Meet The Chef Bringing Sit-Down Breakfast Back To Fredericton’s Boyce Farmers Market
FREDERICTON–It has always been a line no one really minds waiting in–and beginning this Saturday, patrons of the Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market can once again line up and enjoy a sit-down breakfast during market hours.
Chef Matt Mackenzie of ReadytoEat.ca has taken over the market menu with an intent to feature breakfast and brunch items made with local ingredients, primarily from Boyce Farmers Market vendors.
A Red Seal chef, Mackenzie recently spent six years as executive chef at the Fredericton Crowne Plaza and the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel, helping create interest in the local movement in New Brunswick along the way.
During his 20-year culinary career, Mackenzie has proven his passion for amplifying the quality of local food and hopes his new menu options will better showcase the products coming from market vendors.
A focus on staff
In an interview with Huddle, Mackenzie drew heavily on his experience cooking for years in Halifax, along with his later experience as executive chef at The Crowne Plaza, to help underline what he believes is the most important thing in all of cooking: cultivating a happy staff.
“I cannot emphasize that more than anything, that the staff are your most valuable resource and they are the thing that is in shortest supply now,” he said.
Mackenzie says to be a business owner these days nothing is more important than taking care of staff. He said he’s proud that ReadytoEat.ca is an ethical business, paying staff $16.00 per hour across the board, with tips split evenly between front and back of the house.
Mackenzie likes to run what he calls “a teaching kitchen,” adding it’s important to give staff (especially those just starting out) an education by getting them ingrained early in many facets of the business.
“They need to have a goal and purpose and a way to better themselves and move forward. Some people can be taught one thing and maybe one thing only–so they can’t necessarily progress and be stuck at the same wage, and basically companies can keep their costs low, which is a terrible, terrible business model,” said Mackenzie.
“By the time I finished at The Crowne Plaza, every leader, every chef de partie, my junior sous chef–other than my executive sous chef, who I worked with forever there–everyone was trained by me and basically was on their way to building their career.”
Mackenzie wants to take that same model to the Market as well, having already implemented his philosophy successfully with staff at his own business.
Mackenzie says a sit-down breakfast will return Saturday. He hopes after a few short weeks that breakfast served from the market location on Sundays will follow. He says he’s looking for more hands to help make offering breakfast on Sundays a possibility.
The opportunity to do something at the market came about when the former market breakfast chef, Rick Huskins, reached out to Mackenzie on whether doing weekend market breakfasts was a good fit for him, with ReadytoEat already on the go.
Huskins had been a market mainstay for more than 18 years, falling in love with the operation shortly after moving to Fredericton in 2000. In 2003, he started selling pesto and specialty pizzas as a vendor. When the tender came up for the kitchen, the market manager recommended he apply. He got the job in late 2005 and kept market-goers full until departing from the role July 31 of this year.
Following his conversation with Huskins, Mackenzie built a business proposal using as much product from the market as possible.
It also helped that Mackenzie was already a regular market patron. He made weekly visits to shop and has also developed some good working relationships with many local vendors from his time at The Crowne Plaza.
Mackenzie hopes to add additional days of service, providing the Sunday offering takes flight. He believes there’s a market for more morning food options in Fredericton’s downtown.
While Mackenzie likes the idea, he still would have to get the market’s board to agree to extra days of service. He says he’s happy to begin welcoming back patrons slowly in hopes to prove to them that there’s added profit potential.
Gone away is a small side area, an enclave tucked away from the main market which typically sat only a handful of customers. Obvious distance requirements around Covid-19 aside, Mackenzie saw the space as better serving the expansion of the kitchen and prep area. He opted instead to continue to showcase the sitting platform located across from the kitchen, which is conveniently centered at the heart of the market.
In preparation for Saturday, Mackenzie says he’s already got a staff of four people committed and is actively looking for more. He says his 10 years cooking in Fredericton has helped him network to a casual workforce of hands he can depend on.
“There’s a lot of them that I have a working relationship with,” says Mackenzie. While he’s confident he can build that reliable workforce over time, he’s more than satisfied to start simply getting a sit-down breakfast experience back to the market.
What’s on the menu?
Mackenzie anticipates a selection of meals using market products, but changing enough to show off the full range of seasonal options behind what’s available. His description of a starting point seems to promise a delivery of local offerings more eclectic but no less delicious than what Chef Rick was able to satisfy market-goers with for years.
“Maybe it’s between like six and seven mainstays, built from as many market products as possible and then four to five specials that are built on just what I find that week — and the menu will be consistently evolving and new every weekend,” said. Mackenzie.
“I think we’re going to try to get a chalkboard and just put up all of the suppliers on the board because there’s almost too many to write on the menu,” he says, noting it would get too wordy if trying to include them all. “So, we’re going to make sure everybody knows what’s coming from where. And we’ll try and do our best to give people an idea of what they can do with it.”
Customers can also expect some classic breakfast options, including benedicts, sandwiches, and a combo plate with choice of eggs, toast, and breakfast protein.
For Mackenzie, what excites him the most about cooking in the market space is how much of a captive audience is walking by each Saturday. He feels the potential is there to continue to offer a great local experience potentially throughout the week.
“If you continue to give people a good service and product, sooner or later they will start to show up on Sunday. And if you continue to do it on Sunday, sooner or later it’ll show up.”
Tyler Mclean is a Huddle reporter based in Fredericton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].