Anissa Helou, Chef, Food Writer, Journalist, Broadcaster & Consultant

Anissa focuses on the cuisines and culinary heritage of the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa. Born and raised between Beirut, Lebanon, and Mashta el-Helou, Syria, she knows the Mediterranean as only a well-traveled native can.

How did you get started on this career path?

It was kind of a coincidence. I used to be in the art world and wanted to write a book about collecting, as I had accumulated a huge collection with relatively little money. I was concentrating in fields that were considered unfashionable and I wanted to write about other collectors that were doing, or that had done, something similar. My newly acquired agent invited me to meet a friend of hers, who was Lebanese, and they started talking about cookbooks. As I listened, I realized there wasn't a Lebanese cookbook that was user-friendly for a Western audience or for people who don’t know anything about Lebanese food. It was the Civil War and I was thinking about all the young people who didn't have the opportunities that I had, to see what was going on in other countries. For those people, a cookbook that represented a foreign culture would be very useful. So, in spite of not knowing anything about cookbooks, I threw the idea out there and my agent mentioned she had a publisher who was looking for somebody to write a Lebanese cookbook. I told her immediately that she had found her person.

It was a kind of rash decision, but she knew everybody in the food world and quickly introduced me. Along with a few mentors I had a boyfriend who was absolutely obsessed with cooking and cookbooks, he had a huge collection, which was very helpful. I originally predicted that it would take me three months to write, but I got seriously into it and it ended up taking about three years.

What is the value in sharing Lebanese food culture with a Western audience?

It’s always interesting to introduce an audience to a culinary tradition that it’s unfamiliar with. It’s rewarding because then, if they love it, you’re sharing a love for the same food. It’s also rewarding to see how proud Lebanese people are to have their cuisine better and more widely-known by the rest of the world. These recipes will become adapted over time, and that’s how new food develops.

Have the flavours and dishes of Lebanese cuisine been well-received by audiences?

It certainly took time. When I first released my Lebanese cookbook, just over twenty years-ago, we tried to convince a very elegant food store to stock Freekeh* and they were completely uninterested. Now it’s the latest “in” ingredient. Basically, what happens with cookbooks is that they expose readers to a cuisine, then it’s up to a chef to adopt the ingredients and adapt the recipes to make them trendy. Everybody then latches on and wants to use these new ingredients and cook the same recipes, although they’re quite different.

*Freekeh is a cereal grain that’s been, for centuries, a staple of Middle Eastern diets.

Have you found that your background in art and design has served as an advantage to what you do now?

I’m always very conscious of the aesthetic of the food, whether it’s in the preparation, the presentation or the cooking. There’s a certain aesthetic to eating, like art; everything is beautiful and everything is sophisticated. My approach to food is more elegant than that of a typical Lebanese grandmother; although, I have to say that both my mother and grandmother are very sophisticated in the kitchen as well! Lebanese cuisine is not quite as aesthetically pleasing as Japanese cuisine, it lacks that emphasis on appearance, but it still holds value to presentation.

Throughout your career you’ve received many accolades and awards for your work in a variety of fields, one of the most impressive of these being your distinction, in 2013, as being one of the 100 most powerful Arab women in the world - what does this title mean to you?

It was flattering, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really mean much. One day you’re on a list like that and the next you’re not. I’m happy to be recognized for my work, it speaks for what I’m doing much better. The meaningful part of what I do is my research and recording of food traditions and cultural practices that are, in some cases, at risk of disappearing. Many of them need to be recorded for the next generation who may otherwise not have the opportunity to get to know them as I have. When I started writing about food, there was little about food history, it wasn't considered a serious field of research. Today, this has changed, which is great because food is such a major part of culture.

Why has food history gained such an increased amount of interest today?

People realized how important it is. It’s such an important part of all of our lives, as a part of social-exchange and our general history. Everybody eats, and the exchange of food between people is so much more than just that. It represents tradition, hospitality, culture, how we relate to one another and how we receive each other. It’s crucial to understand the culture of a certain people. It’s also a wonderful way to become introduced to a culture.

