Cheftimony Episode 007 – Where Everybody Knows Your Name
For the interviews today, I sat down at the bar seats that look directly into the open kitchen line at Burdock & Co. in Vancouver. If you’ve heard Cheftimony before, you’ll have heard me mention Burdock. It’s where I worked both as a staigiaire (a volunteer intern in the kitchen) and later as an employee cook when I took some time away from office work. One thing I really enjoyed when I was working at Burdock was being able to speak with the guests as we made and sometimes passed them their plates of food.
Over time, of course, some people seated at the bar started to look familiar. And I think those people – the ones who dropped by regularly – were really on to something. Good restaurants treat all their guests well, of course. But I think from the diner’s perspective that you can get a lot more out of a restaurant visit when you know the place well. You’ll know the staff, you’ll notice when things change on the menu, you’ll speak to the chefs about why they’re cooking what they’re cooking that day. If you’re really lucky, you’ll be there when suppliers drop by, and you’ll learn just where your favourite restaurant gets those amazing tomatoes.
It's a busy show today, with four people I’m happy to call friends appearing as my guests: Julie Sopuck, the General Manager of Burdock; criminal defence lawyer (and my law school classmate 20 years ago!) Mark Gervin; Brian Sohn of Racine Wine Imports; and artist, yogi and Burdock regular, Sparky Wickstead.
And after the interviews, there’s a first-ever special anniversary segment on Cheftimony. It was ten years ago that I wrote to Chef Andrea Carlson (then of Bishop’s Restaurant and now of Burdock & Co., both in Vancouver) and asked to join her kitchen team as a volunteer for one shift on a Saturday night. One decade and many, many wonderful cooking experiences later, I’m saying Happy 10th Anniversary to Chef.
To the interviews now… Thanks for joining me!