In Chinese culture, festivals are a pretty big deal. In fact, it was during family food prep for these monthly celebrations in Singapore where chef David Gunawan was introduced to cooking.
Later, as a civil engineering student working part-time in the kitchen of a West Lafayette, Ind. restaurant, the Singapore native found himself drawn to the behind-the-scenes lifestyle. “When everyone’s working, you’re just waking up. [That was the] attraction, just being in the background of society,” says the 33-year-old, who later abandoned engineering in favour of a hot stove.
Over the next few years, the young self-taught chef worked his way up the ladder, traversing the globe, jumping from cooking positions at Les Nomades in Chicago and West restaurant in Vancouver, to the acclaimed In De Wulf in Belgium, where he learned to inject his personality into dishes. “When I got back from Europe I had a voice; I had an opinion about food,” Gunawan recalls.
So, after helping open Wildebeest in Vancouver, he left to strike out on his own. Last summer, Farmer’s Apprentice Restaurant was born, taking the city by storm with its hyper-local mandate and nearly all-organic menu. “We embody what is sustainable, what is ecologically conscious, having a sense of awareness of the environment,” Gunawan describes, of the moniker. “As chefs, we seem to over-glorify ourselves. We never pay tribute to the person who gives us the food…. We just take something, cut it up, put it in the pan and call it our creation.” Partnerships with 15 farmers have afforded Gunawan intel on his produce’s growing conditions and climate, he says, and he likes to honour each ingredient by keeping it as close to its natural form as possible. “We get some of the best fruits from the region; you don’t want me to process those. [They’re] too nice to do anything to them,” he explains.
The chef designs a daily evolving menu of farm-fresh ingredients, which has included Heritage Mangalitsa pork with turnips, apricot mostarda and mustard ($30) and a decidedly eastern-inspired dish of Tamarind glazed sweetbreads, with cabbage, green curry and peanuts ($16) to appeal to Vancouver’s diverse Asian population.
Business at the cosy 28-seat restaurant (with an additional 10 seats on the patio) is booming, averaging 80 to 90 covers and $4,000 in sales on weekend nights. It’s garnered even more attention since Vancouver Magazine dubbed Farmer’s Apprentice the city’s Best New Restaurant and Best Casual-Dining restaurant.
“The most important thing is we abide by our own principles and philosophy, and we have integrity, and that is enough to justify what we do,” the chef sums up. He dreams of opening a restaurant on a farm. “If we can do this on a larger scale, it will make a bigger impact in terms of a local movement. Having that sort of independent restaurant flourishing under the farm-to-table movement is important for the future.”
