Canada's top chef has a kitchen trick up his sleeve when it comes to balancing an intense restaurant career with a happy home life. Chef Hayato Mitsuko is married to his restaurant's pastry chef, Allison Mitsuko, who shares his foodie passions and crazy hours.
It's been a whirlwind few months for the talented duo from Catch Restaurant& Oyster Bar in downtown Calgary. Hayato won gold at the Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championship, held at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel Feb. 19 to 21.
He beat out five other top Canadian chefs from Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Allison, who was made pastry chef at Catch in January, was one of his assistants in the competition. Around the same time, she was named the best baking apprentice of 2008 by the Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training Board.
Calgarians can sample Hayato's award-winning cuisine now that his Gold Medal Plates tasting menu is available in the Catch dining room. It features his signature East-meets-West dishes and a plate of Allison's chocolate confections.
I spoke with Hayato, 34, and Allison Mitsuko, 28, to find out how they met and how they keep their sanity working together in a pressure-cooker environment. It helps they share many things. Both are islanders: he's from Japan; she's from Vancouver Island. Both have a love for food inspired by their mothers' home cooking. And they have a work ethic that puts them at the top of their game. At the same time, they are both modest, even humble.
Hayato grew up in a suburb of Tokyo and studied Japanese, French and Chinese cuisine at Musashino Professional Culinary School. He then toiled for five years in the vast kitchens at the Tokyo Hilton. He started making stocks and sauces before prepping fish for a year. Next came a 21/2-year stint in the hotel's butcher shop, where he literally earned his chops.
Finally, he worked his way up to a fine dining room that served contemporary American cuisine, which he adored. The executive chefs all spoke English and Hayato, who'd hated studying English in school, realized he'd need to improve his language skills if he want to get ahead and travel overseas.
Then, on a rare night off, Hayato caught an episode of TV show Iron Chef, in which Japanese chef Masaharu Morimoto battled Vancouver chef Michael Noble to make the best potato dishes. Although Noble lost, he instantly became Hayato's hero. "He was amazing. It totally made me want to work with him."
In 1999, Hayato, then 25, took a big gamble: he got a working holiday visa and flew to Vancouver in search of Noble. Unannounced and barely able to speak English, he tracked down his hero. Noble hired him on the spot, became his mentor and later sponsored him as a permanent resident in Canada. In 2002 Hayato followed Noble to the new Catch restaurant in Calgary, voted Best New Restaurant in Canada by EnRoute Magazine that year.
Hayato began as the night saucier in the downstairs Oyster Bar and was promoted to Oyster Bar chef in less than a year.He introduced Japanese-influenced dishes such as Wonton Crusted Tempura Prawns with Togaroshi Dip, still the most popular appetizer on the menu.
A second recipe, Chika Teriyaki Cod, is a tribute to Hayato's mother Chika who died suddenly in 2004. It was difficult time for Hayato. Homesick and grief-stricken, he spent a month in Japan, debated staying there, but decided to return to Canada.
But 2005 was a turning point. Although Noble left to work with the Earls restaurant chain, Hayato was promoted to dining room restaurant chef and Allison Bonney came into his life, bringing a tremendous amount of "positive energy," he said.
Allison hails from the Nanaimo area and graduated in 2005 from the culinary arts program at Vancouver Island University. Her teachers helped the award-winning student land a job as a line cook at Catch. Allison and Hayato's first encounter was less than romantic.
He was "calling the pass"--assigning incoming lunch orders to the cooks--in the Oyster Bar and she was a nervous newbie who didn't understand a word of his heavily accented English. She coped by nodding, "Yes, chef," to every incomprehensible command.
For his part, Hayato was struck by Allison's devotion to her work and her eagerness to learn more. "I felt we had the same kind of spirit, " he said Mutual respect quickly grew into something more. The couple wanted to be discreet and professional so they kept their budding romance secret for the first few months. Or so they thought. In fact, they were spotted on their first date by a coworkerwho told everyone.
They were married in the summer of 2006, twice -- in B.C. and in a traditional Shinto ceremony in Japan. Hayato had to translate everything for her and then for his father and brother. Allison understands some Japanese but speaks only a little. "It's such a difficult language," she said.
In their adopted city they love going to the mountains, gardening and doing improvements around the house. The two chefs unwind by watching movies and cooking simple, easy dishes: salads, grilled meats, Japanese comfort food like soba noodles, and Canadian comfort food like wraps or chili.
When it comes to eating out, a favourite spot is Ichizen Japanese Cuisine, in McKenzie Towne. They don't get too fussed about working together. "We met here so it seems natural," he said. "This is our normal," she added. "Here, I'm the boss, but at home
she's the boss," said Hayato, who became executive chef in 2008. "Unfortunately, he's always here so I don't get to be the boss very much," Allison quipped. We're not husband and wife here," she added on a more serious note. "He's the executive chef and I'm the pastry chef. . . . When we're at home, then we're a married couple."