There's a new trend in the food industry — culinary couples at the helm of top bakeries and restaurants, working together to serve the very best
By CINDA CHAVICH
They used to be called Mom-and-Pop restaurants — the kind of small, family-run diners that had one partner in the kitchen searing burgers and one out front, running plates and collecting cash.
From breakfast cafés to neighborhood pizza joints, it’s a classic small business model for families serving food, a job and a lifestyle rolled into one.
But these days, it’s a model for our top chefs, too — independent restaurants where two professionals pair up in both life and work — and Vancouver Island is a hot, hot bed for these collaborations.
DOING DOUBLE DUTY
It’s a romantic notion to own a restaurant with your partner, but in today’s world, with profit margins at all-time low, culinary couples are doing double duty to make it work.
The list of notable city eateries run by couples is impressive, whether it’s chef Castro Boateng and wife Charlotte, the dynamic pair behind both House of Boateng and HOB Fine Foods; Haley Landa and Curtis Helm, the brilliant bakers at Goodside Pastry House; or chef Clark Deutscher and wife Jonna with three popular eateries, including new Ate * a restaurant, celebrating Jonna’s Filipino roots, plus Hank's and Nowhere.
Many have award-winning destination restaurants located beyond urban borders — chef Oliver Kienast and sommelier Brooke Fader’s Wild Mountain Food + Drink in Sooke; chef Warren Barr and Lily Verney-Downey’s Pluvio Restaurant & Rooms in Ucluelet; chef/owner Milena Ficza and Will Cook’s De L’Ile restaurant and bakery in Qualicum Beach; chefs Tracie Zahavich and Ross Bowles’ Fox & Monocle Cafe outside Sidney.
It’s a growing trend across the country, too, with five of the Top 10 New Canadian Restaurants honored on the latest Air Canada list run by couples — including Gary’s in Vancouver, the work of chef Mathew Bishop and spouse Bailey Hayward.
So, what’s the secret sauce that keeps these sweet partnerships bubbling along?
PASSION IS A LOVE POTION
Brooke Fader and Oliver Kienast bonded over the ideals of the Slow Food Movement when they met 20 years ago working at Sooke Harbour House and bring that ethos to their own restaurant.
“Our mission at Wild Mountain, from day one, has been to create a local food economy,” Brooke says of their work with more than 100 island farmers and fishers.
Dining at the bungalow-turned-eatery, with its herb gardens and big outdoor wood oven, really feels like hanging out at Brooke and Oliver’s home, and they love to share stories about the provenance of the food they serve.
Seasonal island ingredients drive Oliver’s menu — whether it’s a starter of house made duck prosciutto, wild pine mushroom soup with spot prawns, cucumber bites topped with crunchy salmon roe, or crusty bread from the wood oven with sunflower and winged kelp spread.
Their wood-fired pizza is made with local flour milled at Nootka Rose in Metchosin, and topped with their own salami, featuring pork from nearby Stillmeadow Farm.
From the whole animals they source from local farms to the goal of making everything in house (whether bread, charcuterie or vinegar), it's a true labour of local love.
And with Brooke’s mandate to buy from small wineries and island distillers, there is always a new cocktail or local BC wine to try.
GOOD TASTE TIMES TWO
Like any love story, it’s often a shared history — and especially a shared work history — that puts culinary couples together.
Chef Warren Barr and Lily Verney-Downey honed their hospitality skills at The Wickaninnish Inn before joining forces to open Pluvio Restaurant + Rooms, an award-winning restaurant that’s put their small community on the global culinary map.
“We met while working together and appreciated each other because of our work ethic — that lends itself to working together,” Lily says. “We were equipped for a solid start.”
You’ll find Warren in the open kitchen, preparing elaborate tasting menus with seasonal island seafood and fresh farm products, whether it’s his playful “Humdog” (Humboldt squid) starter or Caramelized Sablefish with Fraser Valley rice congee and wild mushrooms.
