CHEF’S TABLE
JOCELYN ISAAK
The team at 293 Wallace meeting before service
focusing on cooking more Western food: “Part of the
reason is the market in Hope—we have three sushi
restaurants here.”
He attributes much of his professional success
to his upbringing. “I grew up, like I said, in a very
strict household where we were expected to have
very good grades, expected to work very hard…the
discipline of perfecting every little thing that you do,
and working hard to become the best at what you’re
doing, really influenced cooking in general for me.
To push forward and actually learn to cook really
well, and open a restaurant, and have that dream
come to reality—the origins of that were based on
the culture that I grew up in.”
“My dad just retired in June of 2014, the same
day that I took over the restaurant. So that was a really
cool phone call.”
aren’t available year round.”
Takeda has found a few ways to get around this
challenge. One is the restaurant’s fresh sheet, which
changes every three weeks to two months. “It doesn’t
make sense for us to put stinging nettle on our regular
menu because it’s not available all year, and so we
use a fresh sheet as an opportunity to feature some
of those seasonal ingredients.” Another is his Monday Night Tastings series, where the regular menu is
replaced by a set menu that changes every week. The
entire team comes together to brainstorm and create
new dishes.
A collection of wild ingredients for a special dining event
The Challenges of Going Wild
Many restaurants are deterred from serving wild foods
because of their seasonality. An ingredient may only
be available for a short period of time each year, which
makes it necessary to change the menu frequently. This
can be labour-intensive and costly. “In North America,
I don’t think we’re really in tune with or appreciate the
idea of seasonality,” says Takeda. “All year round, if
you want a tomato on your burger, you’re expecting to
get a tomato on your burger. But really good tomatoes
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WEST COAST WILD HARVEST
HIRO TAKEDA