Cheftimony Episode 009 – Old Friends
I’m really grateful to have connected with my friend Thompson Tran at Kafka Coffee and Tea on Vancouver’s Main Street. Thompson and I first met years and years ago at Bishop’s Restaurant in Vancouver. That was during the years I was volunteering as a stagiaire, cooking on the garde manger station. When Thompson worked that station too, we got to chatting, as cooks do.
I learned that Thompson had attended the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, where he learned from Chef Julian Bond and others, and that Thompson’s career as a professional chef came after working as a school teacher and as a member of the Vancouver rock band, Splitting Adam, who were actually nominated for a Grammy. On Cheftimony, Thompson talks about being in LA for the nomination; chefs lead very interesting lives!
After cooking in some of BC’s top restaurants, Thompson and his wife decided that they needed to change their work life experience. It’s a comment I’ve heard quite a lot on Cheftimony – that the hours demanded by the culinary profession can become too much, and when they do, chefs often look for other ways to build a different work life around food. For Thompson and his wife, this meant starting a business called Wooden Boat Food Company, making a Vietnamese dipping sauce. Started in BC, Wooden Boat’s nuoc cham sauce is now available in BC, Alberta and Ontario, and Thompson & Co. have re-located the whole operation to Kitchener, Ontario.
You’ll hear Thompson’s reasons for making that move across the country in our interview. Chef has some great insight on the business of restaurants and talks about ways he’s found to succeed. Thompson definitely hasn’t done this by taking the easy route. He’s added a kitchen and take-out business to the sauce production, and Thompson’s kitchen is taking sustainability to new heights. It’s free of single-use plastics, he’s eliminated entire menu items because of concerns about their impact on the environment, and all of his take-away containers are backyard-compostable. This isn’t the easiest or cheapest way to operate, not by any means, but for Thompson and his company, it’s all worth it.
To the coffee shop now! Join Thompson and me for our talk about food, teaching, music and more.