While I was working in art and travelling, it was a glamourous world but I didn't get to know people as well, and certainly not so easily as I get to know them now. When I used to go to Syria, I could stop any lady in the street and talk to her about certain dishes and she would be totally happy to talk to me. That experience is almost across the board in all countries around the world. You start talking about food and everybody wants to join in.

What projects are you currently working on?  

I’m working on a new book that should be finished by the end of the year. I’m also building my house in Sicily, where I’m hoping to have my teaching kitchen.  I want people to come here to learn my cuisine; from the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Sicilian with Arab influences.

What are you looking forward to sharing at this year’s Terroir 10?

I’d like to share my research in food history, talking about the Middle East in terms of what was - as in cases such as Syria - and what still is, and how culinary traditions in this region have and continue to develop. I want to inspire people to learn more about my part of the world. 

Francois Chartier, Flavour Match Maker

I’ve been a sommelier for 30 years, I’ve always tried to understand cooking and cuisine because you cannot be a sommelier if you don’t know how to cook. When I took my sommelier course in 1999, we didn't learn about cooking or cuisine, it was just about matching wine and food. I then travelled the world to discover food - from street food to high-end - to meet and work with chefs, to learn cuisine and to improve my work as a sommelier. Near the end of the 90’s, I discovered that the aromatic compounds of food and wine were more important than the acidity, bitterness, sweetness and taste - everything that the world of gastronomy had been founded upon and communicated through, between chefs, winemakers and sommeliers. I started turning to science to try to understand, for example, why black olive went so well with Syrah wine; mint with Sauvignon Blanc; and ginger with Gewurztraminer. When you put certain ingredients together, that share the same aromatic components, you create an aromatic synergia and like harmonies in music, the sounds are amplified. Since then I published Taste Buds and Molecules in 2009 and I’ve continued to work with scientists in Montreal, Barcelona and Bordeaux.

So, who am I? I’m a sommelier, a cook, a writer, a researcher and a scientist but most of all I am a Creator d’Harmonie - I’m a matchmaker.

What is aromatic science and what purpose can it serve to members of the culinary community?

Aroma is everything. When you have a cold in the morning, you wake up and can’t taste anything. Without smell, we can’t appreciate food and we can’t determine the quality because it’s missing its most important component: the aroma.

When I worked with Ferran Adria, creating over 60 dishes together, we never once spoke about matching wine and food. After explaining my theory, he understood that I could help him discover a new feel for creativity. I don’t combine flavours because I want to be creative, but because they belong together. We are able to magnify foods that share the same aromatic compounds, through combination. I work on the scientific side of food and wine, asking the question - what are the dominant molecules in ingredients? The research I do, trying to discover the dominant aromatic molecules in every ingredient, is very complicated, but the results of this research show that it’s actually very easy for everyone to apply.

I just finished my 26th book L’Essentiel de Chartier; essentially volume two of Taste Buds and Molecules. There’ve been five books in between but they were all inspired by Taste Bubs and Molecules. This one is the real masterpiece; it’s my combined research of the last six years with each page dedicated to one ingredient, listing other ingredients that share the same aromatic compounds as well as ideas for recipes showing how these ingredients can be paired together. I always have millions of ideas for potential recipes in my head.

L’Essentiel de Chartier was just recently awarded in the category of “Best Cookbook in the World - Innovation Category” for Canada at this year’s Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris. How do you feel about your new work being presented with such a recognition of excellence?

I was both happy and surprised because on receiving the award I realized they understood that, beyond sommellerie and my personal professional experience, how fabulous this theory is for creating excellent food. Sometimes, I feel I have the title ‘sommelier’ written across my forehead when I think I’m more than that - not better, just much more. My work is so diverse, and I’m somewhere else now than where I once was.

What in particular do you think is so innovating about this book?

