Page 52 - Almanacco_ENG_2014

Family FarminglocalFoodto localconsumerscanadasaRah ebelthe long wave oF the slow Fish campaign has reached canadian shores, where cheFs are working to support local small-scale Fishers and precious marine resources52 almanaCMost chefs have a business own- er, a direction and a concept. But when Dennis Johnston and his wife Monica opened their restaurant, Fid Resto, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, they had none of these things. “I could do whatever I wanted. That’s a scary place to be,” he said. Scary, sure, but it is also a place that allows for creativity and the opportunity to do something different.Dennis decided he wanted to serve local food to local consumers. Amaz- ingly, this was a new and different di- rection for Halifax restaurants in the 1990s.traSh fiSh on the menuOriginally from Nova Scotia, Dennis moved to London as a young man to work as an apprentice chef. It was there that he first learned the value and importance of buying directly from a market. He later returned to Canada and worked in Montreal. It was duringthis time that the Slow Food move- ment emerged. “The Slow Food movement made sense, so I started buying food from local foragers,” he explained. He returned to Nova Sco- tia in the late 1990s, and opened Fid Resto in 2000.Home to the oldest farmers’ market in North America, the local and organic movement has always been strong in Nova Scotia. When Dennis was tasked with making his first menu for Fid Resto, the farmers’ market was his first stop. Since then, Fid Resto has served food that is 98% locally sourced, includ- ing freshly churned butter. They even make their own salt.In Nova Scotia, buying from local pro- ducers also means buying from local fishers. Dennis began buying by-catch, including monkfish, ocean perch, hake and other species caught with the more “sought after” fish. Although serving by-catch was controversial, Dennis felt it was an environmentally friendly prac-