Chef Butt (Photo courtesy The Telegram)

The Reluctant Chef
281 Duckworth St.
Ph. 754-6011

Tony Butt might be called a reluctant chef because, for fourteen years, he was determined that he’d never open a restaurant. “Then one day,” he said, “I woke up with a restaurant and I was on Facebook, all in one week.” The Reluctant Chef at 281 Duckworth St. is that restaurant.

Butt was a late bloomer in pursuing culinary work. The Northwest Brook native had been working in the oil industry. One day in the mid-nineties he had an epiphany. It was the realization that despite making good money, he wasn’t happy.

After quitting his job, he moved to St. John’s from Clarenville and decided to learn how to cook. His approach was slightly unconventional. Butt became fascinated with a new restaurant called Bruno’s, owned and operated by the late Bruno Orticello. At the time Bruno’s was creating a stir in St. John’s dining. The restaurant’s approach was European continental, very Italian, very Spanish. Bruno would, for example, serve grilled fish with the head on.

Volunteer
Tony Butt walked into Bruno’s one day and asked if he could be a volunteer dishwasher. They thought he was crazy but he kept asking for two straight weeks. Eventually Bruno and his partner Gail Chancey gave in and allowed Butt to wash dishes. Within a couple of weeks he was at the main stove cooking octopus and whatever else Bruno’s eclectic menu offered.

Smaller room at The Reluctant Chef

That was the genesis of Tony Butt’s cooking career, after which, his life involved cooking part of the year in a string of different St. John’s restaurants for restaurateurs and chefs he admired – like Maurizio Modica. The rest of the year – if work was available – was spent working for film production companies, like Paul Pope Productions, as a Location Manager.

Tony Butt now owns his own restaurant and he can’t afford to be reluctant anymore – except in the name of his business. The Reluctant Chef’s location at 281 Duckworth has been a bit of a Bermuda Triangle for restaurateurs who’ve attempted something there before. I can’t remember the names of all the restaurants that have tried to achieve altitude at No. 281, but let me see…there were Bistro 281, Malu, Thymestone Bistro and Christopher’s, just for starters.

Kitchen
I’m not citing it as a reason for business failure but one drawback at the location is the ridiculously small kitchen. It’s been described in the past as a closet, a cubbyhole, you name it. Tony Butt was well aware of the limitation and decided the best approach would be to do a set menu every night where all customers are served the same meal. It cuts down on the number of pots and pans that’s for sure.

“Yes the kitchen is tiny,” he said, “and that’s one of the reasons that provoked me to do our dishes the way we’re doing them. I would never try a menu with fifteen or twenty items using that kitchen; you’d be setting yourself up for failure. The food would be sub par, but this way it works.”

If you’ve been inside 281 Duckworth before, you already know the layout of The Reluctant Chef. There’s a narrow hallway with a small dining room (seating ten or twelve) to your left as you enter. At the end of the hall there’s a larger box shape room (seating sixteen to twenty) with several windows. A narrow bar, leading to the tiny kitchen, separates the two dining rooms. The rooms are very traditional. We were seated in the front room with pale green walls, large format seascape photographic prints by Adam Cryderman, fireplace and chandelier.

Waits
As Tom Waits’ unique sound swirled above our heads our server announced an eight course set menu for the evening. The appetizer course came on a board for sharing. It had a few fresh breads – whole wheat and gluten free, made by a baker in Witless Bay – smoked salmon, hummus, tapenade, pickled shallots and pickled cabbage. It was a pleasant start.

The Reluctant Chef offers a small selection of wines, about four reds and four whites. Between three of us we managed to try Conundrum, a white blend from California, Chateau Smith Cabernet Sauvignon, Washington State, Château Saint Jean Côtes du Rhône, France and Catena Malbec from Argentina. The Côtes du Rhône and Malbec were my favourites – great aroma, rich, smooth flavour.