Innovating is a big word. In my case, innovating is to take advantage of science, and to understand my own work. At the end of the 90’s I felt very stuck, which led me to take a break in the early 2000’s, to take a step back and put myself in a danger zone, to be more free and to have time to do some reflection on where I had come from and who I was. I was very challenged by molecular gastronomy - and when I say this I’m not talking about restaurants but instead about the scientists who went into food to understand and discover the answers to why certain cooking practices exist. For example, why do we wait five minutes after taking a roast out of the oven before cutting into it? The answer seems so simple to us, but there’s always a scientific reason. Chefs then take advantage of those discoveries of science and utilize them to develop new ways of cooking and serving food. As a sommelier this was challenging, the changing techniques of preparing the same ingredients was actually altering and expanding their flavour and aroma characteristics. I had to learn to completely change my way of thinking around matching wine and food. This was the beginning, my goal at that time was a bit heavy - to redefine the matching of wine and food for the 21st century. That was the original long title of my work, but I realized who I was and what was most important to me: aromatic components. I needed to understand them, that was innovation in my work and my way of thinking. I’ve been innovative because I need it, not because I’m better than anyone else; I’m just a curious man.

You’re very clear in your distinguishment between molecular harmony and sommellerie, and that of molecular gastronomy. What are their fundamental differences, and why are they important for us to understand?

Molecular gastronomy doesn't exist and at the same time, it’s existed since the cavemen decided to cook red meat in the fire. That was molecular gastronomy because through fire, man changed the molecular compounds and state of the meat. Today’s molecular gastronomy is more about the techniques of cooking. It’s new techniques, adapted from the old to create new food out of the same ingredients. It’s not the show, however. There’s been great confusion recently about the “show” of food - with nitrogen and bubbles it resembles a performance on your plate - but it has to be much more than that too. If there’s nothing behind the show, it will be no good. It’s easier to make a show, to distract from the food, but if you taste, you see through it.

What I call molecular harmony and sommellerie - the word molecular is revering specifically to aromatic compounds. They are linked, but the difference between the two terms is that one is addressing a technique, and the other the molecular compounds of ingredients. If I think of someone like Albert Adria, chefs have changed my brain totally. Since reading the books, I have completely changed the way I approach my work. They have influenced me along with molecular gastronomy, so I owe them a lot. It’s very important and I continue to be inspired but I am also doing something that is really my own.

Based on your theory, that each ingredient belongs together with a finite number of others, it’s really up to chefs and the manipulation of technical approaches through molecular gastronomy to create new and infinite possibilities for creating combinations of these ingredients.

Creativity and inspiration is everywhere. When I bring my information and research to a chef, they use their creativity to constantly develop new ideas. For example, working with Ferran Adria on the matching combination of parmesan cheese and coffee, we looked at what had been done before and what we could then do differently. We played with the state of the ingredients; freezing, defrosting, frying, everything. Once we know that two ingredients share the same aromatic components, that they create synergy, we use this sensibility like a musician to create.

To sit and be in the kitchen, working with the chefs, is the best time of my life. That’s where my science takes form. That’s what I’d really like to communicate at Terroir. 

Jamie Kennedy: A Terroir Veteran Returns

I remember when Arlene first talked to me about organizing Terroir. She was very excited to start this conference, dealing with issues and discussions around food, food procurement, food politics, accessibility and enjoyment - all with a focus on supporting local resources. The idea  intrigued me, so when she invited me to deliver the key-note at the first Terroir conference, I accepted.

This year, chef and local food advocate, Jamie Kennedy, returns to Terroir. It’s been 10 years since he delivered the first key-note at the opening symposium back in 2007, giving him a unique perspective from other speakers and an understanding of the events evolution. Since the humble beginnings he’s remained an advocate and honorary member of the Terroir Symposium family.

Since the early days Arlene was really onto something, gathering people from the industry in a room to discuss and debate food; there was a lot of excitement surrounding it. Many ideas were brought forward, leaving people walking away feeling charged-up with new thoughts and purpose surrounding gastronomy. Since then, as Terroir has continued to evolve, the industry has gathered equal momentum meaning the discussion keeps getting broader and more interesting. More and more people have joined the conversation and it’s become self-propelling.

