This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
In 2021, chef Tim Moroney and the Alentours restaurant team have given themselves a mission: to source their supplies only within a radius of 150 kilometers from their anchor point, the Saint-Sauveur district, in Quebec City. Two years later, the challenge was taken up with panache. The restaurant makes its place in the world of gastronomy, while setting an example of sustainable catering. Portrait of an establishment different from the others, in its menu as well as in its organization.
When reached on the phone, Timothy Moroney has a problem on his hands: his supply of onions is starting to dry up. A seemingly banal detail, but which reflects the reality of ultra-local catering.
The end of winter and the beginning of spring, when supplies are running out and the first harvests are still a long way off, therefore represent a pivotal moment for this gastronomic address, which has earned a place in the 2022 list of the best magazine’s new canadian restaurants on the way from Air Canada.
“Right now, we’re starting to have big challenges, we won’t hide it,” admits the friendly American chef, who has been living in Quebec for a dozen years. “It is not necessarily a question of seasons or reserves, it is rather linked to the reality of 2022 for farmers. Many market gardeners in our area have not managed to reach a good maturity in terms of their onions. The possibilities of conservation are therefore less great. »
Despite this pitfall which will require him to unearth this essential ingredient outside of his usual circuits, Tim Moroney does not deviate from the formula he adopted for his first restaurant. In the cuisine of Surroundings, only three ingredients exceed the fixed limit of the radius of 150 kilometers: salt, yeast and milk. The approximately 65 other independent and eco-responsible producers with whom he does business are concentrated in the vicinity of the national capital. For the wine and cider list, the radius widens to 250 kilometres.
Planning
The concept, adopted for reasons of eco-responsibility, requires short, medium and long-term planning. The menu is renewed every three weeks depending on arrivals. Reserve inventory is done weekly, not once a month as is normally the case in other restaurants.
“Our challenge is that customers eat as well in March as at the end of August, explains the chef, who cut his teeth at Boulay and Le Légende, in particular, two restaurants in Quebec. The big problem with local supply here is not variety, it’s seasonality. We have a lot of products, good volumes and quality companies, but it’s available for a short period of the year. »
Much of the work of the Surroundings team is therefore devoted to food processing and preservation: marinade, lactofermentation, canning or freezing. The dining room only represents a third of the surface area of the restaurant. The rest is devoted to the kitchen, the wine cellar and the storage and freezing areas. Note that the business composts all its waste and does not use gas stoves, only electricity.
Variety
This upstream work does not mean a monotonous menu. At the time of the interview, Chef Moroney was developing his next menu, which includes a mushroom, celeriac and black garlic risotto, a pork burger and a strawberry and rosemary foam tartlet.
“Each season, we find ingredients and preparations from other seasons. For example, products that were prepared in the winter, such as charred vegetables, will also appear on the menu in the summer. We try to have an annual cycle and we think in the long term, ”says the young thirty-year-old, who started working on the project in 2017.
To those who ask him which culinary family Alentours belongs to, Tim Moroney does not have a ready-made answer. He says he is very open to diversity, both in flavors and in techniques. Anyway, “what we sell isn’t just the menu, it’s also the experience,” he says.
An experience that is largely based on the restaurant’s employees.
“We try to share as much information as possible with the guests on the way we source our supplies, our techniques for reusing materials in the kitchen, the importance of making these choices for society, etc. We want to stay in the positive, but explain why these choices are interesting for a restaurant”, specifies the chef.
And since Alentours does nothing like the others, it may be the sommelier or Tim himself who explains all this to you during your visit. Because, in the establishment of the rue Saint-Bernard, we insist on one of the pillars of sustainable development often forgotten: the human. The cooks can welcome customers, and the waiters do the dishes, according to the needs of the moment. Tips are shared equally, and full-time employees all earn the same salary.
“The whole team has been in the restaurant business for a long time and we are all very aware of the fact that the industry is not very sustainable: waste management, the energy we use, but also the management and employee compensation. […] We therefore wanted to become an example for the community and for all those who would like to take the risk of a different model,” concludes the chief owner.
Surroundings — 715 Saint-Bernard Street, Quebec. restaurantalentours.com
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the Duty, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of Duty did not take part.