One of the first things one might notice about Etienne Croteau when he talks about his new restaurant, opening next week, is the amount of detail that goes into building a positive food experience.
Simon Whitehouse/NNSL photo
Croteau’s restaurant Flavour Trader/Saveurs de L’Artisan is set to open its second location Monday morning at the Museum Cafe in the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.
On Wednesday, the restaurant team was still hammering out the final details, including ensuring the Samsung service tablet was functioning for all menu items.
The restaurant will employ seven staff, including cooks and servers, overseeing a seating area of 71 people.
Despite the work put in over last few months leading up to opening day, Croteau is able to chuckle heartily at much of it, at least publicly.
“I have a headache,” he said, laughing, when asked how he feels about the opening.
Jokes aside, Croteau is quite serious when it comes to ensuring food is local, made from scratch, authentic and part of the overall experience of the museum.
On opening day, he will have a two-page menu that includes three different soups, a Fall harvest squash salad and a Lebanese Mezze appetizer.
For the international main course, he has a dish of the day as well as a Carcassonne Cassoulet, a Beef and Lamb Champvallon, an Indonesian Satay chicken with roasted crispy veggies with the peanut sauce on rice noodle and a Northern roasted squash.
For dessert, there is a Loulou Poudding Chomeur Maple cake jar and a Blueberry and cardamom Panna Cotta.
Another big portion of his food service will be snack items like paninis, grilled cheese sandwiches, energy bars, gourmet muffins, Italian soda, and juice made from scratch. There will also be cappuccinos and espressos with Barren Ground Coffee and an organic, fair trade coffee from Costa Rica, Croteau said.
He is aiming to eventually grow his own vegetables, to use Northern delicacies like white cranberries and bannock, and keep in contact with both the Dene Nation and Metis organizations for recipe and food suggestions. He also has a local fisher Stephanie Vaillancourt supplying him with whitefish, so far.
“I think it is just what the people want,” he said of the detailed attention to local and fresh items. “It’s all really important and we have to be all in. I know it is a bit crazy, but otherwise I will not do it. It is for the same reason that we will eventually grow our own veggies. To get our veggies from the South or from Mexico, I just won’t do it.”
While the space has been traditionally known as the Museum Cafe, this is for the first time, at least in recent history, that the spot has been called a different name.
Croteau’s leadership of the restaurant follows Chris Zouboules who ran the Museum Cafe between 2013 and this past July. For more than a decade before that, Wally Sheper was the well-known chef running the restaurant.
Over the summer, Zouboules opened The Cliff Cafe in the Legislative Assembly. Croteau Croteau signed a new contract with the museum in August.
Croteau’s Flavour Trader first opened in the Breakaway Fitness building in May 2016, and while that location will still continue it service of grab-and-go meals and spice-related foods, the main difference with the new location is be the amount of time for food preparation. The museum restaurant will involve 20-minute sit-down meals for most orders, he says.
Sarah Carr-Locke, museum director, said her institution is looking for a partnership with the restaurant that is complementary.
“It is really exciting to have someone new, although we were really happy with Chris,” she said.
“The goal of having a museum cafe is to make sure visitors have refreshments and enjoy their experience. But for a lot of people, the food is often the draw and then they stay for the art and culture. So to have that kind of partnership is really good where it reinforces their business and our desire to highlight culture and heritage.”
The museum’s special events and extended hours on Thursdays nights are at least two features Carr-Locke hopes the restaurant can promote with food service. Croteau will also provide catering service to visiting groups and an all-gender, accessible washroom will be available in the cafe once renovations are done in another week, she said.
Croteau featured in Globe and Mail's 'next stars'
If Monday's opening at the museum wasn't positive enough news for Croteau, he gained national attention recently in an Oct. 25 Globe and Mail article featuring the country's 'next culinary stars.'
“I was pretty surprised about the title,” he said. “I understand the article is more about looking at the chefs where something could happen. Many people mentioned there have been in the business longer time than me. But we have the chance in the NWT to have great chefs that can compete. We have worked really hard and I am taking it.”
The article featured recipes from young chefs across the country and a regional recipe. Croteau provided the Great Slave Whitefish Smoked Chowder, which will be a staple item on the menu on Monday's opening.
Overall, Croteau says things are looking great from a business perspective. He has also been a regular feature at the Yellowknife Farmers’ Market and is planning on developing his business and culinary learning at the industrial/learning kitchen at Ecole St. Allain St-Cyr.