Since the first Terroir conference, our integral goals have remained, in many ways, unchanged, but the conversation has been ever transforming.

At Terroir 1, conversation surrounded the importance of establishing a food identity for Canada and the region of southern Ontario; making connections with local producers and encouraging education, regarding the importance of local food procurement. The results led to furthering our food culture locally in southern Ontario. Now, there’s this feeling of a groundswell of interest in food in general that’s being recognized globally. We’ve gone beyond just thinking about the gastronomical aspects of these issues and become more conscious of establishing viable local economies in food, as well as on issues surrounding food sovereignty and sustainability.

What I want to bring to Terroir this year, is to encapsulate the progress that’s been made in the last 10 years since I first spoke. Every year since, I’ve come as a delegate to observe the conversation, but it will be a nice comparison to show what’s important in food now, versus then.

You’re recognised as a pioneer of the “farm-to-table” sustainable and local food movement in Toronto and Canada, how have you seen the state of the movement change since it’s early beginnings - is it flourishing or is it still yet to be better implemented and embraced throughout our food industry?

It still needs time - we had a way of thinking in the 20th century which was a strong lobby comprised of the industrial food complex and the economies around global food distribution; which unfortunately is still the norm. In Ontario, if we were to grow and support everything possible in our climate we’d still want to have our coffee, tea and citrus - all things that we hold dear. I don’t challenge the acceptance of items such as these coming into our country from across the world, even just from a cultural perspective. Using coffee as an example, if the commerce surrounding it supports local communities, wherever it’s being grown, and not being exploitive due to large corporate motives, then I’m okay with it. The same goes for wines being imported from other parts of the world, as long as they’re organic, bio-dynamic wines coming from small vineyards that support the surrounding community, that’s okay too. I favor supporting my local economy, of course, but I don’t deny that there’s some exceptions that can reasonably be made. You are choosing who you want to support through every dollar that you spend, whether it’s a dollar that goes into your local economy or one that goes into a global economy, the choice is ours. We are encouraging people to vote with their dollars, to vote to support their local economy and thereby, community, as much as possible.

Tell me a bit about your current partnership with Durham College and how this initiative is working towards your goals of supporting education and initiating change within the food industry.

My ideas surrounding food that I wish to share with a greater audience have brought me to where I am today; in a position to help others understand the importance of supporting and  sustaining local food economies, now and into the future. Again, these ideas are always tied to promoting food sovereignty and food accessibility globally, but beginning with a local focus here in Southern Ontario. Talking to students at Durham is the perfect opportunity to start planting the seeds to the next generation of food service professionals. The curriculum is comprised of subjects ranging from planting seeds, growing vegetables - right in front of their classrooms - allowing the opportunity for culinary, management and horticultural students to have this cross-fertilization happening. When cook students get to see how vegetables are grown, it imbues in them a new respect for the work involved in growing food. From my own experience, when you have that understanding it informs how you approach cooking; it helps you to produce better food. When you have that connection to where it came from and you understand how it was grown, participating in the cultivation and harvest of these crops yourself, it can be very inspiring.

You recently published your cookbook, J.K. The Jamie Kennedy Cookbook; what was the goal of this project, and how has it met your expectations?

This was the third book of my career, and it was more collaborative in nature than the others before it. This was a big point about it because as we talk about food related issues, we can't live in silos; there’s a collaborative spirit that has to exist, in order to move the agenda forward. It’s why change is happening more quickly, and why conferences like Terroir play such an important role because they present a broad cross section of what’s happening in food, in our community and in society; all in one place. The object of the book was retrospective in a way; it talks about food in the restaurant context and the creative process of making food for restaurants, whilst also addressing topics such as education, apprenticeships and my position on a political level. Instead of being limited to recipes, the book includes stories, told to address larger and more important issues around food than simply how to cook.