Sweet potato salt cod cake

Second course was a sweet potato salt cod cake served with a sweet chilli accent sauce. It was my first time having sweet potato combined with salt cod. I liked the sweet and salty combination. The texture was puréed. By the way, the fish was quite salty so if you don’t have a salt tooth steer clear. (They will do something else.) Personally, I don’t see the point of salt fish that’s so watered down (a couple of days in some cases) that the salty taste has disappeared.

Trout
Next came a lightly breaded pan seared trout with aioli. The beautifully cooked trout rested on a serving of al dente green beans. The fish had an extra crispy top and very succulent flesh. Unlike many I’ve tasted, the aioli was very mild and smooth as silk. The trout was followed by a simple calamari salad dressed in limejuice. The calamari, presented in rings, was remarkably tender.

Stuffed pork loin

Fifth course moved us onto meats and a heavier dish – pork. The rolled pork tenderloin was stuffed with black rice and feta. Black rice is a short grain rice that’s very dark, tender and somewhat creamy. (In China they use it in desserts.) The textures here were notable, especially the crispy tips of the broccolini served with the pork. It seemed that the tips had been dipped in hot fat to crisp them up.

Beef with hazelnuts

Sixth course brought an interesting terrine. It was hot and made from beef and hazelnuts with tart cranberry coulis and sautéed zucchini to the side. The terrine had the texture of pudding – crusty exterior and softer nutty, meaty interior. I found the flavour to be less beefy than I was expecting but still delicious.

Lamb ragout
Final meat course was lamb ragout over spirulina spaghetti. (Spirulina spaghetti is made from flour and a powdered form of spirulina – algae that’s high in protein and in vogue these days.) The ground lamb was flavoured up with a touch of mint and topped with homemade ricotta. This dish worked well for me. The lamb was strong and although the spirulina flavour wasn’t high in this particular pasta, ground lamb is a good match for it.

Dessert was a cheesecake, something of a cliché dish for me but I have to say, Tony Butt’s cheesecake is darn good. The secret he tells me is to beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and then fold them into the cheesecake batter. The result is a very light and much less cloying cheesecake. I enjoyed it very much, followed by excellent coffee and a pour of André Petit Cognac.

Tony Butt is a very good cook. He’s hired some very good servers and kitchen help. I like the idea of eight or nine courses over three or four hours in a warm, friendly atmosphere. Some may think that’s too much time to commit. But consider this, just once in a while, is that really so much time to spend with friends having great conversation, good wine and excellent food?

Rating:
* * *          
Price:
Meal for two with wine, tax and tip – $240.00 (approx.)

Best Points:
Food, service, atmosphere

Sound level:
Moderate

*Fair **Good ***Excellent ****Exceptional

The Club’s staff

The Club Gastropub
223 Duckworth St.
Ph. 726-2582

In 2011 I was touring around London on foot – not going anywhere in particular – and found my feet becoming so tender I decided to duck into the nearest pub to rest. The pub was called The Eagle. The place looked like it served some pretty good food, but it wasn’t mealtime, I wasn’t hungry, so all I ordered was a beer. Now I wish I’d tried some of The Eagle’s food.

Inside The Club

In trying to decide how to open this review of The Club Gastropub I’ve been researching the origin of the word gastropub. And guess what? I’ve just discovered that the pub I visited to rest my feet on that long, hot day in 2011 is, in fact, widely regarded as the world’s first gastropub. Very loosely, a gastropub is a sort of hybrid of pub and restaurant. If you want it to be a pub it can be a pub, if you want it to be a restaurant it can be a restaurant.

The Eagle became a “gastropub” in the early 90’s. Essentially it was the first pub in England to serve something other than traditional pasties and pies. (Think pasta with prawns.) Apart from that The Eagle seemed, to me at least, to be very pubby. I think you’d find as many people there for the beer as for the food.

More “restaurant”
The Club Gastropub, on the other hand, leans much more toward the “restaurant” end of the spectrum. I’d go so far as to say a more accurate name might be The Club Bistro. When you enter you must wait at a reception desk where you’re asked if you have a reservation. If you do you’re shown to a table laid with cutlery and side plates, and then you’re handed a list of cocktails, wines and beers, and a menu of snacks, starters, mains et cetera. (At The Eagle you walk up to the bar and place your order, then you take a seat, or stand, and somebody brings it to you.) 

