Gourmet
The Future Of Fine Dining?
It is about 3½ hours drive north-east from Toronto, Canada, along the shores of Lake Ontario, to Kingston, a small university town at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, one of the great waterways of the world. Kingston is a lovely town: conservative, quiet, safe and the jump-off point for visiting the area known as the Thousand Islands a little further upstream in the Saint Lawrence.
Kingston is also the home of Luke’s Gastronomy, a quirky, tiny restaurant on the main street that you’ll miss if you blink. Remarkably, this restaurant and its owner/chef Luke Hayes-Alexander, is attracting food-savvy diners from all over the world, flocking to this out-of-the-way altar of food to pay their respects. Most amazingly, however, Hayes-Alexander is not even 20 years old yet…
He is not just talented, he’s gifted (savant level), but although he is no doubt one in a million he’s neither anti-social nor only focused on one talent or obsession. Hayes-Alexander is very bright and would probably have succeeded in any profession of his choosing, but thankfully for food aficionados, he followed his passion for food and cooking. His mother assured me that he was already reading at the age of one and although he went to public school from grade 1 to 4 the teachers simply didn’t know what to do with this kid. He switched to private school until grade 8, which was a little better, but eventually found that only home schooling could challenge him sufficiently. His mother Carrie was his teacher and is front of house in the restaurant and his best friend.
We visited this veritable wunderkind in Kingston and spent two glorious nights sampling his food and two days chatting to both the chef and his mother.
CENTURION: When did you decide to become a cook and why?
HAYES-ALEXANDER: Since the age of 11, I've immersed myself in the mysterious, beautiful, sometimes confusing, delicious world of food. It was then that I decided to devote my life to food and cooking and to teach myself all that I would need to know. I also decided to not eat anything unless I had sourced the ingredients locally and prepared them myself. I can’t tell you the looks on my parents’ faces when I mentioned all of this at dinner one night 8 years ago. And so my journey began.
I was very lucky that my parents owned a restaurant that already used a fair amount of local foods. Luckily, they also owned a lot of cookbooks and food history books. That night, while brushing my teeth, I realised that if I wanted bread the next day, I’d have to bake some. Into the kitchen I ran with a bread cookbook, some locally milled spelt flour I had found in the pantry, and way too much confidence. I had often watched my Dad making breads at the restaurant...how hard could it be? Three hours later, covered in flour, I turned out the kitchen light; sadly glancing at the sorriest loaf of bread I had ever seen.
So I take it the bread episode did not discourage you?
No, not at all; if anything it made me more determined to succeed. For four years every waking hour was spent reading books, researching, experimenting, and cooking. Wow, did I cook...I braised, sautéed, sliced and diced, julienned, pickled and poached. I butchered and boned, trussed and trimmed, peeled and puréed. I had decided to start at the beginning of the food timeline and to teach myself the techniques I would require to cook my way through the history of food. So, while other kids my age were riding their bikes and playing video games, I was teaching myself how to butcher animals, bake peasant breads, churn butter, emulsify, confit and brine.
I was travelling the world without having to go through customs. The Middle East, North Africa, France, Italy – each day brought new wonders, new experiences and new tastes. It was exhilarating and challenging. And I got to know and love, in spirit, the great chefs whose books guided me day after day. The first time I trussed a chicken it was Julia Child's voice instructing me. On the days I tackled the craft of charcuterie I had the presence of Jacques Pepin guiding my hands. Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, Harold McGee... so many mentors. I may have been alone in my kitchen, but I was never alone.
[Editor's Note: When Hayes-Alexander turned 15, after four intense years of training himself and learning his chosen craft from books, he became Executive Chef and suddenly none of this was play anymore but the cold reality of not only having to cook but to run a business and earn an income.]
What challenges did you face and what makes your restaurant different to so many other good eateries in Kingston?
When I first started my journey 8 years ago it was a challenge finding a lot of the foods I needed locally. Today I can say that 95% of all ingredients I use in my kitchen come from local sources. That blows me away. Cheeses, meats, produce, flours – all produced and grown by local artisans. Hard working people willing to take the chance that enough people will want their products to justify what they are doing. People who are painstakingly producing foods from our past all the while hoping we’ll hear their message today. What a simple message it is: ‘support us and we’ll continue growing foods that are better for our bodies and souls, better for our communities and better for our environment.’ To that I’d like to add, as a bonus, they just taste better, ergo my food tastes better.
Did you ever think of growing your own fruit and vegetables, being a farmer on the side?
Obviously I’ve never farmed. But when I was seven my parents purchased land in Prince Edward County and decided to plant grapevines. For a couple of years we did all the work ourselves. Irrigation during droughts, pruning, weeding, harvesting, hilling up after harvest, un-hilling in the spring. It was hard back-breaking work. We always managed to make it fun...singing songs, telling stories, playing word games, but it really made me respect farmers. They have to put up with the environment, the heat, the cold and the rain. I realised farming would be a full time job, not just for the body but also for the mind. My calling was the kitchen and I respect the produce that the farmers grew.
What, in your opinion, is the future in food?
That’s what I call a ‘big’ question and one that has no easy answer. I read somewhere recently that Forbes has predicted that by 2018, 20% of all foods eaten in the United States will have been grown in rooftop and parking lot gardens. That filled me with such hope. 20%? That’s a lot of food! I think it is safe to say that we can apply the same percentage to our own country [Canada]. That tells me that the movement towards local, sustainable foods is not a fleeting trend, as so many naysayers have predicted. This is here to stay. We, the enthusiastic proponents, are here to stay. The people, families, communities, and organizations embracing this new/old way of nourishing ourselves are definitely not going away. On the contrary, they are growing tomatoes on balconies, harvesting eggs from heirloom hens in their backyards, and tending to beehives on rooftops.
So, as a 19 year old Chef, how do I see the future of food? I see farmers’ markets growing exponentially and flourishing. I see the farmers who supply and work in those markets being, finally, rewarded for their endeavours. I see more communities, worldwide, planting sustainable gardens, with the encouragement and financial support from all levels of government and, when necessary, from NGO’s and other support groups. I envision us slowly going back to our future – food wise, that is. The people who embrace and support this coming food revolution are my heroes. They will carry it forward until it simply becomes a ‘way of life’ I hope I can help inspire and encourage them in some small way. Teach, and help, a community, city, or village, to grow their own food, allow them the independence and dignity of providing their own nourishment. We need to applaud the future proponents of this food revolution.
Is Luke Hayes-Alexander the future of gastronomy? Quite possibly. His uncompromising attitude and respect for all ingredients will hopefully help in a small way to change the way we look at food. He’s decided to be an innovator, not a follower and his recipes can take months to come to fruition. He cooks with a sense of adventure, but he never forgets history and the origin of an ingredient. His presentation is his interpretation of avant-garde and it works. To see the end-result on a plate, be surprised by the presentation, smell the aromas and taste the flavours is both a privilege and sheer culinary pleasure.