Welcome to Out of the Kitchen, our ongoing exploration of the relationships that build and sustain the food industry. This year, we’re traveling the country to look at how sustainability has become a rapidly growing movement within the food world. Chefs at the forefront of this trend are introducing their patrons to local farms, fresh ingredients, and innovative dishes while farmers are educating chefs and consumers about where their food comes from and what it takes to grow the food served. Their practices and personal customer approaches provide a bigger impact to the community at large, hoping to create a better and more sustainable future for all.
Sebastien Muniz and Victor Alfonso began saving their money to open their restaurant when they were only 15 years old. The two knew their restaurant would do two things: It would serve tapas in a city that was still largely unaware of Spanish cuisine, and it would make a point of becoming an active part of the community it served.
In June 2004, they opened Tapeo in the Montreal's residential Villeray neighborhood on the north part of the Ile de Montreal, where the tapas of the day are decided depending on what's available, and then written up on a wall-sized chalkboard. But before they even opened, chef Marie-Fleur St. Pierre gave them the third fundamental aspect to their restaurant: sustainability. "You can taste the difference," St. Pierre says. "For me, tasting the tomatoes from my garden or the market, you know they’re good tomatoes."
"We built our reputation on quality products and quality prices as well," Muniz says. "People know they're getting the freshest products at the best value possible."
The restaurant likes to source as locally as possible–the Montreal rooftop greenhouse Lufa Farms is a favorite source for produce, for example, and the two businesses are exceptionally close—both are big fans of the other in their off-hours, as well. When you bite into a crisp Tapeo salad, you’re really tasting the freshness and earthiness of vegetables and fruits grown only a few miles away, gussied up with St. Pierre’s kitchen magic. "What I like with Lufa Farms especially are the tomatoes and strawberries," St. Pierre says. "And with their greenhouse, the things you can normally only have in summer, you can have all year around. The strawberries are super, super good–when we tasted them this week, it was crazy. You see the freshness."
Bell peppers from Lufa Farms are engineered into serving as a vessel for goat cheese, ham, and Lufa herbs.
Indeed, for St. Pierre's take on traditional bruschetta with Serrano ham and bread, ripe strawberries from Lufa Farms are glazed with sherry vinegar and toppled over the smoky salt of the ham, the creamy lushness of the ricotta, and the barely bitter crunchiness of the toast. Each bite erupts in a panoply of flavorful and textural complexity that's crowned by the sweetness and sourness of the gem-like fruit.
Everything from a Lufa Farms basket gets used up, from the hothouse cucumbers to the herbs. St. Pierre's "super nice," brightly flavored Lufa Farm cherry tomatoes are slowly cooked with spicy shrimp and bay leaves, white wine, and garlic. Crispy bell peppers and Serrano peppers pair with basil–all from Lufa Farms–to hold rich mouthfuls of goat cheese in a jalapeno vinaigrette. And everything but the yogurt comes from Lufa, for a creamy dip made from cilantro, cucumber, and grilled Swiss chard. The peppers are sweet with a toothsome bite, the tomatoes are tartly acidic with pleasing sugar, and the cukes are nice and meaty–not too watery at all.
Tapeo's cucumber dip incorporates cucumbers, a creamy base, and a variety of fresh chopped, organically grown greens from Lufa Farms for a zesty appetizer.
Gabrielle Boyer-LeBlond started coming to the restaurant nine years ago, looking forward to good food, good service, and a laid-back atmosphere. One of her top three favorites are the cod fritters, which rely on vine-ripened tomatoes turned into a confit in basil oil with little pieces of basil lead and chunks of goat cheese. "It's one of the oldest items on the menu, and it's very simple, yet very good," she says.
The restaurant additionally takes care in trying to source its seafood as responsibly as it can–Muniz says they are phasing out its last remaining tuna dishes, for example. Meat is bought with an eye to keeping the carbon pollution byproduct as minimal as possible, and Muniz takes great pride in its voluntary recycling program, which includes everything from plastic to metal to cooking oil. Staying true to Muniz's and Alfonso's original commitment to becoming a full partner in the community, the restaurant set aside some of its profits to built a nearby park and create a green space in an alley. "We wanted to help the street grow," Muniz says. "When we moved in here, there were no bars, no restaurants, no coffee shops, no boutiques. It was all parking lots and garages, and the few storefronts there were all closed. As it started growing, the neighborhood kept on growing, and we wanted to make a difference. It's important to us. We're not only restaurateurs, we're members of the community."
The philanthropic aspect to the restaurant may warm the owners' hearts, and the attention to the sustainability of its local ingredients may make its chef happier in the kitchen, but all of that comes together for the loyal following of customers, who've come to appreciate the taste most of all. Boyer-LeBlond liked it so much, she even began working there a year and a half ago–she's now the bartender. And now that she's on the other side of the counter, she knows the signs of a diner happy with his or her sustainably sourced meal: "Here, you cannot come to the table and not have bread and dip it in every single plate. And when I take the plate, it's almost like they licked it–they're always spotless. I don't even really have to put them in the dishwashing machine. They eat every little single piece."