concerned Chives was becoming a special occasion restaurant with clients coming only for birthdays and anniversaries. To counteract this he got involved in more youth events. Now Chives has a broad demographic of regular clients ranging from 25 to 65+.

• Local, local, local not location, location, location: Food trumps location. With the advent of Google maps Flinn says any restaurant can be found. In fact, a hidden location might even be a bonus since the public likes a secret and seeking you out makes diners feel like they’re going to a “real place.”  His proof? Chives first opened on a dark street just two doors down from a “massage parlour” —  but that didn’t prevent clientele from coming.

• Food is the prize: You can’t have long-term business without service and food.

If you have any points to add about growing a restaurant, we’d love to hear from you. Or if you attended the Terroir Symposium and wish to comment on other events, drop by the comments section. It never closes.

Photo © waferboard. Published under a Creative Commons License.

Dean Tudor is Ryerson University Journalism Professor Emeritus and the author of  the book Finding Answers. He taught Canadian news media, law and ethics, and computer-assisted reporting and research. He has been writing about beverage alcohol and food since 1968. His articles and books were published in the USA by Libraries Unlimited, R. R. Bowker, Library Journal, and American Library Association. His books Wines, Beers and Spirits and Cooking for Entertainment both won American Library Association reference literature awards. Dean produces his World Wine Watch Online and has two blogs, Gothic Epicures and his award-winning wine satire site Faux Voix VinCuisine.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Savouries: I lust for herbs and flavours found in appetizers and cheeses. I could eat small plates all day long. It must be my wine mentality.

Who or what got you interested in food?
Going to Europe opened my taste buds. Then I spent my first full-time paycheque on wine and food, both being upgrades over my usual food budget. I wanted to see what food was all about. After that, the sky was the limit. Eventually, to pay for my habit, I had to get some writing gigs.

What inspires you?
My wife Ann’s cooking. Luckily, she apparently thrives on my accolades and bouquets. She cooks from scratch. When we married we set up some ground rules in the kitchen since she loves to cook. I promised to be her sous-chef and later, when I retired, I also took over all the pots and pans on a regular basis.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
My grandmother was Italian-born, so my mum made a lot of peasant-style Italian food. My fave would have to be polenta with tomato sauce and grated Parmesan. I still love it, but I have branched out to variations with pesto, grilled polenta, or creamy Gorgonzola.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Sandwiches I made as a kid (I made a killer fried egg sandwich) and stuff like that. My adult period:  date squares, Western sandwiches, any kind of soup.

Proudest food-related moment?
I’ve got two. One: just after we met, Ann (a gal from the Midwest who believed that I was some food and wine hotshot from Down East) made me some dynamite buttery croissants from scratch. But she didn’t know I had already fallen in love with her. And two: the sous-chef compromise (above) was a dealmaker.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
I’m not that adventuresome. The most bizarre (at least to me) was in Nice in 1969. I had a Plateau de Fruits de Mer  (clams, oysters, mussels, periwinkles, unidentified other bivalves or crustaceans). It came with a couple of cut lemons. So I squeezed a lemon clockwise around the plate, and everybody twitched in clockwise fashion. To this day, I still cannot say “everything on the plate” — it has to be “everybody” since they were so obviously still alive.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
A lid being placed on the top of a pot. The worst sound is someone cleaning the pots and pans since that is my job.

Favourite cooking smell?
All of them, but maybe butter and cooked sugar. I may talk about how I love savouries, but I also love the smell of sweets cooking.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
For me, tourtiere.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
If you can duplicate it in the home kitchen, then it’s okay. Otherwise, leave it to the commercial establishments. Currently, it is overwrought. I’m just waiting for the next big thing, which at one time was supposed to be microgreens, but they never really got out of the ground.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
You know, cilantro really is the dividing line between foodies. You either like it or you don’t. Personally, I prefer coriander (joke).