The Club has a rich atmosphere. The lighting reflected off the vintage off white pressed tin ceiling from medieval looking chandeliers creates a warm glow. Tables appear to be made from stained wooden planks. The Club is rustic and informal in tone. Instead of a napkin, diners find folded tea towels. A rifle hangs over the fire and tree branches decorate the rear wall. Behind the bar stands a home refrigerator that’s clearly been around since the 1950’s. 

Buns with molasses infused butter

Award winning chef, Mark McCrowe, is owner of The Club and it appears his years of experience served him well in planning and developing his second restaurant. (McCrowe also owns Aqua.) The atmosphere – augmented by some toe tapping crossover country music – the service, and the food are all where they should be. Besides, it’s hard to argue with the kind of success that sees The Club full on a Monday night in February.

Chefs
According to our server Chef McCrowe splits his time between his restaurants. He prepares daily specials for The Club and then heads back to Aqua, leaving chefs Derm Kean and Mike Coffin at the helm. McCrowe created three Club specials the night we visited: a salad of mixed greens with apples, shallots, seared scallops and duck confit dressed with maple peppercorn vinaigrette for $13, lobster and sweet potato, cream ale bisque with cilantro oil for $8, and a main consisting of a grilled 10 oz. ribeye with duck confit and tomato Dijon chutney, served with herb and garlic mash and beer braised Brussels sprouts for $40.

The Club’s buffalo wings

The Club’s beverage list includes plenty of bottled beers, with half being domestic – mind you the domestic share does favour Quidi Vidi brands and QV beers are exclusively on tap. The imports are all the usual suspects with the possible exception of New Grist sorghum beer, a gluten free product and Red Stripe Jamaican lager.

Wines are not in abundance. There are ten kinds, and if you go through the checklist of the world’s most popular grape varietals most are represented.

On the cocktails list a few items with a protein component stood out. The Club serves a bloody Caesar that comes with a poached king prawn, as well as an oyster shooter featuring Iceberg vodka and a shucked oyster. Speaking of oysters, The Club does have fresh oysters available on a regular basis but usually it’s just one species. In other words don’t expect to find Malpeque, Mallet, Eel Lake, and Black Pearl oysters all together on the same day. 

French onion soup Les Halles

Food
As interesting as The Club’s specials sounded, for the benefit of you readers, I decided to stick with regular menu items that stand a chance of being on the menu for a while. During our cogitations the server brought two buns, described as Chef McCrowe’s grandmother’s buns, with a ramekin of molasses infused butter. Growing up in Newfoundland I got very used to three things in combination, fresh homemade white bread, butter (well, actually margarine) and molasses. The Club’s introductory offering brought back some pleasant memories.

The Club’s buffalo wings – from the snacks section – come with slaw. They’re coated, fried, slightly crunchy and smothered in moderately hot sauce. Not super hot, but hot. Most wing aficionados would approve of McCrowe’s wings. I asked our server whether the “French onion soup Les Halles” was the Anthony Bourdain recipe. The recipe is in Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. (When he was a fulltime chef Bourdain cooked at Les Halles Restaurant in New York.) She didn’t know whether the recipe was Bourdain’s or inspired by Bourdain, or just a soup named for the Paris neighbourhood.

I ordered it anyway and quickly realized it was not Bourdain’s recipe. Instead of the croutons being in the soup they had been laid – like a well cover – over the top of the bowl, then covered with Swiss cheese (not Gruyere) and put under a salamander to melt the cheese. The croutons were thin, hard shingles as opposed to the softer, thicker cut baguette croutons. I ended up breaking them and putting them into the soup to soak. I suppose that was what was intended, but the DIY approach, in this instance, didn’t work for me. The soup itself was quite delicious with lots of developed hefty flavours of onion and beef.

