‘Spag’ roots run deep Michelin-star chef is thrilled to be in the kitchen at RAW:almond, mere paces from the Forks institution where it all began By: Eva Wasney Posted: 7:00 PM CST Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023

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This article was published 15/02/2023 (935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RAW:almond is a homecoming within a homecoming for Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson.

In taking to the frozen river this week, the Winnipeg-born executive chef of Canada’s best restaurant is cooking a stone’s throw from the birthplace of his career: The Old Spaghetti Factory, a longtime Forks institution he lovingly calls “Spag.”

“At 16, I was more or less running the place,” Stieffenhofer-Brandson says while taking a break from prepping ingredients at deer + almond on Tuesday afternoon. “I hired all my high school buds… and we’d all go upstairs to (Finn’s Pub) after work.”

Partying and pasta-making was an escape from the tedium of homework and exams. It felt like he was living the raucous pirate cook lifestyle described in Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential and it didn’t take long for him to climb aboard completely.

When her eldest son dropped out of high school to work at Spag full time, Katharina Stieffenhofer was concerned.

“From a mom’s perspective, you look towards the future and say, ‘Where are you going? What’s the plan?’” she says.

Neither party could have predicted the success that would follow.

Stieffenhofer-Brandson now lives in British Columbia and has returned home on the heels of a very big year. Published on Main, the Vancouver restaurant he opened four years ago, not only topped Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list in 2022, but also earned a Michelin star — making Stieffenhofer-Brandson the first chef from Winnipeg to receive either high-profile accolade. It’s recognition he’s been chasing for years.

When the pasta and the partying got old, he went back to school; studying culinary arts at Red River College Polytechnic and tapping into a deep-seated passion for food.

“I knew I was good at cooking and I just wanted to be better,” he says. “I wanted to be the best.”

“I knew I was good at cooking and I just wanted to be better… I wanted to be the best.”–Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson

A practicum in Mainz, Germany — where his mother was born — opened his eyes to new ingredients and seasonal cuisine. He explored Europe and networked with renowned chefs. By comparison, Winnipeg began to feel like a small town with a culinary ceiling.

Stieffenhofer-Brandson headed west in search of experience and landed a job at The Pear Tree, a now shuttered high-end Burnaby restaurant, where he worked 14 hour days for less than minimum wage. He rose through the ranks, earning the title of sous chef, and went on to lead his first kitchen.

Between paying jobs, Stieffenhofer-Brandson headed back to Europe for stages (unpaid cooking internships) with several Michelin starred chefs and, in 2016, he spent three months at Noma, a Copenhagen restaurant critically regarded as the best in the world.

At Noma, which recently announced its forthcoming closure, he refined his values as a chef and cultivated an interest in foraging and seasonal fare — something he comes by honestly as the son of a farmer’s daughter.

Katharina’s parents ran a small farm on an island in the Rhine River until a familial rift saw them emigrate to Canada and establish a grain farm in southern Manitoba. As a kid, Stieffenhofer-Brandson spent a lot of time on the farm, helping with chores and learning how to make traditional German fare. The daily schedule revolved around food.

“You’d work real hard until 1 p.m. and then it would be a full meal of roast and vegetables and salad,” he says. “Then you’d have a little lay down, a mittagsschlaf, and then cake and coffee.”

At the family home in the North End of Winnipeg, Katharina carried on the tradition with a large organic vegetable garden and lots of home-cooked meals.

“Our lifeblood is homegrown ingredients,” she says. “So even when the boys were growing up, we rarely ever ate out, and we still don’t because it tastes better at home.”

Katharina is a visual artist and has created several documentary films about regenerative agriculture and food security. She and her son share a passion for harvesting wild food and often go mushroom hunting when he’s in town — a recent excursion yielding more than 100 pounds of chanterelles.

“Our lifeblood is homegrown ingredients… So even when the boys were growing up, we rarely ever ate out, and we still don’t because it tastes better at home.”–Katharina Stieffenhofer

At Published on Main, Stieffenhofer-Brandson has created a food program that melds his Manitoba heritage with West Coast ingredients. The ever-shifting menu is heavy on seafood and includes bison tartare, bone-marrow dumplings — the kind his opa used to make — and potato agnolotti with dill beurre blanc that tastes like perogies.

“I’m so proud to be from here,” he says. “It’s a significant part of where I come from.”

During his RAW:almond residency, which wraps up tonight, he’s been offering guests a taste of the menu at Published, with intricate dishes featuring B.C. sidestripe shrimp and foraged morels.

In the last year, Stieffenhofer-Brandson has achieved much of what he set out to do in culinary school. Now, he’s focused on maintaining excellence and fostering a positive work environment at Published (and the two new concepts the restaurant group has recently opened). The influx of reservations following the Michelin star and best-restaurant designation has allowed him to raise pay and move staff to a four-day workweek. It’s a far cry from the Kitchen Confidential pirate life.

“I’m trying to create a culture that is nurturing and supportive,” he says. “Take care of your people and they’ll take care of you… these are the things I figured out the hard way, for sure.”

These days, when Katharina thinks about her son, she’s no longer concerned. She’s overwhelmingly proud.

“I’m as proud of Gus’s accomplishments as how he has developed as a human,” from an angsty young man to “a really nice guy who is fair to his team and to his friends and family,” she says. Katharina and husband Lloyd Brandson will be in attendance at tonight’s dinner for a first-hand celebration of their son’s — personal and professional — accomplishments.

“It’s those seeds that get sown early on in life and I’m just really happy to see what took root and what he’s grown himself.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @evawasney