Nick Crooks is where he belongs — wearing whites, in the kitchen and back to his roots.
Crooks, who with wife and business partner Jodi Mann started and grew The Noodle Box chain of restaurants into a bustling seven-site organization before selling about three years ago, has jumped back into whisking and braising full-time and has opened the Saltchuck Pie Company in Rock Bay.
It’s a move that clearly suits the transplanted New Zealander, who notes that neither running a restaurant chain nor semi-retirement was really his style.
“Now I know exactly where I should be. I love working in a kitchen,” said the affable Kiwi. “I love the people you get to work with. You get to serve food. It’s simple. It’s a giving thing and I find it so rewarding. It’s a little bit of art, a little bit of science and a bit of sweat and hard work.”
That’s what he was missing in the last few years at The Noodle Box. “It was getting big and I was making decisions that affected 200 people,” Crooks.
He was also getting further away from the heat of the kitchen.
So, after 12 years, they sold The Noodle Box chain. Crooks said they have never regretted the move and after doing “bits and bobs” around the region helping other restaurateurs, the couple decided to get back into the business.
They have done it by making things that he loves and misses, Australian and New Zealand-styled pies.
That means a single-serving pie that can be eaten with hands or with cutlery with a variety of savoury fillings such as spiced ground beef, venison, rabbit, steak and cheese, seafood and curried lamb. While they offer some sweet pies, and there is always a vegetarian option and a seafood option on the always changing menu, the thrust of the restaurant is rich gravy and meat.
“I’ve been in Canada 16 years, and I did make pies at home every so often, but I do miss them. My mates and I when we get together miss two things — meat pies and swimming at the beach,” he said.
Crooks said having tried it, swimming off Victoria’s beaches is a non-starter, but getting into pie recipes was both a taste of home and something he loved.
“It’s so common in New Zealand or Australia, a pie shop that is half cafe, half bakery with a hot case with pies ready to go,” he said.
Crooks said fresh ingredients allow him to get creative with recipes and try new things such as venison and cranberry, steak, cheese and jalapeno (courtesy of one of his junior staff) or chanterelle mushroom and white beans.
Crooks said the fillings are the product of his love of winter cooking, comfort food, curry and braises. “The fillings are all essentially a thickened stew,” he said. The crust has to be the right balance of richness and flakiness, but robust enough to allow someone to eat it with their hands. “That’s a secret to a good meat pie.”
The 2,700 square foot restaurant — it’s 75 per cent kitchen and prep area and 25 per cent eatery — is in what was once Paradon Computer Systems at 360 Bay St. in a building gutted and rebuilt last summer by owners Cita Construction.
Crooks spared little expense putting together what for most chefs would appear to be a dream kitchen with plenty of space and light in which to work.
The restaurant part is a nostalgic take on a diner crossed with grandma’s kitchen. “We wanted a bit of nostalgia,” he said.
The couple have plans to grow beyond the borders of the shop. They have a restored food truck they hope to have in service soon and they want to partner with cafes, corner stores and concession stands to put warming ovens on counters that will showcase ready-to-eat pies.
What Crooks won’t do is grow the business to the point he loses touch with cooking again.
“We do want to have some room for growth, and the end game would be if we had an overnight baking shift, that would be as big as we want to take it,” he said. “We built The Noodle Box one by one, it was a new concept, and we will build this the same way. We totally believe in the product and I’m very critical — I know what a good pie is.”
Saltchuck, at 360 Bay St., is open Monday to Friday 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
