Méli-Mélo - January 2023
Full Time Chocolate
When Tin-lont Chan moved to Ottawa four years ago, he was looking to continue working in a fast-paced, high-end restaurant as he had been doing in Montreal. He found himself in the kitchen at North & Navy, enjoying the busy kitchen and churning out fresh pasta until the pandemic hit. “It was like a smack in the face to everyone in the industry,” Chan says. With reduced hours in the kitchen, a partner who also works in the restaurant industry and a baby at home, he felt the need to try a side hustle.
His partner, Kara Bauer, already had a cake business (@sleepybakergirl_cakes) on top of baking at Cantina Gia. Though Chan is a trained cook and not pastry chef, he thought he could perhaps help Bauer with chocolate elements to accompany her baked goods. Soon he was diving into books on the subject and taking online classes with a chocolatier in Europe. It wasn’t long before Chan was creating eye-catching chocolates and bonbons. Crediting the support of North & Navy and Cantina Gia co-owners Adam Vettorel and Chris Schlesak, Chan began by selling his chocolates as part of takeaway offerings from the restaurants during the pandemic. He later made the leap to full-time chocolatier, with his own space in a production kitchen in the Canotek business park, and dove into the city’s market scene.
While taste is his main concern, Chan compares achieving the visual appeal of his chocolates to the art of plating haute cuisine. “You eat with your eyes first, and I think that’s something you hear so much about in the restaurant world, but it’s something I translate to my chocolates as well,” he explains, comparing the art of plating to his chocolate artistry. Inspired by his Chinese heritage and his time working in fine dining, you can expect flavours such as Hong Kong milk tea, shiitake mushroom caramel and “PB&J Play” (featuring a raspberry pâte de fruits, toasted hazelnuts and hazelnut gianduja). “Chocolate is such a great vessel for flavours,” Chan says, “you make a shell and then the sky’s the limit.”
TL Chocolates
tlchocolates.ca | @tl_chocolates
Marriage Material
A broken ankle sidelined Alexandra Poton-Fraser from her job as a flight attendant several years ago. While on leave, she began making prepared meals for some busy friends and through word of mouth she soon had more than a dozen clients buying lunches and dinners for the week. Just as this new venture had grown enough that she could rent a commercial space, the pandemic hit.
“In a way, our concept was already exactly what we needed,” Poton-Fraser says. “We were already doing online orders and delivery only. So when people were staying home, it went crazy.” Her sister Gabriela stepped in to help with photography, social media and branding, while Alexandra kept the lead on the cooking. Since the summer of 2022, the sisters have been in a location next to the Aylmer marina, where they’ve added a grab-and-go fridge and space for guests to sit down with a snack and a coffee on top of their prepared meals and catering offerings.
The business’ name is a tongue in cheek nod to the expression “bonne à marier,” indicating that someone is marriage material. And though the name is a laugh, the sisters are certainly wed to the idea of preparing food worth returning for.
“We’re home cooks; we didn’t go to culinary school,” Alexandra explains, “I cook like your grandma. Everything is homemade and homey.” She says she’s best known for her meatballs, though the harvest bowls and mac and cheese are always popular as well. The sisters get inspiration from TikTok and Pinterest too. “We love making everything, and love to try the trends," Alexandra says.
La Femme à Marier et Cie
22 Rue Principale, Gatineau
lafemmeamarier.com | @lafemmeamarier.cie
Winter Events & Classes
NAC's resident chef dinner featuring Charlotte Langley Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023
Stalwart of sustainable seafood, P.E.I native and Whalesbone alum Charlotte Langley is returning to Ottawa to craft an East Coast-themed dinner in collaboration with NAC chef Kenton Leier. Vintner and president of Pelee Island Winery, Walter Schmoranzwill, will present the curated wine list. nac-cna.ca
Charcuterie board workshop at Wildwood Design + Build in Perth Jan. 5, 7, 17, 24 and Feb. 4, 2023
Craft your own charcuterie board using local woods in this three-hour workshop. No experience necessary. Amy Webster and Quentin Navarre, graduates of Algonquin College's heritage carpentry and joinery program and designers behind Wildwood studio, will be there to guide you. wildwoodperth.com
Ottawa Farmers' Market Winter Market at Aberdeen Pavillion, Lansdowne Park Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3p.m., Jan. 8 to Apr. 30
Supporting local is not seasonal. While crops lie dormant under a blanket of snow or as seeds sprouting in green-houses, the tables at the Ottawa Farmers' Market are still bursting with storage vegetables, locally raised meats, maple syrup and plenty of baked goods and artisanal products. ottawafarmersmarket.ca
Jam & Bread
When he baked at Brown Loaf Bakery, Michael Sunderland recalls going shopping for preserves and not finding the quality or flavours he wanted to use in his desserts. So, in 2009, he began making his own jams and preserves, launching Michael’s Dolce shortly thereafter. Since then, his jams, preserves, syrups and sauces have become staples in shops and restaurants around Ottawa. His sriracha sauce is always on the menu at Wilf and Ada’s and Bread By Us regularly features three different jams in its jam buns.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his experience as a baker and it being a natural vessel for his jams, Sunderland is also an accomplished breadmaker. Prior to the pandemic, he began making pizzas in his kitchen space next door to Dominion City Brewing Co. His neighbours at the brewery loved it, so he began selling the pies on Fridays (ordered on Instagram for pickup from his kitchen at Canotek Business Park.) Naturally, this pizza dough lent itself well to focaccia, which he brought along to La Bottega, where the team loved what it tasted and now sells Sunderland’s focaccia weekly.
Sunderland credits this expansion of offerings to his natural curiosity and a desire to get back into the baking side of things. “It’s got to be genuine. All of these things have just been evolutions of wanting to do things that I was genuinely interested in pursuing,” he says." The exciting part is to know that there’s always variation.”
Michael’s Dolce
Pizza pickup Fridays at Pro Kitchen 5340 Canotek Rd., unit 21, Ottawa
michaelsdolce.com | @michaelsdolce
A Friend in Fermie
“We’re one of only three breweries that we know of in Canada that brew through open fermentation, but people don’t really know that it’s something we do,” Cas Houde explains. The floor production manager at Ashton Brewing Company says it was in an effort to promote this fact that led the brewery to develop a mascot, Fermie, to get out the good word. Ottawa design firm Character Creative brought Fermie to life, a friendly jaunty-looking open vat of fermenting beer with a foamy hairdo to mimic the messy real life process of overflowing fermenting brews.“ Open fermentation is like a piece of history,” Houde says, noting that the process lends a distinctive flavour to Ashton’s beers.
The brew pub as well as the associated Quinn’s and Patty’s pubs have always been family-oriented places, so they wanted a mascot that fit the same vibe. Keep an eye out for Fermie on Ashton’s new cans and potentially in the flesh down the road. “There’s a mild plan to sew up a Fermie mascot costume,” Houde laughs. “Everything in our brewery is a little silly.”
Ashton Brewing Company (Fermie's Home)
113 Old Mill Road, Ashton
ashtonbrewingcompany.com | @ashtonbrew