New England lobster roll with pommes frites

Perfection
The Club’s New England lobster roll was as perfect as a lobster roll gets. It was served with pommes frites and house slaw. The soft, toasted roll was brimming with sweet lobster meat and real mayo, and the texture of the lobster meat was beautifully tender. The Club’s lobster roll by itself is enough to warrant a return visit. It’s worth every penny of the fifteen-dollar asking price.

Stewed cod Spaniad’s Bay

Stewed cod alla Spaniards Bay may be my new favourite seafood dish in town. (Just ease off on the salt a tad guys.) You get a substantial piece of cod in a bowl surrounded by tomato broth, potato, chorizo, olive oil, garlic and mussels. It’s all topped with saffron aioli and a few slices of grilled baguette. It’s Spain, Portugal and Provence in a soup bowl.

Finally came the most robust dish of the evening. I ordered the double cut lamb chops, along with a side of garlic mashed potato and string beans with sambal (a chilli based sauce.) Double cut simply means you cut between every second bone in the rack to make the chops. That way they’re good and thick. The lamb was classically flavoured with garlic and rosemary. It was supremely good eating. The meat was pink and juicy and the grilling process gave the crispy edges that wonderful taste of smoke that benefits meat so well.

I enjoyed The Club Gastropub. It’s a well-tuned, smooth running eatery. The only thing I’d change is the French onion

Double cut lamb chops

soup; but that’s a small matter of topping the soup differently…classically. Some things should be left the way God intended, and that goes for French onion soup.              

Rating:
* * *          
Price:
Meal for two with wine, tax and tip – $175.00 (approx.)

Best Points:
Atmosphere, food, service

Sound level:
High

*Fair **Good ***Excellent ****Exceptional

Chef Ruth Wigman, Bistro Sofia

Chef Ruth Ellen Wigman of Bistro Sofia in St. John’s was born in Vancouver and grew up in Nanaimo and on BC’s Sunshine Coast. She knew from a very early age that one day she’d be a chef. The thought of being anything else never entered her mind.

Ruth Wigman cooks

Wigman graduated from the culinary arts program at Vancouver Island University in 2001. Her career since then has taken her to Alberta, Bermuda and Newfoundland. Despite the small number of moves Wigman still managed to cross paths with heavyweights like Anthony Bourdain and the current head chef of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, David Garcelon, who attended her Murray’s Pond wedding to Newfoundlander, Chef Matt McDonald.

I interviewed Ruth Wigman recently about her life, work and aspirations. Our conversation was long and wide ranging. What follows is a condensed version of the interview.

When did you first develop an interest in cooking?
My sister and I lived on the Sunshine Coast of BC for four and a half years with my grandparents. I remember at their house there was a whole bunch of gardens and we grew everything. Everything we ate we grew. They also managed a marina so we used to spend our weekends fishing for salmon, cod, lingcod and rock cod. And with all of the different people that lived there you could try out so many different cuisines growing up: Chinese food, Japanese, Indian and so on. My Granma used to make lots of different things. My Mom’s not so much a cook. She mostly was just happy that I was doing it. Then she got to try it. She was always willing to sample.

I started cooking for myself when I was in high school. My sister, my mom and I would always watch the cooking shows. I don’t think we had the Food Network back then. We had the Urban Peasant and that kind of program. So we used to watch all that stuff and then I started making things. The first thing I made was potato rostis with sautéed spinach and sautéed mushrooms. I grated the potatoes and mixed them with butter. Then I formed them into these little cakes and cooked them. I saw it on TV.

Tell me about your time at Vancouver Island University.
It was a yearlong program and at the time we had some of the only Master Chefs in Canada there. They were all pretty Old School chefs from Switzerland and Germany. It was a great place to learn. There was Chef Scheck and Chef Wagner. We also had a pretty cool guy from Ireland and he was the butcher. The university only brought in whole fish, whole cows, lambs, chickens et cetera. Everything came in whole so what we did was butcher everything for the cafeteria. We did racks of lamb and all that. They never spared any expense.

