Chef Profile – Earlene Busch

Chef: Earlene Busch
Restaurant: Chanterelle Country Inn, Baddeck

What is your favourite kitchen “tool” or gadget?
Instant-read thermometer

What is your favourite item on your menu?
Neil’s Harbour halibut

What is the best thing about being a chef and/or owning your own restaurant?
Gratification from guests who appreciate the flavours of locally-sourced food and wine.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Sunflower seeds

What is the one Taste of Nova Scotia product that you can’t live without?
Jost Icewine

Aside from your own restaurant, what other Taste restaurant to you frequent?
Chives, Fid Resto, Stories at the Halliburton

What is your ultimate comfort food?
Steak

Why do you, or why is it important to support local?
Flavour, authenticity, and reduction of food miles.

What is a piece of advice you have for home chefs?  
Find and use as much local ingredients as you can find.

What is the best meal you have ever had?
My mother’s fried chicken served out of the trunk of a car in the middle of a wheat field, surrounded
by the harvesting crew.

Have you cooked for any celebrities?
The Honourable Mayann Francis

Any other info you would like to share?  
My observation is that one of the best kept secrets is the amazing quality and variety of food items found in Nova Scotia. Why is lamb imported from New Zealand, apples from Chile, garlic from China, for openers.