What local foods can’t you live without?
It is easier to list what I don’t like. Usually, I am on a seafood diet: I see food and I eat it. If you pinned me down, it has to be basil, all kinds of nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant) and lilies (onions, garlic, leeks), local cheeses, Red Fife flour.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Spending money on top quality food in a top quality restaurant. It doesn’t happen very often. We used to go to Joso’s in Toronto for fish at lunch. All we would have is one whole fish EACH. No apps, sides, desserts, beverages (except one Perrier) — couldn’t get out for under $130 (including taxes and tips).

Also, on my 50th birthday I hired my son-in-law, a chef who now owns Tempest Restaurant in Wolfville, NS, to construct a meal (and cook it) for 10 friends of mine. I supplied the wines.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
A chef’s knife. Just kidding. Actually, that’s a hard question. For us, it would have to be a microwave. There’s nothing a microwave does that can’t be done better with a real stove.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
Any sharp knife, or a decent medium-sized spatula. You can do a million things with a sharp paring knife. A commercial Garland gas stove is a close second.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
Beets.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Probably one of the de’ Medici. Then I would be forced to taste (yea!) my own food under penalty of death. Seriously, I have no idea.  Probably my  mother; I never did cook much for her when she was alive. So, call it guilt.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Surely something simple, nourishing, and full of taste. How about polenta with pesto sauce?

What  was the last thing you ate?
For lunch today, I had some blue cheese with a cake made from dried fruit and nuts, held together with a little flour and eggs. My second course was Parmigiano-Reggiano with chewy homemade Red Fife breakfast crunchies.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
I’m principally a wine writer, so I would concentrate more on that area. Also, film criticism has appealed to me.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Mains.

Who or what got you interested in food?
My mother — she hated cooking and I knew I’d better love it if I wanted to eat well.

What inspires you?
Fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, pasta, sauces.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
Grandma’s meatloaf – made with two cans of soup and a pound of “ground round”. I still love it.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
Jello with canned pears. My mother threw it out.

Proudest food-related moment?
Graduating from University in Home Economics.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
A meal in Istanbul a couple of years ago. I still don’t know what it was.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
The dishwasher “doing its thing.”

Favourite cooking smell?
Pickles being made.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Salmon and fiddleheads, grilled on the barbecue.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
Can’t get enough.

What local foods can’t you live without?
Fresh local strawberries and fresh local tomatoes.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Cream and butter (in small amounts) rather than an edible oil topping and margarine.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Garborator.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
A rocking chair made by my grandfather and brought from Newfoundland to Toronto in 1920. It sat in my grandparent’s kitchen, then my mothers, now mine, and it’s still used every day.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  __________ again, I’d be happy.
Liver.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Pierre Trudeau, because I think he probably had an educated palate and would appreciate small amounts of great food.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Either peppercorn steak with garlic potatoes and green beans or a lobster dish with a butter sauce.

What  was the last thing you ate?
Oatmeal porridge and homemade brown bread.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
Write.

Dana Ewart and partner Cameron Smith of Joy Road Catering, BC

Dana Ewart attended the prestigious Stratford Chef’s School in Ontario, where she completed her chef’s training with honours as well as an extensive pastry training program. After completing her formal education, Dana worked as the head of pastry and garde manger at the highly-regarded Avalon Restaurant in Toronto and under Normand Laprise at Toque! in Montreal.

While in Montreal, Dana also staged and worked at many French bakeries, such as Le Passe Partout and Le Fromontier, and as the pastry chef at Les Caprices de Nicolas. Dana has traveled to New York, California and France to study technique and theory with some of the industry’s finest. An internship on Quadra Island early on in her culinary journey sparked a natural affinity for sourcing superior ingredients. She and her partner Cameron Smith run Joy Road Catering in the Okanagan Valley.

What’s your weakness? Dessert or mains?
Pastries.  But really- if you want a cook to be truthful? Espresso and booze.

Who or what got you interested in food?
I grew up in farm country eating ripe raspberries.

What inspires you?
Ripe raspberries.

