From Engineering To MasterChef India: The Chef Behind Fredericton’s Newest Restaurant
FREDERICTON— Cafe Riverside, a new addition to Fredericton’s northside, is looking to bring new foods and flavours to the city at an affordable cost.
Rohit Pinto, the restaurant’s co-owner, got his start in the culinary world when he entered a competition for MasterChef India. Until that point, he had been working as an engineer for 12 years.
“I always had a passion for cooking but never thought I’d do it professionally,” said Pinto.
Making it to the finals with 30 other chefs during his MasterChef season made him realize he could make a career out of it. So Pinto quit his job, took a culinary course, and began working as a private chef in India.
He and his wife moved to Canada in 2018. At first they lived in Toronto and Pinto went back to his traditional field. But the couple eventually moved to the Maritimes because they liked the “pace of life” it offers.
Once they made it to Fredericton, the pandemic hit and Pinto was left jobless. He spent his time volunteering at the Greener Village Food Bank. This influenced him to get back into cooking and he started cooking meals on the weekends. As this was during the pandemic, he home-delivered his meals and received a great response.
This year, a friend of Pinto’s who owns SaveMaxx Fredericton — an international and Indian grocery store — told him the unit beside the store was available.
After some discussion, the two decided to go into business together, which eventually led to Cafe Riverside’s soft opening on July 15.
“What we found in Fredericton was that [there are] a lot of options but anything that’s even a little exotic is priced so high out of reach,” Pinto said.
He said he and his partner are planning something unique to Fredericton that will introduce new foods and flavour profiles to the city. At the same time, the duo wants to make their food accessible to everyone.
“We decided to keep our prices as low as we possibly can … at the same time, it’s going to be tasty and something different and new.”
The goal is to try and price all their meals under $15. Their regular meals during the weekdays range from $8 to $11, both with meat and vegetarian.
To be able to introduce Frederictonians to new foods, Cafe Riverside’s menu changes weekly and each day offers a different dish, which Pinto says is mostly Indian cuisine. The weekly menu is posted on Facebook and customers can order through the platform and come pick it up, as it’s a takeout-only location.
But during the evening Cafe Riverside offers a unique item. Every evening, they sell Chaats, which are an Indian snack.
“It’s something that’s very different than something you would find anywhere else in the world,” Pinto said.
He said chaats are hollowed-out dough balls that are stuffed with fillings like mashed potato and onion. The chaats are then topped with different chutneys, like a sweet tamarind chutney or a cilantro mint chutney.
“What you get is a combination of flavours, so it’s spicy or sweet and tangy and then you get a combination of textures as well,” said Pinto. “It’s a whole range of things that you can experience from this one dish.”
Every Friday, the restaurant does “Fly-Away-Fridays.” Pinto and his wife love travelling and exploring new places so every week on this day they focus on a different part of the world and create inspired dishes.
But Pinto said he does not want to serve just one type of cuisine. He just wants to bring new and different flavours to Fredericton.
“The one disadvantage of living the way I do is [that] automatically everyone has views that Indians are going to cook Indian food,” he said.
Pinto has experience with other cuisines and said he does not want to be put into a box of only cooking Indian cuisine. As such, he is currently in the process of opening a smokehouse restaurant in Harvey.
The future goals for Cafe Riverside are to sell frozen, ready-to-eat meals and ingredients that people can purchase and bring home with them.
“It doesn’t matter who you are or how much cooking you know, there’s going to be something for everyone.”
Jessica Saulnier is an intern for Huddle in Fredericton. Send her feedback or story tips: [email protected]