What current projects are you involved with?

I’m really excited about the relationship I have with Durham College. Also, since I’m no longer operating the restaurant I’ll have the opportunity to spend more time on the farm this summer. I believe that the farm will help to inform what my next steps are with my work and I’m looking forward to engaging in the community of Prince Edward County. Throughout the summer I plan to orchestrate a dinner series every Saturday night, giving the people of PEC an opportunity to come to my farm, eat local food, drink local wine and enjoy themselves.

Nicholas Röhl, Restaurateur, MOSHIMO, Brighton, UK, Creator Fish Love

I co-own a sushi Japanese restaurant in Brighton UK with my business partner Karl Jones. We were the first people to bring sushi to the UK in 1994 - the first British-owned Japanese restaurant in the UK. To that extent, we were kind of the pioneers of sushi in this country. In the late 90’s we became aware of the issue with Blue fin tuna. It happened very quickly, that one day we had bountiful supplies of the fish - it filled the conveyor belt.  Then within weeks, it was very difficult to get a hold of. We were the first restaurant in the UK to take Blue fin tuna off of our menu. One thing led to another and as things became more and more serious, we were asked to help with launching a documentary film called The End of the Line. It was the first documentary to alert people to the catastrophe that was happening in our seas. There was still a continuing struggle to get people to take note of the crisis, however, so we came up with this idea of an image of a naked woman, holding a fish against her, almost as if it were a child. I asked my friend Greta Scacchi who was very keen on helping with the campaign and jumped at the idea of doing this image. It just became a global phenomenon.

Afterwords, everyone assumed that was it, but we thought, why shouldn't it be it? It worked well once, why couldn’t it work with another person, or with a whole set of people? The idea of doing a yearly annual launch of a series of photographs came about and that takes us to now.  We are producing our 6th series of Fishlove. We’ve taken a number of series and had huge success worldwide in getting these photographs on the front covers of the newspapers and on the internet, thereby, raising awareness of the issues of the marine environment.

At what point did you realize how much momentum the project had gained?

We were all taken by surprise by the success of Greta’s image, to be honest. I’ve never seen anything like it. What was a surprise was that we were able to maintain the momentum that we gained so early on. Each time we’ve released a new series, it’s become bigger and bigger. The Jillian Anderson image was pretty big. Lizzie Jagger was phenomenal and then the Helena Bonham Carter one from last year which probably topped them all so far.

Regarding the project’s goal, to raise awareness towards unsustainable fishing practices and prevent further destruction of the earth's marine ecosystem, how successful do you think you’ve been at furthering this mission? How much farther would you like to see the project go?

That’s an interesting questions because all we’re doing really is producing photographs that end up on the front page of publications and some people have said that we’ve done nothing more than that. I don’t think that’s the case at all.

For instance, the Helena Bonham Carter image was directly credited with creating the largest marine protected area in the world. Quite contrary to what the critics say, the campaign has led to huge success on that front.

I think that what’s really important is to realize that in the modern era, how much our politicians do look at the media to influence them and to try to understand what the people care about. The very fact is - that you have the media covering a story, or a photograph and talking about deep-sea fishing.

Fish Love was invited into the Berlaymont building in Brussels and into the European Commission as an acknowledgement of the effect that we’ve had on the debate within the commission and in the political establishment of Europe as a whole. Our photographs have caused a lot of debate amongst politicians – may of whom probably wouldn't have bothered talking about fish until the photographs came out and the exhibition was released. It’s important to remember that in 2009 no one was talking about these issues. When I asked around about starting the series, other than Greta who was very knowledgeable, most people would ask me, why I would be interested in having them hold fish and what the issue was. Now of course, most people have some idea of the issue, in part, because of these photographs.

You’ve been praised for finally making campaigning around food issues “sexy” -- what does this mean to you?

What’s interesting about Fishlove is that, at its core, it’s photography, portrait photography -- it’s art and because of this, Fishlove can keep on going and thriving, as long as there continues to be interesting people willing to hold a fish.

As long as the issue needs to be addressed, it should continue. That’s also what’s different about Fish Love compared to a lot of the other campaigns out there. This is not a charity but more of a visual petition.

What are the advantages of using art as a means to drive change?  

Art appeals to the emotions, and that’s where real change happens. There’s a limit to what you can do to change people’s attitudes if you only direct their intellect to the problem.  If you engage people emotionally, then that is much more effective. One of the strange things about the photographs is still the shock that people have when they see a person clutching a fish against their skin. Maria Damanaki, the European Fisheries Minister said it perfectly: Fish Love works because it reminds us that, as human beings, we’re genetically connected with fish and that we can’t live without them, we’re one in the same. That’s the message that we’re trying to get across -- that shock of connection, which is the purpose of art: to shock.

I guess we could be mistakenly compared to something like PETA, but that’s not art -- it’s propaganda and advertising. Fish Love isn’t that at all. It’s not a simple message; in fact, there is no real message. The photographs are simply images of naked people holding fish. On their own, what do they say? It’s nothing simple, and that’s where the art comes in. There’s no single response that we’re trying to provoke.

I think having people feel for themselves is a much stronger form of communication than trying to shove any kind of message down their throats.

Yeah -- Some of the campaigners have told us that our photographs aren’t really of use to them, because we need to have the message directly inside of the image, otherwise, people are just seeing a naked person with a fish. We did consider this, but then it wouldn’t be Fish Love, a complicated and sophisticated series that really gets people thinking, for themselves.  

What I want is to tell the story of Fish Love, with references towards the criticisms that the campaign has received, and my responses to them. All in all: My experience of steering Fish Love through the choppy waters of starting what we did and all of the problems we’ve faced along the way.

This interview had been edited and condensed from its original format.

Lauren Mote, Bittered Sling, Vancouver

Mixologist. Sommelier. Architect of potions, tonics and elixirs. Accomplished emcee, writer and cocktail judge. International spirits diplomat. Award-winning bar personality Lauren Mote wears many hats, but she’s perhaps best known as the co-proprietor of Bittered Sling — a wildly successful line of high-quality, small-batch cocktail and culinary bitters— and bar manager of the downtown Vancouver hotspot UVA Wine & Cocktail Bar.

What makes a great bar?

The interesting part about being a bartender is that you get to meet some of the most interesting people. I work in a boutique hotel and the people that come into UVA are often very well traveled, well-educated and intuitive people. I’ve been able to have some of the most interesting, intelligent and engaging conversations with guests, while making them drinks. In these experiences the cocktail is the compliment that can brings the conversation together -- that’s what makes a great bar.

What do you do, and what do you plan to share with delegates at Terroir 10?

I've Been bartending for 15 years and in that time I've run many bar programs, progressive cocktail, spirit and wine programs.  I moved to Vancouver in 2007 and I was the bar manager at Lumiere (which at the time was one of the best restaurants in Canada). In 2012, I opened Bittered Sling Bitters, with my partner and chef Jonathan Chovancek, and we started Kale and Nori culinary arts.

Bittered sling is an award winning product, and is used to inspire creativity from chefs and bartenders alike, both professionals and amateurs across Canada and now into the US and abroad. Being that our company is about 4 years old, it's been pretty exciting to see the growth of something that’s so niche. It's fascinating to see a product like Bittered Sling grow when it’s so focused on olfactory nasal and palette perception. It feels like the right time to focus on this, to bring these concepts to Terroir 2016.

Can you describe a bit about how you approach the process of concocting new flavours and inventing bitters?

