Chefs get creative with centre of the plate

A BIC newsletter from 2009 says the “trend is driven by consumer interest in everything from environmental and sustainability issues to the slow food movement.” ‘ This trend is not going away, either, having worked its way onto the plates of Canada’s fine dining restaurants, forcing owners and chefs to rethink their centre of the plate showpieces. “Clearly, Canadian beef has a high recognition and enjoyment factor with guests. Restaurant operators may want to take advantage of this and promote the fact that they are serving Canadian beef on their menu,” says Duane Ellard, director of foodservice marketing at the BIC.

Craig Flinn is co-owner and executive chef at Chives Canadian Bistro in Halifax. The Chives menu is updated seasonally, and Flinn says it has “evolved” over the years, as consumer tastes have changed. “The trend I see is a movement to make vegetables and other things more centre of the plate than just the protein,” he explains. With Canada becoming more multicultural and people striving to be more health conscious, the definition of what should be the focus of a meal has expanded. Flinn says ingredient costs also play a role, as restaurateurs look for ways to save money, savings that can be passed along to consumers looking for a more economical night out.

Smaller and cheaper cuts of meat

When the size of the protein is reduced by one or two ounces, and the plate’s food cost lowered accordingly, the consumer often won’t miss the extra size when the meat portion is replaced by extra vegetables or other side dishes. “In North America and the wealthy nations, the centre of the plate has only been really protein dishes,” says Flinn. “In many other cultures the meat is the garnish. In Asia, China, Japan, Thailand, the meat is used as a flavour and noodles and even vegetable broth can be a show stopper.”

“People are more interested in eating more vegetables. Now they say that half of the plate should be vegetables. To just have meat and potatoes is not a balanced meal and that was not the case 10 to 15 years ago.” For now, the Chives menu is still mainly protein-based, but he is slowly moving to make more room for vegetables. An example of the evolution of the Chives menu is taking chicken, normally served as a breast or breaded, and dividing it up in small amounts to stuff in ravioli, served with three or four vegetables. The meat is still there, but instead eating six ounces of meat, the diner is eating two to three ounces, and the cost is five dollars less.

“People are more open to thinking outside the box,” Flinn says. Michael Allemeier, a veteran chef turned culinary instructor at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary, agrees that protein portion sizes are getting smaller. More and more owners are finding ways to reduce prices, while still being able to offer a quality product to guests. He says chefs are now using cheaper, less premium cuts of meat, like those from the neck, shoulder and tail, in order to save money for the restaurant. “Economic times have made it more common. You take a cut that is from an obscure part of the animal and it takes skill to make this tough obscure part of the animal tender and delicious,” Allemeier says. Another Halifax chef, Ray Bear, who recently opened his new restaurant Mix Fresh Kitchen, says, “The love affair between the chef and the pig” has long been an influence on the casual and fine dining scene in Canada. “The competition for who could utilize every drop of the animal, perfecting classical techniques, has been seen on the plates across the country. This has been driven by the urge to recreate comfort food,” Bear says.?He adds that consumers have taken to “true ethnic food,” with more chefs exploring those flavours and cooking techniques in their restaurants. ?“I expect that chefs will continue the quest to cook, season and rest proteins properly while not losing focus on creative flavour combinations,” Bear says.

“There is more appreciation to try lesser cuts or lesser fish. There was a time when menus were dominated by tuna and tenderloin, now its mackerel or monkfish,” Howell says. Meats with more flavour than higher end cuts, such as flank steak and pork bellies, are also becoming more popular. Howell explains that, interestingly, it is the premium cuts that have less natural flavour, while the lesser cuts are bursting at the seams with flavour.

Sustainable seafood

Much of the seafood used at Tempest is purchased right off the dock and is served at the restaurant the same day. Howell has an ongoing relationship with growers and fishers who know what he likes to serve, which makes it easy to source the best possible ingredients. He adds that sustainable seafood is still the leading trend among chefs. “As a result, major food retailers are shifting their seafood procurement policies and product offerings to be more in line with popular ethical choices,” Howell says. “At Tempest we have been virtually 100 per cent sustainable seafood since 2008, serving no Atlantic salmon, no bluefin or yellowfin tuna (and) no Chilean seabass, only dayboat halibut, haddock and other inshore fisheries products that are deemed sustainable by SeaChoice.”

Robert Clark, executive chef at Vancouver restaurants C, Raincity Grill and Nu, agrees that more restaurants are adding sustainable seafood options to their menus. This comes from the chef who almost single-handedly brought the sustainability issue to the forefront in Canada’s restaurant kitchens. “Customers in British Columbia are starting to demand it. In our restaurants, we are spending more energy on making sure that we know the provenance of what we are serving and working on translating that to the customer,” Clark says. “We are trying to make the dishes more approachable and comforting, yet creative in some ways to make it interesting for the diner and for our chefs.” As well, many of the dishes served at C, Raincity and Nu are becoming lighter and healthier, while remaining locally sourced as much as possible. Clark says the chefs are working to make the dishes even more sustainable by boosting the protein component through the use of “creative” vegetables and products like quinoa, a South American grain that is high in essential amino acids and is a source of iron, copper, magnesium and phosphorus. Quinoa is also believed to help with migraine headaches. Cactus Club food architect Rob Feenie believes the economy has played a large role in how customers have approached where they dine and what they have ordered.

“I see the trends are heading towards vegetables being more of a centre of the plate star. This is the natural progression of sustainability, and that word is being used even more in Canadian kitchens,” Vergen says. “It has become a prize term when referring to showcase items. And as we all know, it takes less input to grow vegetables than proteins.” At the Ale House, they use the entire cow in classical ways, whether it be burgers, brisket sandwiches, marrow bones for apps. and scraps for meat jus. Vergen purchases a lot of whole animals, which ends up being cheaper than buying selected cuts of meat. “When you are thinking about cuts of beef, everyone wants the strip loins (and) tenderloins. For a farmer to keep up on the production on those cuts he needs to market the rest of the carcass, and sometimes has trouble doing so,” Vergen says.

Improving economy means higher end cuts of beef

High-end beef is seeing a return to restaurants after the recent economic troubles pushed it off the menu at many establishments, according to Leavoy at Leavoy Rowe Beef Co. He says two years ago, Kobe beef was the focus, while today it is chicken, gourmet hamburgers and lesser cuts of meat. “Beef is more celebratory. No one has felt like celebrating the last couple of years,” Leavoy says. Companies were faced with “the optics of being perceived as belt tightening,” which impacted on corporate lunches and special events, and reduced profits for suppliers like Leavoy Rowe. Consumers and restaurant managers and owners made more “humble” meat purchases during the downturn. However that is slowly changing as the economy and consumers’ personal finances rebound and companies hire back some of the staff they cut back during the economic downturn. Companies are also realizing it is a competitive disadvantage not to conduct business over lunch or dinner, something that might have been decreased or eliminated as a cost savings measure.

“You can only eat your wife’s cooking for so long. People are coming back (to restaurants) and are looking to get out,” Leavoy says. All the changes taking place in the industry’s kitchens makes it an exciting time for chefs, according to Feenie at Cactus Club. “It’s a really interesting time for people to be eating out. Definitely people are looking for leaner (meats). We sell a great deal of salads on our menu. For us down the road, the changes we will have to make are dependent on health,” Feenie says. “It’s going to be a fun year for me in creating dishes.”