Lily is in charge of the cocktail program, welcoming guests and managing the adjoining four-room, boutique hotel.
Warren admits “there isn’t much of a line between work and not work,” but building this business together is rewarding.
Adds Lily: “If you open a restaurant and you’re not doing it with your partner, you will never see them.”
SWEET DREAMS
Haley Landa and Curtis Helm, the accomplished pastry chefs behind Goodside Pastry House, fell in love at culinary school in Vancouver and spent a decade honing their skills with master bakers and chocolatiers before landing in Victoria to open their own bakery.
At Goodside, there’s a new menu of sweets and savouries each month, and they split the work to showcase their own interests and strengths, with customers routinely lining up for Curtis’ buttery croissants and perfectly laminated pastries and Haley’s pretty mousse cakes and elegant desserts.
Beyond baking, each has a business role — Haley handling media and communication, and Curtis administration and paperwork.
“Using our different skills is a huge asset for us,” says Curtis. “We sometimes disagree but our greatest strength is we’re so safe with each other, that we can be ruthless in our critiques, without any hard feelings.”
“Having a business together is like having a baby,” adds Haley, “you have to be prepared to ride it out, collectively working toward the same goal.”
SWEAT EQUITY TIMES TWO
Tracie Zahavich and Ross Bowles, the chef/owners of Fox & Monocle, met and cut their culinary teeth in the pressure cooker kitchens of Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurants, and worked in other top Canadian restaurants before settling into their chill, seaside gastropub and bakery in North Saanich.
Both admit they had to dial back the demanding leadership style they learned in the UK, but also share a commitment to perfection, and working long hours under intense pressure.
Tracie is up most days at 4 a.m. to bake breads and pastries for the morning opening at Fox & Monocle, including the daytime offerings of cinnamon buns, breakfast sandwiches, quiche and soups.
The popular bakery side of the operation helps offset the high food costs for dinner service, and feeds those in the nearby marina.
Their individual skills are shared on the plate, too, whether it’s the toasted brioche served alongside their popular Chicken Liver Pate appetizer, a pretty tomato and Parmesan gougere, or the perfect puff pastry surrounding their domed pithivier meat pie. Of course, having a dedicated pastry chef on the ownership team — creating their tarte tatin and sticky toffee pudding — always means the last bite is as good as the first.
RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
All of these couples love serving fine food, but working with your spouse is not always a cakewalk.
“It’s nice to share your work with family but it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,”says Oliver of the decade the couple has spent running Wild Mountain together.
These chefs attend to every detail of their innovative menus, literally from local farm (or fishery) to table, and that all takes a lot of time and energy.
Many owners told me they live with financial stress and burnout running a small food business. It's getting harder to afford expensive ingredients — whether prime cuts, seafood, butter or olive oil — so they need to work harder with less to deliver the kind of creative cuisine their customers expect.
And to keep menu prices in line with what the market will bear, it often means they are subsidizing the food they serve with extra hours of their own unpaid labour.
“With food costs and skill shortages, you need to bring so much value to the business yourself to make the margins functional,” says Ross.
It can be a challenging and isolating endeavour, with tight margins and few financial rewards. But these independent island restaurateurs remain committed to building a vibrant culinary community. They're even working together to showcase Vancouver Island’s best, with collaborative dinners and a planned Vancouver Island Restaurant Collective.
And as Slow Food advocate and organizer Brooke reminds me, just like chefs and farmers, diners are an essential part of the local food economy, too.
“And that’s why I thank my guests — you are not just a consumer, you are an active co-producer when you come to dine,” she says.
The couples featured here are producing the some of the best local food in our region, a testament to the care they take with every aspect of their businesses. Its impressive to see their skills on display, creative cuisine from professionals who are truly devoted to their craft.
And it all starts with two!
This story was first published in Boulevard Magazine
©Cinda Chavich 2025
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