Q & A with OCCO Kitchen's Marc Steele

With both a take-out restaurant (OCCO Kitchen) and a sit-down restaurant (OCCO Kitchen Innes) to maintain, chef Mark Steele has become a major player in the Ottawa food scene. Hailing from the east coast, Mark's career includes being the Chef de Cuisine at the Chateau Laurier; the Executive Chef for the Ottawa Hilton, and the Ottawa Marriott hotels; and a teaching position at Algonquin College for the School of Hospitality and Tourism. He has also led a team of chefs representing Ottawa's regional cuisine at the coveted James Beard Foundation in Manhattan; executed state dinners for British Royalty and the President of France; and competed on "Chopped Canada". I had a chance to ask him some questions via e-mail recently, and here's what he had to say:

FRANKLIN on FOOD: What needs to be done to make the Ottawa cooking scene stand out more?
MARK STEELE: I think to help Ottawa stand out we really need to Showcase our local talented Artisans from beer to spirit producers to local cheeses and charcuterie and use those products to create our own dishes that really showcase the region and what it has to offer.

FoF: Why don't more restaurateurs consider the suburbs as a location for their restaurants?
MS: There are definitely some obstacles for restaurants in suburbia that include you really have to be a destination restaurant and have a draw for people to come to you. Staffing can be a real issue.

If your restaurant is centrally located you can draw from a wider area of Ottawa. I personally love Orleans it has its own culture and food scene that I like to think I'm helping develop, its very own Craft brewery (Stray Dog) that has just started their first batches.

FoF: How do you split the time between your two restaurants?

MS: Most of my time is spent at the bigger location, but now it has really found its legs and Ricci Binch our new Chef from Australia is taking the reigns and I'm looking forward to working the take out again like the good ol' days.

FoF: Other than your own places, where would you go for a sit-down meal in either Orleans or Ottawa?

MS: There are many restaurants I enjoy going to and very hard to narrow it down to one but overall I really appreciate when I order a meal and there is passion and craft that has been put into the preparation. 

FoF: What's the one ingredient that you will always find in your kitchens, and why?
MS: The one ingredient you will always find in my kitchen is Mt Scio Savoury from Newfoundland. It is a nostalgic ingredient for me one I was raised with. It is a very unique form of summer savoury that I use in my stuffing and in some herb blends that I use.

FoF: What advice would you give to anyone who wants to become a chef?
MS: Advice I would give anyone who would want to become a Chef would be that you have to love it and love the lifestyle. It can be very long hours, very physically demanding and high stress. Your busiest time is usually when the rest of the world is off having fun, weekends and special occasions are going to be when you have to put in the most work, if your OK with this and your not afraid of hard work and you thrive to create interesting artistic and inventive food that will completely overwhelm your guests then you will never find a more rewarding profession.

FoF: What was the most surprising thing about being on "Chopped Canada"

MS: The most surprising element of Chopped was definitely receiving a baked potato for the dessert round. In hindsight, I can think of a hundred thousand ideas that I could create with it but in that moment when the pressures on it really through me for a loop.

FoF: I remember you said you like to roll around in the prize money if you had won "Chopped Canada:; have you had a chance to make it rain with some $5 bills recently?

MS: Yes I was planning on doing the backstroke through a pool of fives that being said I'm doing OK. I couldn't be happier with the success of OCCO and I'm in planning of the next move.