Yesterday night Jenn and I, and 7 other guests, headed over to what is shaping up to be Ottawa's trending foodie destination, Atelier. There, we sat for 12 courses of what promised to be a true culinary adventure. It was.

Ottawa Citizen's own restaurant critic Anne Debrisay calls it a "brilliantly creative place." The Citizen's food editor, Ron Eade, writes that Atelier practices "kitchen alchemy." The National Post's Amy Rosen writes that Atelier practices culinary chemistry. Pure Canada writes that "Atelier gives old-school ingredients new-school treatment." Its dishes have even been featured on Wired.com.

Atelier has also been referred to as Ottawa's Alinea. Alinea is an award winning Chicago restaurant that serves what its Chef/Owner Grant Achatz calls "progressive American" cuisine. He openly denounces the jargon "molecular gastronomy" because he believes his is not food born of science. While he happens to use equipment that is more familiar to laboratories, similarities end with the shared toolset. In fact, the word "alinea" has etymological roots in alchemy, not chemistry. Similarly, Atelier has been said to serve "progressive Canadian" cuisine. There are no gas lines in Atelier's tiny kitchen. There are no banks of convection ovens. There are no gas burners. In their place are sous vide setups (powered by immersion circulators), hot plates, and canisters of liquid nitrogen. Its chefs, Marc Lepine (Executive Chef/Owner), Sarah Allen (Chef de Cuisine), and Michael Holland (Pastry Chef), would prefer their practiced cuisine be referred to as "avant garde." It is frontier cuisine that represents a natural progression from what has come before, evolutionary not revolutionary.

Indeed, chefs in the restaurant industry have started adopting "avant garde" cooking techniques in their professional kitchens. Cooking food, vacuum-sealed in plastic, sous vide ensures that juices are not lost to the cooking liquid and temperatures are carefully controlled. Using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream permits chefs to use otherwise unheard of flavours and ordinarily impossible ingredients. The ice cream is also "frozen" so quickly that large ice crystals cannot form. As such, the mouth feel of the resultant ice cream is impossibly smooth. To many, the equipment and techniques originally popularized by master chefs Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal each represent today's "blender." They are becoming mainstream. Some may become indispensable.

Atelier's kitchen also accomplishes something that other professional kitchens do not, versatility. With mostly ubiquitous equipment, its chefs can maximize their minimal workspace, enabling them to put together a large breadth of possible dishes. Equipment can simply be put away and others taken out, almost in a modular way. Such becomes necessary to produce the 12 innovative tasting courses that make up Atelier's ever changing menu.

Before my guests and I sat for dinner, Jenn and I stopped by Atelier to interview its chefs.

Left to right: Chefs Allen, Holland, and Lepine
We asked the following questions:

1. Why did you choose to open Atelier? Why did you join Atelier?
2. Why do you choose to make avant-garde dishes?
3. Do you play music in the kitchen? If so, what genre and what do you think your choice in music says about you?
4. Which chef do you consider your inspiration?
5. What is your favourite ingredient to use and why?
6. Where do you get your inspiration for your dishes?
7. What dishes have you yet to attempt, but want to serve at Atelier?
8. If you could choose 1 person to cook for you tomorrow evening, who would it be and why?
9. What do you hope to contribute to Ottawa's restaurant scene?

Here is what we gathered:
Why did you choose to open Atelier? Why did you join Atelier?
Regarding why Chef Lepine opened Atelier, he saw it as the next step in his restaurant career. "It was time." To work out the logistics of dispensing with the traditional "a la carte" menu in his new endeavor, he even spent some time in the kitchen of Chef Achatz's Alinea. There, patrons can be served tasting menus with as many as 24 courses.

Chef Allen had worked with Chef Lepine before, including at the Courtyard Restaurant in the Byward Market. She wanted to work nowhere else. Atelier simply offered her the opportunity to be part of something new and exciting in Ottawa's restaurant scene.

Chef Holland is new to Ottawa, coming from Fredericton. When he arrived, he applied to several places in Ottawa and chose Atelier again because it was something "different."

Why do you choose to make avant-garde dishes?
When asked this question the chefs responded that they actually didn't set out to. However, to distinguish themselves from other restaurants, they chose techniques and developed dishes that set themselves apart from more pedestrian entrees like "rack of lamb" or "salmon."

All three agreed that the "time was right" in terms of new technology and Ottawa's openness to Atelier's new format and "evolved" dishes.

