More from behind the scenes at Vancouver restaurants

Straight staffers interviewed over 100 local restaurateurs, chefs, and managers about what goes on behind the scenes at their restaurants. Here are some of the details. Look for more throughout our 2009 Golden Plates features at Straight.com.

“We try to deal directly with the farmer for all our fruits and vegetables, the fruits for our pies”¦. In the wintertime, we definitely have to deal more with distributors but we try to keep things in season so we’re not having to go too outside of our values—but it’s pretty hard to find lettuce local!”
Peggy Vogler, owner, Aphrodite Café

“Because it [the program at PICA] is curriculum-based—it’s tuition-based—we have the ability to say, ”˜Okay, guess what? We’re only going to give you 20 reservations. You guys need to refocus, press the reset button,’ and we’ll do it again and we’ll do it again—and we’ll do it again.”
Julian Bond, executive chef and program director, Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts

“It’s pretty well an all-day type of preparation, buying the right stuff, and how to keep everything fresh all the time. For them [the customer] when they come in for a couple of hours, they think that is it”¦.They [the three chefs] work anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a day.”
Lalit Sharma, owner, Mumbai Masala

“I would say 80, 90 percent [of our customers] are regular clientele. Not only do I know them, but since they’ve all started coming, they know each other now. Sometimes, certain people come on Friday and they see the same people and they always get up and start talking to each other.”
Lalit Sharma, owner, Mumbai Masala

“Most of the people here are family. Even our staff here are family, you know how it is. Everybody has been working here a very long time and plus my parents have always been working here”¦.There is constant talking in the kitchen. It’s just a playful time in there.”
Nat Poonpoem, manager, Sawasdee

“My dad, he’s been here for so many years and he’s been the chef and has put a lot of time and effort and hours into this place”¦.People are hooked on his style; they can tell the difference between someone else cooking it compared to him.”
Nat Poonpoem, manager, Sawasdee

“You can go through a whole day of giving excellent service and excellent food and excellent ambiance for the customer, and at the end of the day, the last customer can ruin it all. They can say, ”˜Oh, I don’t like it,’ and that’s very disheartening. But [you try] not to take it personally, and it’s an ever-learning curve.”
Mayur Arora, owner, Maurya Indian Cuisine

“When guests see you run—which they shouldn’t—or when they realize that you’re scrambling to get things for the night prepared, then you’re probably not doing something right.”
Ricardo Ferreira, restaurant director, CinCin

“There are times when you pull a table off the patio. You pick it up and carry it through the dining room”¦That’s usually not the ideal scenario, but if it’s a Saturday night you do your best and you make it happen.”
Ricardo Ferreira, restaurant director, CinCin

“We’re assuming”¦that these customers will be out in two hours, so we’ll rebook the table.”¦it’s a bit of a verbal agreement we have, that you have to be out of there by 8:30. It’s a bit of a delicate juggling match, but that’s all part of the fun”¦the intricacies of the reservations book. I also don’t have a lounge or waiting area, so we have to be precise with our booking.”
Mark Taylor, owner, CRU

“The first thing they do is cut vegetables. My chef and my sous-chef will put more work into the most mundane of tasks than anybody else in the kitchen”¦We [the owners] sweep the courtyard first thing in the morning”¦I have a whole list of mundane tasks”¦Going to the bank every day and getting change is probably my most mundane task.”
Patrick Mercer, proprietor, Brix Restaurant and Wine Bar

“Our chefs spend at minimum a year with veteran chefs learning how to cook rice to the right degree and to the right fluffiness. And they don’t actually get to serve it until they get it down pat”¦it’s very tedious for many people, to become a sushi chef”¦they go through quite a bit of rice.”
Tai Hasumi, general manager, Miku Restaurant

“There’s a bit of a learning curve”¦Everything that we have is equally popular, but if there was something that wasn’t we’d take it off the menu. And there’s been a few things like that since we opened, because they’re not so appealing to Canadian tastes, like marinated mackerel or something like that.”
Josh Olson, co-owner, Ping’s Café

“The construction on Granville Street has been a big hiccup for us as far as our environment goes; dealing with a lack of a sidewalk in front of your business”¦is something we didn’t plan on. A lot of our business is based on referrals from hotels and whatnot, so people coming in from taxis can’t even get here at the moment.”
Peter Raptis, managing partner, the Refinery

