INTERVIEW • WELCOME TO MY HOME // FOOD + DRINK, WORK, COMMUNITY, NON-PROFIT
Chef Jesse Bell. Photo by Shane Francescut.
"Welcome to my home."
Executive Chef Jesse Bell says that this is his intended message each time a customer visits The Albion Rooms for food, drink, and hospitality.
“What I love about food is how it brings people together.”
Since he was young, Jesse has always loved food. When I sat down with him at The Albion Rooms this past sunny Sunday to chat about his involvement in United Way Ottawa's upcoming Ottawa Food Fusion event, I didn't even have to ask him one of my favourite questions: what is your earliest food memory? Jesse offered this information up without my prompting, telling me that when he was around 7 or 8 years old, he hung out with his bubbe in the kitchen as she prepared Passover dinner, and he remembers her feeding him "a big piece of chocolate cake". I got the impression from Jesse that the food itself in that moment was arbitrary. "What I love about food is how it brings people together", he said, "the hospitality side of it is a big driving factor for me."
Born in Montreal, Jesse moved to Cornwall and then Ottawa, but he didn't start to pursue cooking as a career until a friend pointed out his talent. Although he had been working in kitchens since the age of 15, it wasn't until he had hosted a few dinner parties that the idea of pursuing the culinary arts came up. "A friend suggested I pursue cooking. Two months later I was in culinary school at Algonquin [College] and I've never looked back."
Since then, Jesse's rise among the culinary ranks has landed him as an Executive Chef at the age of 30.
Four years ago, he was the Charcuterie Chef at The Albion Rooms, the sustainably-focused restaurant that serves the Novotel Hotel on Nicholas Street in Ottawa. One year ago he was promoted to Head Chef there, and just over a month ago he was offered the role of Executive Chef. This means Jesse and his team are not only responsible for the restaurant, but also breakfast, banquets, events, and room service. To give you an idea of the scope of this responsibility, the hotel has 282 rooms and serves approximately 400 guests at any one time.
On top of this, Jesse and his fellow chefs actively give back to the local community in Ottawa. Just last evening, they participated in the 5th annual A Taste for Hope in support of The Shepherds of Good Hope. The restaurant is also partnered with the non-profit Mealshare and they give back to Arts Court and United Way Ottawa. In addition, Jesse teaches classes at LCBO locations in Ottawa, and offers seated tastings at the Ottawa Farmers' Market on Sundays, showcasing local produce.
Tonight (Thursday, March 23, 2017), The Albion Rooms will launch the official opening of its redesigned Heritage Room Gastro Pub. A gorgeous dining room that seats 86 diners, the Heritage Room boasts red velvet vintage booths, an open kitchen, and a large harvest table for events or private chef's table dinners. According to Jesse, this part of the restaurant used to be the Albion Hotel, Ottawa's oldest hotel, and it housed one of Ottawa's oldest bars where lawyers and convicts alike would raise a glass. The biggest change to the menu will be the addition of small plates and tapas-style dishes. This decision was made to flow with the short growing seasons here in Ottawa; for example those of fiddleheads or asparagus.
The small plates also help showcase product from smaller suppliers. For example, Jesse will buy 100 pounds of one vegetable (all of one small supplier's crop) at once. This helps the supplier financially and also allows the team at The Albion Rooms to celebrate the ingredient with fresh, seasonal dishes.
"Anywhere I can I'm supporting the local community, and I like that."
A few dishes on the menu include; the 72-hour short rib, elk tartare, and the vegan mushrooms on toast, which showcases four types of mushrooms, kale, white wine, and homemade sourdough focaccia. The Albion Rooms also has a new cocktail menu that celebrates local, sustainable ingredients. "I use a ton of local suppliers here -- all local, artisanal producers", says Jesse. "Anywhere I can I'm supporting the local community, and I like that."
Speaking of supporting the local community, Jesse and his team donated their time and delicious food in support of United Way Ottawa at a GenNext Mix and Mingle Event, and at Schmoozefest, so, when asked to participate in next week's Ottawa Food Fusion event, he "didn't hesitate."
The first annual Ottawa Food Fusion will take teams of local professionals (lawyers, accountants, etc.) out of the office and place them in the kitchen at Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa, with the challenge of re-creating a dish that has been taught to them by a local chef. Jesse likes the idea of welcoming the team of (non-culinary) professionals into his kitchen: "I like the idea of teaching people who aren't cooks", he says. "It shows them a side of the industry that they wouldn't normally see." The dish he will be teaching his team to make to be served at the event is crispy mackerel with sea asparagus salad and a lemon herb caper pistou. "Bright, simple, and colourful", he says.
It's not surprising that Jesse is joining other local chefs, participating in this charitable event. When asked about the food scene in Ottawa, Jesse tells me that the real advantage to working in Ottawa is that chefs work together: "It's a very collaborative community."
Another example of this would be his recent takeover event (organized by Robin Duetta), where he hosted fellow chefs, including Marc Lepine, Adam Vettorel, Jonathan Korecki, and Joe Thottungal at The Albion Rooms. He's also a member of the Bytown Chefs Collective, a "collaborative initiative created by a group of Ottawa Chefs that are focused on creating unique dining experiences in the National Capital". Events the chefs have participated in include Table Erable, and the Two Islands Weekend.
I asked Jesse who or what inspired him along the way, and he mentioned Chef Louis Charest (Rideau Hall), Chef Stephen LaSalle (Andaz Ottawa), and many other chefs he has come across over the years. "Also, the wall-to-wall cookbooks in my office inspire me." Jesse credits his amazing team in the kitchen at The Albion Rooms for also continuing to inspire him daily: "I couldn't do it without them."
"I like to think of my cuisine as contemporary Canadian", says Jesse. He enjoys combining local, sustainable, seasonal ingredients with foods that Canadians ate approximately 100 years ago. "I like reinventing it", he says.
His goals as a chef are simple and profound at once: "to support the community", he says. "Also, to continue to grow and learn -- there's always something new in the industry." He also hopes to make a difference by promoting local, sustainable eating. "By operating sustainably, we [The Albion Rooms] have the potential to make a big difference with food trends in the future."
United Way Ottawa, March 2017.
2024 update: Chef Jesse Bell is now a freelance Chef/Culinary Consultant in Ottawa. You can follow him on Instagram @aroguechef