What was your favourite dinner when you were a kid? Do you like it now?
My mom didn’t have white death in our house when I was a kid. So no sugar, salt, white flour etc. and milk was for baby cows. On special occasions we would have canned Campbell’s cream of mushroom  soup lead from cans was going to poison us, so it was really a treat.

I have since discovered the world of wild mushrooms, so I have not had mushroom soup from a can in a long long time. I’ll have to get back to you on whether I like it now.

What’s the first dish you remember making?
I remember learning how to crack an egg. Fun times.

Proudest food-related moment?
Every time one of our clients enjoys something we have brought to the table.

Strangest food you’ve ever eaten?
Strange for normal people? Cod tripe, calves brains, crab guts, all pretty normal to chefs.

Favourite sound in the kitchen?
The whisper of a really sharp knife going through chives.

Favourite cooking smell?
Sourdough baking.

Quintessential Canadian dish?
Anything made with care by a Canadian with ingredients grown here. Quintessential- tourtiere, pate chinois, butter tarts made with maple.

Molecular gastronomy, best thing ever or the unwearable haute couture of food?
It’s not black or white. That’s for sure.  I make mayonnaise, you make mayonnaise, Harold McGee would call that molecular gastronomy. It certainly has its place. Haute cuisine/ couture will always push the boundaries.

Cilantro — can’t get enough or tastes like soap?
When I was a kid I used to swear a lot, so I don’t mind the taste of soap. I love cilantro, and it doesn’t taste like soap — believe me I would know.

What local foods can’t you live without?
Garlic, onions and shallots, apples, fresh herbs, nectarines, raspberries.

What’s your greatest culinary extravagance?
Travel.

Most over-rated kitchen gadget?
Oven mitts, especially those rubbery ones.

What’s the most treasured possession in your kitchen? Why?
All of the incredible fresh ingredients that we buy from our local farmers. Because without we cannot make beautiful food.

Fill in the blank. If I never cooked / ate / heard about  ______ again, I’d be happy.
Green peppers.

If you could cook for anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Hemingway. He appreciated and loved good food and he’d be really entertaining. We’d have some cocktails, eat something savage, and then drink more, and then have some drinks.

What would you prepare for him/her?
Probably something simple. Freshly caught fish.

What  was the last thing you ate?
A cinnamon bun (leftovers from the farmers’ market that we freeze for winter). We do not go to the store in winter. We only eat from our freezers and what we have canned. We have 3 chest freezers full of treasures from catering all summer.

If you had to work outside the culinary field, what would you do?
Farm — but wait, that’s in the culinary field.

“Last year’s inaugural workshop was a roaring success, so I’ve expanded the workshop to 20 participants and I’m bringing in food writing experts from the US and Canada,” explains independent food journalist Jennifer Cockrall-King, workshop coordinator. “It’s part food-writing workshop, part food and wine tour in the incredibly vibrant Okanagan Valley when local products are at their peak and just before the wine harvest.”

2010 instructors include:

• Dianne Jacob is a California-based writing coach, editor, and author of Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Blogs, Articles, Memoir, and More. Re-issued in July 2010, the book won the Cordon D’Or International award for Best Literary Food Reference Book. www.diannej.com

• Born in Vancouver, Claudia Cusano is Italian by blood, and thus grew up with a love of food, family, and friendship. Claudia is the editor for NUVO magazine, a lifestyle magazine for the Canadian sophisticate. www.nuvomagazine.com

• Liane Faulder is The Edmonton Journal’s food columnist and appears in the Bistro section on Wednesdays, and on Saturdays in Lifestyle. She is also food columnist for CBC radio’s afternoon program in Edmonton, Radio Active. An award-winning reporter, Liane’s features have been published in Reader’s Digest, Today’s Parent, Venture and Chatelaine magazines.

