On Taylor Corbett‘s third day as a stage (intern) at Restaurant Noma — a renowned, good-luck-getting-a-reservation, three-Michelin star restaurant in Denmark that is closing in 2024 — he was tasked with a routine request of preparing food for the approximately 60 staff. While Noma is known for its ultra-local, carefully foraged, precisely plated, ever-evolving menu of New Nordic Cuisine, Corbett opted to make a comforting meal of lasagna for the team.
He quickly regretted his decision when a colleague remarked, “You know that’s René [Redzepi]’s favourite comfort meal in the world, right? It better be good.” It was an opportunity for a real Ratatouille moment — and Corbett’s dish did indeed receive a “pass” from the famous restaurant owner.
“I figured out who I was as a chef while staging at Noma,” Corbett says. “It’s where I got the grasp of what is physically possible for a restaurant to do, like creating new flavours through fermentation, and preserving things in different ways.”
Now seven years later, as Restaurant Yarrow’s new head chef, Corbett has found a perfect home to showcase his knack for combining comfort and nostalgia with haute cuisine and culinary creativity.
In early 2023, while Corbett was back home in Ontario, a photo of Restaurant Yarrow showed up on his Instagram feed. Corbett was intrigued by the intimate, 10-seat restaurant in the picture. “It looked right up my alley,” Corbett says. “It looked like the sort of restaurant I would want to open myself.” Serendipitously, Corbett Googled “Restaurant Yarrow” and found out the owners were recruiting a head chef. In early September 2023, Corbett flew to Edmonton to interview for the job, and started a month later. “Restaurant Yarrow is something extremely unique, and I have so much opportunity to experiment and try new things,” Corbett says. “I’m really happy to be here.”
Since Restaurant Yarrow opened in (sigh) January 2020, it has offered a unique dining experience comprised of a multi-course tasting menu for 10 guests a night in an intimate dining room. Corbett is continuing with that concept, developing four menus a year to align with the growing seasons. The seasonal dishes will also see some minor changes throughout their lifespans as Corbett finesses and evolves the recipes. “Every day the goal is to make something that we did better,” Corbett says.
Serving just 10 guests an evening gives Corbett the challenge of being efficient and managing food waste, and provides an opportunity to use skills of fermentation and preservation he developed in Europe. “I find that that that [Noma] model works extremely well in Edmonton because the climate is so similar to Denmark,” Corbett says. “The preservation and fermentation of products is important to me. I think that the world has lost its way when it comes to food production. I’ve got old cookbooks from 1860, and Old World methods of preparing food get me excited. When you walk into Yarrow it is reminiscent of an older time sitting around the fire and eating food prepared with that old-world knowledge. At Yarrow, I’m hoping to rejuvenate the idea of what food should be.”
Despite the $200/person price tag, set menu and haute cuisine influences, Restaurant Yarrow attempts to elicit the emotional response to, and nostalgia for, food showcased in Ratatouille rather than the pretension mocked in The Menu. “Our menu is a journey,” Corbett says. “About 80 per cent of the dishes are nostalgic things that will bring an emotional response — things that you know and love, but they’re slightly different than you’ve ever had before. When I’m developing a menu, I think about what ingredients might mean something. Then 20 per cent of the menu showcases a more creative side and interesting ingredients. There’s a nice balance, something a set menu really allows for. The whole experience at Yarrow is tied together so the sights, smells, music and conversation match the food and tie everything together.”
Bar Yarrow is an adjoining bar that’s open to guests even without a dinner reservation, and its menu was reimagined for the new year. “The bar, like the restaurant, has extremely limited capacity so it has to be extremely special,” Corbett says. “There has to be a complexity to the storytelling and the bar has to mimic the restaurant in its love and passion for an experience — it won’t be a place to just come get a drink.”
Corbett has confidence that his menus will entice diners who have enjoyed dining at Yarrow previously, and continue to find new audiences. “The food scene in Edmonton is really interesting, and I don’t think people are scared of spending money on good food, and they are excited to try something new,” Corbett says. “I think the careful development of the menu, and the transparency with what we do and where we get stuff from will appeal to people — we now also offer kitchen tours so people can feel like they’re part of the experience and what we’re doing. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a unique experience. When you’re here, you feel like you’re on vacation. You forget you’re in Edmonton, you forget what else is happening in your life that day. It’s a chance to escape for two and a half hours.”
Ever since the lasagna incident at Noma, Corbett knows the power of a good comfort dish, and says that for all its constant change, Yarrow’s menu will always feature comfort elements, like the current guest- favourite potato dish. “It’s warming, it’s consoling, it’s a perfect spot on the menu. The dish is phenomenal the way it is.”
This article appears in the Jan/Feb 2024 issue of Edify
