Stir Pairing: The Kitchen, on the theatre stage and in Vancouver’s dining scene
Studio 58 mounts Arnold Wesker’s popular restaurant-set play; Cactus Club Cafe is perpetually evolving
Cassidy Hergott, Janavi Chawla, Kahlila Ball, Hikari Terasawa, The Kitchen. Photo by Emily Cooper
Gregory McCallum. Photo via Cactus Club Cafe
Every week, Stir Wine Pairing suggests locally available food and/or drink to go with a local arts event.
The event
The Kitchen by Studio 58 at Langara College until April 9, with showtimes at 3 pm and 8 pm
The food
Cactus Club Cafe
Janavi Chawla, The Kitchen. Photo by Emily Cooper
The lowdown
Studio 58, the professional theatre training program at Langara College, is wrapping up its 2022-23 season with a performance of British playwright Arnold Wesker’s perennially popular The Kitchen.
The 1959 play, born out of the socialist movement of post-WWII, is set in the kitchen of a hectic restaurant. Chef and servers navigate the prep and pressures of lunch and dinner rush for hundreds of diners and share their hopes and dreams with each other during the lulls. Personal issues and worker politics, however, reach a boiling point.
Wesker, who wrote 50 plays as well as short stories, essays, journalistic articles, and other works, drew on his own experience as a restaurant chef for the script.
Directed by Amiel Gladstone, choreographed by Amanda Testini, and featuring set and lighting design by Sophie Tang, the fast-paced play is taking place in Studio 58’s newly renovated theatre.
“This is a play that I’ve wanted to direct for a long time,” Gladstone says in a release. “The sheer size of it, the theatricality it demands and its worker politics are all aspects I was excited to explore. This feels like a great play to show off the renovated theatre.”
Gregory McCallum. Photo via Cactus Club Cafe
The pairing
If there’s anyone who knows the unique challenges and rewards of a busy dining environment, it’s Gregory McCallum. As executive chef of culinary development at Cactus Club Cafe, he oversees what’s on the menus at the company that started out in 1988 on North Vancouver’s Pemberton Avenue and now leads the upscale-casual dining style with 31 locations and some 6,000 staff members all across B.C. as well as in Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.
The Kelowna native was 13 when he got a job washing dishes at a catering company/café and later studied at Vancouver’s Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. Prior to joining Cactus, McCallum gained experience at Le Crocodile under chef Michel Jacob, trained with chef Daniel Boulud at dB bistro, and worked as chef de cuisine alongside executive chef Lee Cooper at Michelin-recommended L’Abattoir.
His interest in food goes way back to his early days, when his grandma taught him how to make mac and cheese from scratch. “To this day I think of her explaining a proper roux whenever I use the technique,” McCallum tells Stir. “I’m fortunate to have known that I wanted to spend my life around food, cooking, and restaurants at a young age. I think I fell in love with the gratification of feeding guests each night. That, along with the creative challenge, the teamwork, and pressure had me hooked.”
He sees food as a unique form of art. “The whole process is pretty special; from the farmers to the cooks in the kitchen, each step requires a level of care and creativity that separates what we do from simple ‘construction’,” he says. “It’s a practical art that is meant to be consumed together. It’s just a happy coincidence that we need to enjoy it three times a day!”
While part of his role entails mentoring up-and-coming chefs, he also leads the charge when it comes to ensuring the menu is consistently dialled in while always evolving. Among the restaurant’s new items are gluten-free Hot Chicken + Pickles with Nashville spice, honey, and a creamy Parmesan dip; Crab Cake made of panko-crusted sustainable Canadian rock crab, prawn, cucumber, and arugula (no filler!) with green goddess dressing; and Truffle Chicken, the parmesan-crusted chicken breast accompanied by roasted mushrooms, potato gnocchi, and truffle-mushroom cream sauce. Meanwhile, a dish like The Med Bowl—abundant in kale, cucumber, red onion, and tomatoes with Macedonian feta, turmeric rice, beetroot hummus, kalamata olives, yogurt, and pickled red cabbage—is an illustration of the the restaurant’s drive to grow, McCallum says, while maintaining consistency across the board.
Then there’s McCallum’s Rigatoni Bolognese. It’s made with small-batch Rusticella D’Abruzzo Rigatoni, which is air-dried at low temperatures over five days. A vegetable-based soffritto is oven-broiled slowly to glaze the meat, which is slow-roasted for three hours, building its depth of ragù flavour. It’s all topped with house-made oven-baked fennel chili crumb (a blend of chili, olive oil, garlic, and fennel seed) and truffled pecorino cheese and served with pane Romano garlic toast.
Rigatoni Bolognese, Cactus Club Cafe. Photo via Cactus Club Cafe
“The inspiration for the Rigatoni Bolognese came from a favorite ‘family Meal’ of the chef team,” McCallum says. “Every day before service in most independent restaurants, the whole team sits down to eat a family meal together and everyone chills out before the rush of service. We wanted to bring that energy to our menu for everyone to enjoy. We just took the opportunity to step up the quality. You can imagine there typically isn’t truffled pecorino on our staff meals!”
Get a wine recommendation from Cactus Club sommelier Sam Zavari, who leads the entire beverage program; maybe Cantastorie Ruby Red Dry Lambrusco, Domaine Bailly-Reverdy La Mercy-Dieu Sancerre 2020, Gerard Bertrand Orange Gold 2020, or B.C.’s Meyer Family McLean Creek Road Pinot Noir 2020. Bottles are half price on Tuesdays (and at some locations on Wednesdays, too).
Just don’t expect the kind of chaos that playwright Arnold Wesker brought to kitchen space.
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