“People are looking for a chef that challenges themselves, and with cooking it never ends. I challenge myself all the time.”
Hidekazu Tojo, chef and owner, Tojo’s

“My brigade is full of guys who are passionate about being a chef and about food, and they want to learn and be a part of it”¦I’m learning from them as well, and it’s very much a give and take all the time.”
Warren Geraghty, executive chef, West Restaurant & Bar

“We’re lucky being as established as we are and having a faithful clientele that we can try new things. For example, we’re growing stuff on the roof. We built 12 big planter boxes and put them on the roof in order to grow our own vegetables.”
Chris Moran, head chef, Trafalgars Bistro

“We always source products very carefully. We have relationships with small farmers around the Lower Mainland, and we’ve been doing this from the beginning.”¦I grew up on a farm—I know what a carrot is supposed to taste like—and now customers are beginning to really care about where their food comes from and how it gets on their plate.”
Manuel Ferreira, owner, Le Gavroche

"Every night, we have staff dinners—kitchen and managers sit down and have dinner together. I find that it costs a little bit but it’s great camaraderie, and we can discuss the evening ahead.”
Sean Heather, owner, Irish Heather

“Everyone deals with pressure and heat and sharp things in their own way, but there is a lot of humour in kitchens, the black humour.”¦We have nicknames for things, and there is a certain banter and shorthand that we use in the kitchen, and when used outside the kitchen, people look at you like you’re nuts.”
Andrey Durbach, chef/owner, La Buca, Pied-í -Terre, and Parkside

“The kitchen is kind of like a culinary version of a locker room.”¦Your backdrop is always the exhaust fans, the oven door slamming, pots and pans, waiters talking, every bill that gets punched up, the dishwasher is on, dishes break. It’s constant noise everyday, all the time, and when you go home”¦it’s deafeningly quiet.”
Andrey Durbach, chef/owner, La Buca, Pied-í -Terre, and Parkside

“We pull pranks on each other all the time, and I think why we do it is kind of like a laugh-or-cry thing—you’re in the zone and there is a lot that needs to get done, but you need to look like you’re having a good time with it”¦behind the scenes, you do have a really, really good time with it.”
Lisa Hewlett, co-owner, Wallflower Modern Diner

“There are some things that I learned from cooking Asian cuisine that I have translated into our cooking here, like I used mirin [sweet distilled rice wine] a lot over at Wild Rice.”¦and I’ve found that it’s perfect for making ceviche.”
Stuart Irving, owner/executive chef, Cobre

“I have a foolproof method of opening a restaurant and making a small fortune: invest a large fortune.”¦That’s the best advice somebody ever gave me.”
Dean Mallel, president, Incendio Group

“We want them [customers] to be fully satisfied. With quality but not quantity, people are not satisfied. So we emphasize quality. Sometimes they have so much left over, we pack it for them. But I like that because there’s no waste. I don’t want to waste quality food.”
Jongsam Park, owner, Insadong

“Happy chef, happy food. You need love and affection to run a restaurant.”¦I’m trying to make the team multicultural, and have someone from everywhere. I have someone Indian, Turkish, Japanese, Brazilian, Indian, Chinese, Bangladeshi, and two [Caucasian] Canadians. That way, we can all learn from each other.”
Siddharth Choudary, owner, Annapurna Restaurant

“We consider ourselves very multicultural. We get Caucasians, Indians, Malaysian customers, and we have no problem dealing with cultural difference. For instance, Indian people. We know they enjoy spicy stuff and don’t touch the pork. For some of them, religion prohibits it. Caucasian people like spicy food that’s deep fried. People from Hong Kong like light appetizers. From Mainland China, you better offer something heavy and oily right away. You have to know who you’re dealing with. They go for certain stuff.”
Albert Ling, manager, Szechuan Chongqing Seafood Restaurant

“We have our own little family going on. We’re blessed to have a really good staff. We help each other out, and there’s no ego or competition among the staff members. In a lot of restaurants, there’s competition among the chefs, guys trying to move up. But our culture is to leave your ego at the door.”
Cory Chapman, executive chef, Pinky’s Steakhouse, Kitsilano

With files from Pieta Woolley, Helen Halbert, Miranda Nelson, Shannon Li, and Shadi Elien