I really enjoyed it. I went for a two-week work experience at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver. At the time I thought I was really interested in pastries so they sent me on an early trip just to see if I wanted to do pastries and then I realized that it was not completely for me so I went up to their Five Sails restaurant where I did more work experience. I didn’t like pastry because of all the measuring. I like to be more, a little of this, a little of that. With pastries you really have to be exact. I liked the decorating but when it comes to the measurement it’s not for me.

What happened after you graduated?
I went to the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. I roomed with a girl from Newfoundland there. Her father used to be a fire chief here, the Corbett family. They recruit from a lot of the culinary schools – same as Kananaskis, Lake Louise, all of those spots. David Garcelon was head chef in Jasper. He’s very knowledgeable and had great advice. Now he’s the head chef at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

In Bistro’s kitchen

Then I went to Bermuda to work at the Fairmont Southampton. Michael Scott was one of my chefs in Bermuda, a Scottish fellow. He’s probably one of the most fantastic people I’ve ever worked with for his knowledge and trust in you as well. A lot of times the chefs want you to do it a certain way and that’s it. He would say, I want this and just make it. And you would just go and make it. It was so nice to have that freedom and trust. And the team that he created from all of us was a full on team. Nobody left anybody in the soup or anything like that.

I met Anthony Bourdain while I was working there. He came down to Bermuda one time to guest chef and he was just so easy to talk to and that was really nice. And his food, when he was cooking was simple and he’s very knowledgeable about all the different cuisines as well. I like his show because he’s honest about things.

I met my husband, Matt McDonald, in Bermuda. We both worked at the Fairmont Southampton. I worked at the restaurant there and Matt worked at the steakhouse.
So, after Bermuda we moved here and I was at Blue on Water for three or four years and finally came over to Bistro Sofia. I don’t move around very much. I usually spend three to four-and-a-half years in one place. But with the big hotels, if you change departments it’s like a new job. That’s one thing I like about hotels.

How has your food evolved and how would you describe it now?
I’ve always stuck to simple things. That’s what I’ve always liked – a little more rustic, not too mucked with. Sometimes I find things too puréed up and formed into something. I like my carrot to look like a carrot. Take molecular cooking for example; personally, it’s not for me. I’d rather food be in its natural form. I think it’s weird putting what looks like a piece of paper in my mouth and having it taste like steak. Some of it looks beautiful but I think before someone ventures into molecular cooking they’d better make sure they’ve really honed their craft in the traditional ways of cooking things. Before you rely on that thermal circulator you’d better make sure you know how to cook a very good steak or a perfect piece of chicken. Then you can venture into molecular cooking. But again, I think if you’re working with a really beautiful product it’s not meant to be fooled around with too much.

Eager to learn more

I’ve always stuck with that idea. But as for my food evolving, with the different cultures I’ve been exposed to in my work, at different restaurants, I’ve learned a lot about using spices and herbs. So now there’s more depth in my flavours. Currently I’m at Bistro with Bulgarian chefs and I’m learning still more from them about their culture and their tastes. It really changes your palate a lot.

Finally, what would you like to learn more about at this stage of your career?
I enjoy doing charcuterie. It’s a pretty big art in itself. I can do terrines, pâtés, rillettes and all that stuff but I’d like to be able to work with the big equipment to do the big sausages and so on. I love that stuff. I love how it tastes and having said that I like the accompaniments that go with it. I love pickling things. I love mustards, and just lately I’ve been making different flavours of mustards and playing around with that. So, that’s also something I want to learn more about, the different recipes and putting my own spin on it.

I’d also like to travel in Italy and Spain and get a feel for the real food of those countries. I love that type of food. They have that authentic, old school way of doing things. I just hired a Venezuelan guy at Bistro and he was telling me about some of the cool stuff they have there. It’s just all around me and I’d just love to travel around and learn all about the different cultures, the food and wines. And to understand why their food is the way it is.

Thank you.