Further, with a dining room that only seats a maximum of 23 patrons, they are able to make more intricate dishes that would be impossible at larger establishments. The patron:chef ratio at Atelier is approximately 7:1.

Do you play music in the kitchen? If so, what genre and what do you think your choice in music says about you?
The chefs actually play no music in the kitchen during prep. Nor do they play music during service. There are two reasons. Firstly, during service, the chefs need to concentrate their attentions on the dishes to be served. Secondly, with a kitchen that has essentially the same floor space as its tiny dining room, playing music in the kitchen would disturb patrons.

Chef Allen "We work to the sounds of the blenders"

Besides, with maximized counter space, room for a sound system was sacrificed.

In some ways, I believe the lack of music actually allows the chefs, who work extremely well together, to be more innovative. When Jenn and I observed them working, they worked in close proximity of one another, but never impeded each other. It seemed to be an extremely pleasant and constructive work environment.

Which chef do you consider your inspiration?
Chef Lepine: Without pause, he answered, "Chef Grant Achatz"

Chef Allen: Chef Alice Waters, whose real love of food (stand-alone flavours and colours) and simplicity inspires her.

Chef Holland: While he did mention Chef Wylie Dufresne from WD-50 as a chef he admires, he does not feel that he is inspired by another pastry chef. His inspiration comes from random things.

What is your favourite ingredient to use and why?
Apparently, this is a difficult question to answer for innovative chefs, whose dishes employ many ingredients and different techniques than other restaurants. After some discussion, Chef Lepine acknowledged the ingredients he grows himself, both in his home's and Atelier's gardens.

Chef Allen "bacon...the whole pig..."

Chef Allen likes to work with just about anything pork. She is also fond of vanilla. Chef Holland particularly enjoys using condiments in his desserts.

Where do you get your inspiration for your dishes?
Ever since Atelier opened with its distinctive dishes and singular restaurant format, this question has been asked of Atelier's chefs many times. So it was with practiced precision that Chef Lepine answered, random happenings, conversation, and brainstorming. Chef Allen, novel ideas and concepts. Once she finds an ingredient, she tries to pair it with flavours and develops a dish. Chef Holland, names of desserts and seasonal ingredients.

What dishes have you yet to attempt, but want to serve at Atelier?
Answering this question may give away upcoming menus, so I clarified the question by asking them for more loose concepts than dishes. Currently, the chefs are working with lots of concepts. One includes spheres of flavourful liquids such as soups that patrons break into with their cutlery. Another, floating food.

If you could choose 1 person to cook for you tomorrow evening, who would it be and why?
Chef Lepine smiled warmly and answered, "Sarah." While the restaurant serves hundreds of dishes every weekend, he actually hasn't had the pleasure of sitting for an entire meal prepared by Chef Allen. Yes, the chefs take turns preparing "staff meals", but the food served differs greatly from what is presented to patrons.

Chef Holland "Can you choose yourself?"

Both Chefs Allen and Holland chose their respective fiances. Chef Allen's is especially adept in making breakfast. She also briefly considered Chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry as he is retiring.

What do you hope to contribute to Ottawa's restaurant scene?
Like Alinea, Atelier's chefs hope to offer Ottawans and visitors to the city an exciting dining experience. They want to permit patrons to see, taste, smell, and touch sights, flavours, scents, and textures that represent what can be done with food. Their dishes are meant to be experiences for all the senses.

Doing so, there is an underlying philosophy that taste is paramount. While technology can permit them to accomplish many things like replicating life-like oyster shells, if it does not contribute to the dish taste-wise, the particular technique is abandoned. This is one of the reasons that the edible oyster shell concept resulted in a dish that lacks some visual cues from mother nature. It does not compromise taste or texture.

At the end of the interview, Jenn and I took with us that, eating at Atelier, may actually restore the "experience" component that seems lacking in dining out these days. I have actually been lectured by a chef (not one of the ones from Atelier) that dining at home tends to involve "one-note" dishes. Dining at a restaurant should involve a "symphony" of textures and flavours. By this token, Atelier's dishes are pieces and its 12 course tasting menu, an evening with one of the finest orchestras.

Credit: Please note that the idea for this interview comes from two tweeps I follow on Twitter, Jessica (@nooschi) and Emily Chen (@mchenwears). Both have come up with great lists of short interview questions to "get to know" people. @nooschi also interviewed Atelier's chefs when she went there with Ron Eade's Omnivore Ottawa's supper club a month ago.

Particulars:
Atelier Restaurant
540 Rochester Street
(613)321-3537



Bookmark with: