The National Post laments Canada's unwillingness to support "haute"

[chromedome]

When I was going to culinary school, Michael Smith was one of the country's most visible "celebrity chefs" and had recently opened a very successful restaurant in my hometown of Halifax. Speaking to my classmates and I, he expressed frustration that, even with his high profile, he absolutely could not crack the $30/entree glass ceiling.

 

Today, reviewing the recent release of the Top 50 Restaurants list, the National Post blames the lack of international recognition for Canadian chefs/restaurants on this same attribute, basically explaining that we're a nation of cheap basta- unnecessarily frugal diners who are more interested in bandwagons than supporting our homegrown culinary traditions.

[pastrygirl]

"As Canadians, we think we have to be reserved and quiet."

 

See, it's that nice polite thing coming back to bite you.

 

"restaurants have become galleries for the finest produce a landmass can provide"

 

This shouldn't be too much of  a problem with all the varied growing regions.  What you lack in citrus you make up for in seafood.  But how much has the farm-to-table, heirloom vegetables,  farmers market movement caught on?  What are your "homegrown culinary traditions"?  If Canadian cuisine isn't just poutine and maple syrup, what is it?  Who are your star chefs?

[chromedome]

All of those things are part of the ongoing discussion. Aside from parts of Ontario and BC the growing season here is rather short, and "seasonal" therefore has its pitfalls (you get awfully tired of cabbage and rutabagas by spring) but entrepreneurial types are increasingly bringing greenhouse and other extended-season products to the farmer's markets. One Mennonite family in the Annapolis Valley (Nova Scotia) grows enough figs in their greenhouse to offer them in small quantities at the market, and reportedly are working on citrus as well. 

 

Some links for you, mostly centered around my own part of the country...

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/canadatourism/a-visual-guide-to-atlantic-canadas-secret-foodie-capital?utm_term=.tmMd6203e#.hl21Y0wnQ

 

https://uk-keepexploring.canada.travel/things-to-do/5-canadian-chefs-you-should-know

 

http://rustikmagazine.com/local-heroes-atlantic-canadian-chefs-love/#.WOlGJfnyv4Y

 

http://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-globe-and-mail-atlantic-edition/20170329/282226600560417

 

http://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/O-Canada-A-Number-Devoted-to-North-Atlantic-Foodways/the-lyrical/A-meditation-on-Canadian-foodways/#.WOlHP_nyv4Y

 

 

[pastrygirl]

Was just looking at some Vancouver BC finer-dining menus, and they haven't gotten the memo not to charge more that $30!  But big cities are always more expensive. Honestly, the last time I went across the border I went for Burmese food (can't get that here) and brought home Indian from Vij's.  People make special trips for dim sum and the Richmond night market.  So at least on the West coast, Canadian chefs also have excellent immigrant food to compete with.  (Though I would like to try real poutine and Montreal bagels.)

 

I wonder if the wine & tourism industries also influence Michelin and other list-makers.

[chromedome]

In the large centres restaurants definitely can charge more, and there are a number of places where a tasting or prix fixe menu will go north of $100/person. Those are rare, though, and you can almost always order something else to keep the cost down. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver definitely have amazing ethnic food. Toronto is said to be the most cosmopolitan city on the continent, in terms of the nations represented in its population.

 

In my East Van neighbourhood, back in the early 80s, the options included numerous regional versions of Chinese and Italian, as well as everything from Vietnamese (then rare in Canada) to Portuguese to El Salvadorean to Jamaican. This was just in the relatively small area surrounding Commercial Drive, mind you. In my hometown of Halifax, the Lebanese diaspora of the 70s totally revolutionized the city's food scene. You'll find falafel, shawarma and especially donairs (our distinctive local riff on the doner kebab) being eaten all up and down the downtown area at 2 AM when the bars close, along with the inevitable pizza slices and fish and chips. 

 

Montreal bagels are renowned. I've had them, and they're good, but I've never had the New York variety when fresh so I can't offer a straight-up comparison. Poutine is...not my favorite. It's just fries with fresh cheese curds and gravy. If you have access to fresh cheese curds (if they don't squeak on your teeth, they're not fresh enough) and can make good fries and gravy, you're ready to DIY. I like my fries and gravy, but to my taste the cheese doesn't really add anything. Just to clarify, poutine is not some kind of Great Canadian Culinary Tradition. It goes back only to the 1950s, and was a local thing even in Quebec for some time afterward. I never saw it until the 90s, which is when it caught on and "went national." Think of it in that respect as the Canadian equivalent of pulled pork. 

 

The French culinary tradition survived here and mutated in its Quebecois and Acadian versions, with a number of dishes coming down to the modern day (tourtiere, tart d'erable, "rappie pie") and still widely made. The core culinary tradition among the rest of us is that of the UK (Scots and Irish have a greater influence here in the Atlantic region, English elsewhere), with native and Eastern European traditions having a significant impact on the Prairies. Like you we have an immigrant culture, so things changed have changed quite a bit since the beginning of the 20th century. 

 

Currently chefs all across the country adhere to the "fresh, local, sustainable" ethos as much as their peers Stateside. In Atlantic Canada the Scandinavian-inspired forager ethos has had a significant impact, perhaps because we have so much in common with Scandinavia (speaking in terms of climate and topography, if not necessarily culture). Newfoundland, which allows wild-caught game to be served in restaurants, is especially so. Here in my local area chef Jesse Vergen (mentioned in one or two of those articles) operates an organic farm with his wife in suburban Quispamsis, and supplies his own restaurants with much of their produce. Swiss chef Chris Aerni, near the border-area resort town of Saint Andrews, has his own kitchen garden and forages the wild spaces behind his inn (the Globe and Mail's travel writer once named his Rossmount Inn as "the best kitchen east of Montreal"). 

Even in tiny St. Andrews there's one restaurant where you'll plunk down $100 or more per head, but it doesn't cater to the locals or even the standard variety of tourist traffic. It's the Kingsbrae Arms, a Relais and Chateaux property owned by, and catering to, the Hamptons crowd. The chef is Provencal, with a background in Michelin-starred establishments, and I'm told the food is very good indeed.