Award-winning chef going all-in on successful spinoff's rapid-fire format
Ottawa chef Marc Lepine admits his work will become more challenging in 2021 when Atelier, his award-winning restaurant on Rochester Street, switches from serving a 12-course tasting menu to offering a rapid-fire, interactive, 44-item meal.
“It will technically be more difficult to serve this menu, but I don't think it will feel that way,” Lepine said Thursday.
Lepine, a two-time winner of the Canadian Culinary Championships, announced this week on social media that Atelier would abandon the 12-course, blind tasting menu format that has been a given at the fine-dining destination since it opened in 2008.
In May 2019, Lepine opened a six-person private dining room inside Atelier, in which he pioneered his new concept, serving a meal of more than 40 small items.
The meal at THRU, as Lepine dubbed the private room, required guests to use their smartphones to scan QR codes on their tables for bits of information that would explain dishes and even augment the experience of their dinner.
The inaugural THRU dinner included such recondite delicacies as beef tendon, ostrich tartare, soft-shell crab, snail caviar, compressed halloumi cheese and sweetbreads, followed by tiramisu, cheesecake, chocolate, fizzy grapes and even campfire marshmallows that were served during a wave of desserts.
One QR code scanned that night informed guests that the sweetbreads had been fried and then glazed with caramelized honey, mandarin peel, bitter almond, black vinegar and gochujang before being coated in a mix of crispy fried shallots and dried oyster.
Other codes yielded links to YouTube videos, websites and even a phone number to send texts to, unlocking further surprises in response.
“We certainly weren't bored serving our 12-course menu,” Lepine said.
“But the THRU format is too much fun and too unique to only serve six people per night. THRU is like Agent Smith. It's taken over the entire Matrix,” Lepine joked.
Lepine said the novel coronavirus pandemic was not a direct factor in his decision, although this year's virus-driven bans on indoor dining in Ottawa did give him time to contemplate his restaurant's format.
It will technically be more difficult to serve this menu, but I don't think it will feel that way.