We’re about to divulge some pretty coveted information here: the secret to Kingston’s culinary success is locally grown ingredients. It’s a common phrase you’ll hear thrown around the city, local food just tastes better. It’s how Kingston’s culinary creatives can present dishes that taste just like your favourite home-cooked meal using fresh, in-season produce grown right here in Kingston and Frontenac County.
“Especially when deliveries come in the back door. You see this bounty of good stuff and you’re just like, ‘Oh, I know what I want to do with this instantly.’”
Brent McAllister, Director of Food & Beverage, AquaTerra
The availability of fresh produce can be enough to inspire a host of mouthwatering dishes. That’s certainly the case for Brent McAllister, the Director of Food & Beverage for AquaTerra and Delta Hotels Kingston.
“You just see great ingredients and that’s when the creativity really starts to run,” says Brent. “Especially when deliveries come in the back door. You see this bounty of good stuff and you’re just like, ‘Oh, I know what I want to do with this instantly.’”
Chef Brent and his team work closely with local farmers and producers to fill their ever-changing menu with the freshest ingredients that keep guests coming back time and time again.
Brent has been working closely with the team at Patchwork Gardens and has been a huge supporter since their early days at Kingston’s Public Market to now, as they continue to grow and deliver fresh, organic produce from their Battersea farm. He’s even been able to make special growing requests of the farm, including one life-changing potato.
During a trip to California, Brent and Patchwork Gardens’ Eric Williams sat down for a meal that caused the two food aficionados to sit up and take notice.
“I had this potato,” Brent says. “It was the thing that stuck out to me, just a potato. But the flavour, the texture, the colour of it was just so … vibrant.”
Brent asked Eric if he had ever heard of this particular spud. After some research, Eric identified the potato and promised to try growing it at the farm. Brent won’t let the name of the potato slip, adding two secret ingredients to his repertoire, but there’s a good chance you’ll know it if you taste it.
You don’t get that kind of special treatment without a close relationship with local producers and the proximity to farmland that we’re fortunate to have in Frontenac County. These growers and producers are passionate about the food they grow and the animals they raise. It’s a passion that Brent strives to complement.
“I want to pay respect to what they’re doing and produce something just as good,” he explains. “It doesn’t have to be fancy, but the product speaks for itself.”
Brent and his team at AquaTerra have been paying their respects to the local growing scene for a while, too. In fact, they were one of the city’s first to source local ingredients and partner with an extensive list of nearby producers. Their menus are bursting with flavour and dishes often feature ingredients sourced from several local growers.
The whole community now backs the farmers and products they have to offer, as Brent sees it, and the relationships between chef, producer, and customer have only grown stronger.
“To me, food brings people together,” Brent says. “I want our guests to feel satisfied and also that they’ve had a great experience while they’ve been at the restaurant, that they can enjoy themselves, relax, and let us take care of them.”
When it comes to homegrown versus imported store-bought — nothing tastes quite like something grown in your own backyard. Luckily for Brent, his backyard is, at most, a 20-minute drive away, covered by acres and acres of farmland and filled with the kind of fresh produce and responsibly raised meat that most chefs could only dream of having access to.