• South Okanagan’s own Rhys Pender, is a wine educator, freelance wine writer, wine judge and consultant to the industry. In 2010 Rhys became the 4th Master of Wine (MW) in Canada. Rhys is a regular contributor on wine to publications Wine Access, Scout Magazine, CityFood and Montecristo. http://www.wineplus.ca/

• Cuisine Canada member Jennifer Cockrall-King is a food writer (www.foodgirl.ca) with over 13 years of contributing to publications in Canada and the US. In 2008, Western Living named her as one of the “Top 40 Foodies Under 40.” She teaches food writing courses with MacEwan’s Writing Works in Edmonton and at UBC Okanagan. And she is the producer of the Okanagan Food & Wine Writers Workshop because it’s just too good here not to share it with like-minded people.

Registration is limited to 20 writers in order to give each writer personalized instruction. The cost of the workshop is $650 — a few early bird spots are still available at $575 (email to inquire), and includes all professional development seminars, field trips, wine touring, meals and activities, excluding travel to and from the workshop and accommodations. Special workshop room rates are available at the host hotel, the Penticton Lakeside Resort.

Detailed workshop information is available on the Okanagan Food and Wine Writers Workshop Website, or by contacting workshop coordinator Jennifer Cockrall-King at 780-242-3663 or jennifer@foodgirl.ca.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the exciting and interesting finds from Manitoba:

Cold Pressed Prairie Oils
We’ve all seen cold pressed canola oil.  How about cold pressed flax, sunflower and  hemp for salad dressings, dips, or finishing oils.  Grown locally, and often pressed fresh in front of your eyes, the oils are full of Prairie sunshine.  The cool climate is considered a major factor in the higher polyunsaturate content in the oils, meaning heart healthy.  Watch out for mustardy camelina oil which may be coming out soon, thanks to work from the Food Development Centre in Portage la Prairie.

Unique grains, pulses and lentils
Canada’s Prairie provinces are the global production leader for chickpeas, pulses and lentils.  Healthy, and homegrown.  Other unique grains, from quinoa, spices and Cavena nuda “oat rice” are coming out in the mainstream.  How about split pea snacks?  Not just for South Asian namkeen and khoraki snacks any more, these crunchy goodies come in classic potato chip flavours, with none of the potato chip guilt.  Or check out local grains in finished products.  Artisanal bakeries are taking advantage of the goodness.

Hemp everything
Manitoba is Canada’s hemp foods leader.  With over 6000 acres in hemp production, look out for a wide variety of processed product.  Whole or hulled hemp seeds for baking, snacking, and everything in between, through hemp protein isolates for health and wellness, hemp nut butter, and hemp-milk beverages.  Nutty, tasty, and extremely healthy.

Big time for Bison
Bison has come full circle, from being the original prairie delicacy, sustaining the Aboriginal communities, to being the trendy meat of choice in restaurants across the region.  Burgers, satays, stews, bison has come back big time.

Varietal Honeys
Clover or buckwheat honey is beautiful, but how about borage or raspberry blossom honey?  Look for niche varietals with unique floral characteristics.  Blended honey is another treat, look for honey spreads and honey butters with Prairie fruits, or real butter blended in.

Smoked Fish
Who’d have guessed that some of the best smoked fish comes from the centre of the country.  Gimli-style smoked lakefish is unlike anything else.  Smoked goldeneye anyone?

Classic Confectionery
No questions, this is your mom and dad’s candy.  Maybe even your grandparent’s candy.  Classic, comfortable, and oh so kitsch.  Fluorescent pink popcorn, and prizes are just a few of the options.

Multicultural Ready to Eat
Ukranian and Icelandic influences are hitting the multicultural frozen or ready-to-eat fare.  Look for classic pickled foods and other homestyle items to lead the trend.

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing…
How about pairing one of Manitoba’s top tourist destinations with a marketing strategy for Manitoban and Canadian foods?  This is Randy Cameron’s plan. Cameron, General Manager of The Forks Market, along with Manfred Villing, President of Wittmann Foods, are organizing the “Canada’s Home Grown Marketplace”. Here, uniquely Canadian food products will be showcased and sold to the 4 million visitors who come to The Forks each year.  They are actively seeking products, and building contacts with interested vendors.

Photo – courtesy of Travel Manitoba