A GENE FOR CULINARY PASSION?
Chef dads keen to pass on love of food
Who cares about eye colour? What two new dads in Edmonton are wondering is this: will their baby boys inherit the food gene?
Dani Braun and Daniel Costa became fathers less than a year ago. Braun is co-owner and the public face of the uber-hot Mexican eatery Rostizado. Located in the Mercer Warehouse, Rostizado (a sister to Tres Carnales) is a concept inspired in part by the foods Braun grew up with in Mexico. Costa, a NAIT grad of vigorous Italian heritage, is executive chef and owner of three Italian restaurants on Jasper Avenue — Bar Bricco, Corso 32, and the recently launched Uccellino.
Sunday marks the first Father’s Day for these two, and so we gathered at Corso 32 to take a few photos, and talk about fathers and food. The babies, Max Braun, six months, and Gennaro Costa, nine months, were there, along with their moms, Sheri Braun, an occupational therapist, and Megan Fowler, a pediatric resident — both on maternity leave. The conversation was classic new parents, and ranged from the joy of Jolly Jumpers to the perplexing nature of tummy upsets.
The boys are pretty young to have their own food preferences. Max has just started solids such as cereal, fruit and avocado. Gennaro eats pretty much everything; this day, it’s a simple pasta dish of tomatoes, cheese and olive oil. But as people who care deeply about food, and hospitality, these new dads hope their children will be products of the same happy culture around eating that informed their own childhood experiences. Here are some of their thoughts about food and family.
Q What do you want your sons to learn about food in your home?
Costa: That food revolves around family, and you celebrate every time you eat. The most important things always happen around the dinner table. When I brought Megan to first meet my family, we broke bread together.
Braun: Cooking together, that’s how I grew up in my family. My mom and my aunties always cooked and it was a great experience, the sights and the sounds. It’s really in my head.
I related right away to those great experiences and the laughter and I want to do that with Max.
And obviously, I want to introduce things about my own heritage, which is part Mexican and part German, in due time. We want him to explore and make his own decisions about what he likes to eat.
Q What foods do you hope your son will enjoy?
Costa I want him to eat the right foods; we give him lots of olive oil, it’s very nutritious. He likes risotto with porcini mushrooms. And I give him pastina, the really small pasta.
Braun (chuckling) He has a baby book about how to pick the right truffles. And then there’s tacos. He has a book called Dragons Love Tacos. Growing up I was a big fan of oatmeal with almonds and cinnamon as a breakfast food, and I still am, and it happens to be something quite healthy. Sheri is of Ukrainian heritage and she is a big borscht lover.
I was born in Germany, but moved to Mexico, which is where my mom is from, when I was a year and a half. But I went to Germany in the summers, which is how I retained the language and the culture. My go-to dish as a kid was schnitzel with chicken or veal and french fries, or maultaschen, pasta filled with meat and served in beef broth. So Max will probably have that, when he gets older.
Q You are both in the restaurant business, which is known for long hours. How will you manage to have family time at the dinner table together?
Braun The first five years in the restaurant, before Max, it was 100 to 120 hours a week …. But now, with two business partners and a strong team of managers, it has allowed (the partners) to reduce hours to 25 hours a week each at the two locations. So this means I can be at home more with my wife and kid, and enjoy the simple, amazing things that family brings. And sometimes Sheri takes Max to (Rostizado) so we can all have supper together.
Costa When we grew up, there was always a slow-cooking Sunday sauce on the stove. My dad was a butcher, so he brought home nice meat. But he was also a miner, and so he would be gone for two weeks sometimes. But we were always cooking.
Megan and I hope to have a tradition of a big family and friends’ supper on Sundays. Maybe a roasted lamb, a Sunday sauce, pasta with ragu, lots of crostini, and a lot of salumi — cut-up, cured meats. Probably something simple for dessert, like gelato. I will try to set Sunday aside for myself at some point, but right now, that doesn’t seem to be an option.