Creating bitters is an interesting process and both Jonathan and I approach things quite differently. Jonathan looks at it like making a sauce -  being that he’s been a chef for almost 23 years. I look at bitters as being tools to use in bartending as a way to dry out a cocktail and to add balance and complexity. So the two of us look at bitters from a completely different perspective. To create a bitter, we start from experimenting with the ingredients that we’re inspired by, for example, orange and juniper. We’ll bite into them, play with them in as many different forms as possible, and start recording all of the flavor notes that we sense from them. From there, we compare our notes, and from the beginning we were always surprised to find that our notes were so similar except for the fact that our weights were different because he was building a sauce and I was building an accompaniment to a drink. Then together, we begin the trial and error process of experimenting with these flavor notes and those of other ingredients, to create a final finished product.

We like use the analogy of taking apart and engine and putting it back together again. If you were to describe what orange tastes like, looks like, smells like, and feels like to somebody who has no sensory perception, how would you explain it?

So that’s what we do with our bitters, how we build them.

Would you consider yourself a supertaster?

I think it would be very hard for me to say that I’m a supertaster, but I know that when I build flavours, bitters or anything to do with sensory perception with notes or palate, I’m able to identify and associate names and words and colours and extractions to everything that I taste. I know that I can go toe-to-toe with any sommelier, any chef, with anyone who knows how to taste and understand flavors and palate.

I read Francois Chartier’s* book, Taste Buds and Molecules, and I read his analysis of different flavour compounds. I found that there were many things that I already could taste and knew on my palate, but I just needed more information on exactly what characteristics and chemical codes I was tasting and smelling to better identify them.  

I think that the ability to “super taste”, doesn't mean much anyways if you don’t have the sensory education and vocabulary to identify the things that you smell and taste…

Absolutely. There was this craze about 10 years ago when bartenders were putting up to 15 different ingredients in cocktails and I did the same thing! I would go down one path, trying to express the flavour of a strawberry, for example, and I would find 15 different ways that I could do that. Over the years, I’d learned better to condense many ingredients into less and more complex ones to achieve the same quality of flavour but in more interesting ways.

What do you think we could do more of in terms of education, as an industry, to expose a larger and more inclusive demographic to the value of better understanding flavour and taste perception?

I think that there is a large percentage of people that are interested and passionate about food and beverage, than there are people that aren’t. To reach these people, I think we just have to keep presenting more opportunities, that can act as gateways for people to really get involved in the industry.

To get people involved in this level of understanding of food and beverage, I think it’s just a matter of finding the hook of how to bring people in and make them feel comfortable. Once they get in they’ll never want to leave.

The entire reason that I chose bartending, over continuing to pursue my postgraduate education is that I get to have face-to-face contact with people that will eat and drink every single day of their lives. Through beverage and within this industry, I can actually have a much greater impact on these people.

This interview had been edited and condensed from its original format.

Edouardo Jordan, Chef & Owner Solare Restaurant, Seattle, Washington

Edouardo Jordan is the chef and owner of Solare Restaurant in Seattle, Washington -- a fairly new restaurant. Chef Jordan aims to share his experience of working up the kitchen ranks as a minority in fine dining environment until his experience today owning and running his very own establishment.

Can you elaborate on exactly what your experience has been like, as a minority in the food and hospitality industry?

There’s not many black owners, or chefs, especially in the fine-dining scene. It’s a rarity right now, and it’s also a struggle because I’ve never had many people that I can go to for advice that resemble my own background. I’m originally from St.Petersburg Florida and as a minority from the south, coming into the professional food scene, I wanted to explore food beyond my foundation.

Like most chefs, French and Italian cuisine became the basis of my professional development.  I’d never traveled, never had major experiences in French restaurants or cooking prior to coming into the industry, so it was a whole new world to me. I began getting more training, learning more, tasting more, and understanding a cuisine that was very far fetched from what I had grown up with as a southern black man.  Throughout all of this, I didn't have a lot of people I could turn to, or mentors, because I didn’t know people in the industry, no true leaders at least, that shared my background and my culture, that I could give a phone-call and ask, for example, ‘How was it for you back in the day?’ ‘What do I have to look forward to?’ That was somewhat of a struggle for me, just trying to find my path and to stay on path too, once I found it. I made it I guess...

*laughs*... I’m still getting there.

What led you to pursue a career as a chef?

