HAIL TO THE CHEF
NAC toasts Leier’s arrival
Ottawa chef Kenton Leier has put his days as a hotel chef behind him.
Over the past two decades, Leier has done the grand tour of Ottawa’s big downtown hotels, which included stints working at the Chateau Laurier, the Delta, the Marriott and, most recently, the Westin. But in June, he was appointed the National Arts Centre’s new executive chef and last Wednesday a belated event for VIPs was held to welcome him.
At the NAC, Leier follows in the footsteps of chefs John Morris, Michael Blackie and Kurt Waldele. Among his duties will be overseeing the food served at the 800 or so weddings, graduations, meetings and conferences held annually at the NAC, as well as the meals at le café, the NAC’s restaurant that serves more than 56,000 guests each year.
Leier has the confidence of NAC president and CEO Peter Herrndorf, who calls the chef a “respected artist.”
Below, Leier discusses his career to date and the job ahead of him.
Q: What appealed to you about working in hotels?
A: I love being part of and leading a large brigade. I also really enjoy the variety of work that the hotels offered and I have had the chance to do everything from being the restaurant chef in Wilfrid’s at the Chateau Laurier and Merlot at the Marriott as well as getting the CAA four-star designation in the Capital Dining Room in the old Delta Ottawa hotel. At the Westin, it was more about large-scale banquets and events, which is a different challenge from restaurants. We catered everything from small, private VIP dinners for dignitaries and celebrities to large off-site events. Every day in the hotels was different and a challenge and I loved that part of it.
Also, my family and work-life balance is very important to me and being part of a large, capable team has allowed me time to spend at home with my daughters.
Q: Now you’re at the NAC. What prompted you to apply for the position?
A: I knew chef Kurt Waldele well and always had an intense respect for him and the culinary institution he built at the NAC. So many great cooks and chefs have come through his kitchen. Over the last few years, the NAC has gone through a lot of transition with change of culinary leadership and closing for a year. When I thought of the opportunity — the challenge of rebuilding the team, restoring the restaurant to being one of the top restaurants in the city and the opening of beautiful new event space — I knew the time to make a change was right.
Q : What did interviewing for the job entail?
A: The interviewing process was the most intense I’d ever been through. It consisted of three separate interviews. The first over the phone with human resources and the general manager of food services, the second was a faceto-face panel interview in front of six people including NAC senior leadership as well as an influential member of Canada’s culinary scene, last was an in-person interview with CEO Peter Herrndorf.
Q: Why do you think you were chosen?
A: Throughout the interviews I really focused on my leadership style, which includes supporting and developing my team, being inclusive and listening to them. Before we can be successful, we have to build and develop a great team. After I started the job, our director of human resources Debbie Collins said to me that I had won over the panel by being genuine and humble and they got the sense that my team would go through walls for me.
Q: How do you propose to put your own stamp on the NAC’s food?
A: At the NAC, we say “Canada is our stage” and the food and beverage program has to be part of that. When chef Waldele was here, he was a pioneer in championing Canadian cuisine and he was Austrian! We will continue in that tradition and showcase the best of Canadian cuisine, but in a modern way that still resonates with our guests. This is open to a lot of interpretation and opinions and to me it’s using great Canadian ingredients, then letting them stand out simply, but still recognizing that we are a multicultural country, so we will still have some influences of international cuisine.
Q: On the internet, reviews for le café are pretty mixed. What do you think of that take on the NAC’s restaurant? What can you do to address it?
A: I think it’s way too low and it’s a priority for us to turn around. The goal is to be a great restaurant, not an average one. It won’t happen overnight, but the effort will be there. I believe the food and service right now are very good, but we lack consistency and we need to get better in both areas.
We have a challenge that most restaurants don’t because of the huge fluctuation of business from night to night based on what is being presented on our stages. On a show night, the restaurant fills up by 6 p.m. with 150 to 200 guests and they need to be out to go to the show by 7:30. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on the kitchen to produce all those meals at the level of quality we want in such a small window of time. We recently ran a Nordic-inspired table d’hôte menu as part of our Ideas of North Festival and it was very well received. Over 75 per cent of the guests in le café ordered from it, so maybe a smaller, fixed-price menu is the way to go on those nights.
We have lots of work to do, but I’m encouraged because the potential and will are there to make le café great and we welcome the feedback because it will help us get better.
Q: At home, what do you cook for yourself ?
A: When I’m home with my daughters, it tends to be things that they love like roasted chicken and pasta or fresh soups and lots of salads of all kinds. When my girlfriend and I are on our own, we make amazing meals. She’s also a trained chef and we love to cook together.
We will continue ... (to) showcase the best of Canadian cuisine, but in a modern way that still resonates with our guests.