Historic recipes get fresh spin at Deane House
Deane House boss delving into building’s rich past for inspiration in the kitchen
In the chef-driven food world, the departure of a high-profile cook can be difficult for a restaurant to handle. But it can also make room for innovation.
When Inglewood’s Deane House reopened two years ago, many diners recognized its sense of relaxed elegance from proprietor Sal Howell’s other restaurant, River Cafe. When it came to the menu, Howell wisely let executive chef Jamie Harling use his own talent and muchcelebrated cooking skills to design a contemporary Canadian fine dining menu. When Harling announced that he was leaving the restaurant earlier this fall, Howell decided it was time to do some creative restructuring.
While Deane House and River Cafe have always run as very separate restaurants, rather than taking the obvious route and seeking out a new high-profile chef to take Harling ’s place, Howell did what she likes to do at River Cafe: she promoted from within. River Cafe’s executive chef Matthias Fong is now overseeing both restaurants, with two of his existing staff stepping into leadership roles: Eric Um is now the chef de cuisine at River Cafe and Galasa Aden has a similar title at Deane House.
But even with Fong steering both ships, diners shouldn’t expect Deane House to morph into a second River Cafe. While both restaurants share a respect for local seasonal ingredients and sustainability practices, Fong has very distinct ideas for each place. River Cafe will continue with his seasonal menus marked by creative use of produce grown in the restaurant’s Prince’s Island garden and other Canadianproduced ingredients. But over at Deane House, Fong is delving into the building ’s rich history and playing the part of culinary historian.
This house has such a place in Calgary’s history. It would be a shame not to dive into it a little bit and explore.
For those not well-versed on local history, the Inglewood building that is home to Deane House was built in 1906 for Captain Richard Burton Deane and is considered one of Calgary’s historical gems. The design of the current restaurant has embraced the history of the building, but Fong wants to do the same with his menu and is doing a little historical detective work to come up with recipes that truly speak to Alberta’s culinary history.
Currently, much of the Deane House’s menu is a continuation of what Harling developed — yes, the famous red fife sourdough bread is still on the menu — but Fong is slowly coming up with recipes that have some added historical pizzazz. He found a recipe in the 1747 cookbook The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse that is believed to be the first printed British curry recipe, using only turmeric and ginger as spices. Fong imagined how early Canadian settlers would have interpreted Indian spices and dreamed up a modernized Pacific ling cod dish in a “Hannah Glasse” curry sauce with mussels and pink peppercorn yogurt ($44). It doesn’t matter that Fong ’s creation doesn’t really resemble either Glasse’s original recipe or the spiciness of a standard curry — it’s delicious and the inspiration behind the dish tells a real story.
Fong is also experimenting with Indigenous cooking techniques, using dried saskatoon berries and bison pemmican to dress an albacore tuna crudo appetizer, elevated to current Canadian standards with a Japanese ponzu sauce ($20). He’s also experimenting with different plating — after seeing photos of early settlers eating canned lobster while working their fields, he’s developing fish dishes to be served in reusable pull-tab cans. It all is designed to add, as he says, a little “theatre” to the experience.
“This house has such a place in Calgary’s history,” Fong says. “It would be a shame not to dive into it a little bit and explore. Not in a way that is purely focused on seasonal or Indigenous food, but is more about the culinary history of Calgary and how it relates to the house, the land and the history of the people.”
Deane House is located at 806 9th Ave. S.E. and can be reached at 403-264-0595 or deanehouse. com.
Holiday shopping season is upon us, which means many of us will soon find ourselves indulging in a food court meal. Two Calgary malls have recently unveiled new food courts (or, as they prefer to call them these days, “dining halls”). The $17-million renovation of the food area at Chinook Centre is finally complete, packed with most of the old favourites and a few new spots like Hula, Nam Vietnamese Kitchen and Starbucks. Shiny and comfortable, the 30,000-square foot space seats 835 shoppers.
In the northwest, Deerfoot City’s “food lodge” is also now open and food service tenants are slowly moving in. The 554seat food court currently only boasts a handful of open stalls like Chachi’s, Mia Pasta and Opa, but more vendors are on the way — expect to see outposts of ReGrub, Chronic Tacos and Ono Poke soon and an eventual total of 17 food vendors in all. The food lodge is separate from Deerfoot’s forthcoming restaurant campus, which is part of the reconstructed shopping centre’s long-term design plan.