Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson of Published on Main
Recipe for success
When executive chef Gus Stieffenhofer-Brandson begins conceptualizing a new menu item at Vancouver’s Published on Main, he turns to his flavour library for the building blocks. Stored in the restaurant’s sizeable pantry, his meticulously labelled series of 90 to 100 square plastic tubs organizes a panoply of ingredients by category. It encompasses an array of fresh and dried seasonal components, syrups, and oils along with pickles and ferments—everything from roasted-quail garum to chanterelle vinegar, hay syrup to rose kombucha and fermented rutabaga is made in house. Stieffenhofer-Brandson draws upon these elements to establish the foundation for his inventive dishes, breathing life into his reinterpretation of deeply resonant taste memories.
Fresh out of culinary school at Winnipeg’s Red River College in 2008, the budding line cook accepted a practicum at the Atrium Hotel Mainz. He spent the better part of a year in Germany, working and staging at one-Michelin-star restaurant ENTE. It was a crash course in high-end kitchen-brigade life, and Stieffenhofer-Brandson reflects that “Germany was a real liftoff point for me. I was constantly bom - barded with new mise en place, and I swear I added one million things to my repertoire.” And ironically, it was thousands of miles from home where he first met Canadian culinary icon Scott Jaeger, watching the chef/restaurateur win gold with Team Canada at the IKA Culinary Olympics.
Fast forward to 2009. Having returned home to Manitoba, Stieffenhofer-Brandson flooded Vancouver with resumés, but Jaeger was the only chef who replied. “I had $800 cash in my pocket, no money in the bank, and nothing to lose. So I threw all my stuff in my beat-up Honda Civic and drove to Vancouver in -51°C weather.” Grinning, he recalls, “I almost died so many times on the drive. But I made it to the door of the Pear Tree Restaurant in one piece, worked for free for two weeks, and got a job. It was pretty much starting from scratch.”
Copyright © 2021 by Joie Alvaro Kent, NUVO