Chef Profile – Mark Gray

Chef Mark Gray
Restaurant: Brooklyn Warehouse

What piece of advice do you have for home chefs? 
Things take time to get right, trial and error is how it works, if it doesn’t work the first time, try again. Most of the time, recipes are only guidelines, use your imagination and creativity to make it your own.

What is the best meal you have ever had?
An eight-course tasting menu at Fleur de Sel in Lunenburg. Consisted of rabbit pate, cantaloupe soup, foie gras, sweetbreads, pig head, lobster tail, tomato-basil sorbet & cheese.   

What is your favorite item on your menu?
Rabbit 3 -ways; Braised Hind Leg, Confit Foreleg & Pork Belly Stuffed Loin on Wild mushroom smashed potatoes with Roasted Carrots

What is the one Taste of Nova Scotia product that you can’t live without?
Propeller Root Beer

What is your favorite kitchen “tool” or gadget? 
Nice pair of tongs

What is the best thing about being a chef ?
The best thing about being a chef is for one, the food itself, using quality ingredients & mastering technique, making dishes that make your customers say “wow”, and secondly, the fast-paced life of the kitchen, having a brigade behind you putting out great food and loving doing it.

What is your guilty pleasure?
Kraft Dinner Spirals

Aside from your own restaurant, what other Taste restaurant to you frequent?
Chive’s Bistro

What is your ultimate comfort food?
Pork Ribs and mashed potatoes

Why do you, or why is it important to support local?
It is important to support local food because it supports local farmers, we are giving back to whats near to us. Keeping things fresh and seasonal and highlighting the great aspects of Nova Scotia’s sustainable agriculture

Have you cooked for any celebrities?
Worked for Chef Michael Lyon at The Wood Steakhouse in Canmore, Alberta