I always knew I wanted to either work either in the restaurant industry or to have my own restaurant, ever since I was a little kid. I started cooking at a young age, with my grandmother and my mother, just kind of helping out, baking cakes, mixing this, turning that... I always had a passion for being in the kitchen, helping out, seeing the outcome of working with them and having happy family members praise me and my grandmother for the beautiful dishes that we made. That was always part of my lifestyle, part of my soul.

I ended up going to the University of Florida and graduated, still itching for the food industry. So I ended up deciding to go to culinary school and started taking things seriously. I’m the kind of person that once I dive into something, I really want to be the best at it, so I put that to heart and just started running. I decided that I was going to work the hardest, become the best chef that I could possibly be and to, one day, become the owner of a restaurant.

You began your culinary career with a food blog and you would have been one of the early adopters of the blogosphere which has subsequently exploded. How has the culture of food blogging changed since its earlier days?

When I graduated from the University of Florida I started a food blog, called Tampers.com. I was dabbling, still trying to learn myself. It was my initial means of getting into the restaurants community, tasting food, developing my own taste and opinions and then presenting those opinions to the general public. It didn't really work out that long for me *laughs* but it was a good start. Nowadays, we have Yelp, Facebook, Instagram and everything else, so now everyone’s a critic and everyone is instantaneously able to share their opinions.  Social media has definitely shaken the food writing scene as a whole.  

What would you consider to be your specialty, as a chef?

I work a lot with my southern heritage, present a lot of southern influences on my menu and I am also learning more about West African cuisine. Unfortunately, I don’t technically have access to African ingredients here, but I kind of respectfully bastardize some of the original recipes, to create my own take on the dishes of West Africa. My specialty is bringing a little bit of my own heritage into my cuisine.

Looking at my cuisine in particular, I do love making cured meats. I know everyone is into that now but I do a lot of charcuterie and a lot of salami making and I think, personally, that’s one of my biggest specialties.

I read that your philosophy is, “Don’t mess up a good ingredient”. What does this mean to you, as a chef and a lover of good food?

That philosophy kind of stems from my fine dining training, which I’ve slowly begun to distance myself from. The whole concept of über fine dining began to really upset me. It was a great foundation for who I am today, my future, and all those things that prepare you to be a great chef but the amount of waste that I saw and had to deal with, as a chef, training in fine-dining restaurants... it freaked me out. With the rise of molecular gastronomy, it kind of changed a whole other aspect of cooking.  

The most important thing for me is knowing, how to cook, using traditional and classic techniques.  I understand and appreciate, many of the modern methods of cooking, but I realize that it isn't for me. That’s not the way I look at food and it’s not the way my grandmother taught me to cook, so this is the direction that I’ve moved in.

As you step away from fine-dining, what are you moving towards with your cooking and your restaurant?

With my food, I just want to be in touch with my heritage. When I started cooking professionally, I kind of shamelessly turned my back to my heritage because I thought that the French cooking and cuisine was the only way to go.  After training in French and Italian cuisine and learning the foundations of cooking, I realized the importance of re-embracing my heritage and bringing it back into my food, while also, still retaining and utilizing what I was taught from a professional standpoint.

I created my restaurant for my neighborhood, my family and to support a sustainable existence in the community, that the people can love and enjoy for a long time.

What value do you hope your restaurant will return back to its neighbourhood community?

Most importantly, it brings people, families and friends together. I have created a very open and welcoming restaurant without sacrificing any quality of the food.

It’s important to bring families together in a neighbourhood that’s open to embracing your restaurant, to call it there restaurant and feel comfortable coming inside, regardless of whether it’s only for a quick drink and to read the newspaper or to enjoy a really high-quality meal. I want to offer the neighbourhood a place to come and restore -- there’s nothing pretentious here at all.

People always ask me to describe my food and it’s hard to explain. It’s not really French, Italian, or Southern, I don’t know what to call it -- it’s just f*cking good food!

This interview had been edited and condensed from its original format.